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Cronenberg and King; What a combo!
Not only is David Cronenberg's "The Dead Zone" the best film associated
Bjorn (jbjorns) from Iceland - 8 May 2009with a Stephen King novel, it's also one of the finest suspense/drama
film of the 80's.Basically it's three little movies perfectly combined into one tight
package. First off, Walken is involved in a horrible accident and is
comatosed for five years. As he awakens he finds his life has slipped
through his fingers, his job and love are gone and he'll have to adjust
to a completely new life with one major difference; his psychic powers,
mostly dormant before the accident, have reached full force and he can
see past and future events.Then we're into serial killer territory ala Stephen King (in Castle
Rock, no less). A vicious killer roams the streets and the local
sheriff manages to convince Walken to use his powers to locate the
fiend.After successfully helping out with the Castle Rock killer, Walken
leads a reclusive life, keeping contact with people at a minimum.
However, soon he's faced with a huge responsibility when he learns of a
future disaster and he has to make a tough choice; Should he intervene
or let things happen naturally.Cronenberg makes some big changes from the book and they're all good.
Added weight is given to Walken's solitary existence and, if anything,
the supernatural aspect is reduced. Less is made of The Castle Rock
Killer and the final third gets more attention. All of this is good,
making "The Dead Zone" an extremely appealing drama and suspense film.
Walken's relationship with Brooke Adams is thoroughly involving and
moving and the final minutes are extremely suspenseful.Performances are first rate as well. Walken is just perfect as Johnny
Smith, a surely damned individual with the weight of the world on his
shoulders (literally). Never before or after has Walken been this
likable and moving. Brooke Adams, Herbert Lom, Martin Sheen and Anthony
Zerbe provide solid support.As for Cronenberg, "The Dead Zone" is easily his most accessible film.
His earlier efforts, while very interesting, are either acquired tastes
or demand at least two viewings to fully appreciate. Here, everything
is kept relatively low-key and the film is all the more powerful for
that.Highly recommended.
Cronenberg Anonymous
"The Dead Zone" is a bland adaptation of a Stephen King novel. One
tieman64 from United Kingdom - 1 May 2009senses that director David Cronenberg had no desire to make this film.
No desire to tell this tale or refine this script.The plot is simple: a man has an accident and wakes up from a five year
coma to find that he has psychic powers. He uses these powers to solve
a murder, save a boy and kill an evil politician.It's an interesting idea, but the screenplay was written by Jeffrey
Boam, a talentless writer who gave us such horrible scripts as
"Phantom" and "Tales from the Crypt". The only worthwhile script that
Jeffrey Boam wrote was "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", and even
that managed to severely dumb down what was already a pretty simple
series.And so "The Dead Zone" plays out like a really bad TV movie. None of
the characters are developed beyond the superficial, the plot is
predictable, the direction ugly, and the acting, with the exception of
Christopher Walken, pretty cringe worthy.Luckily David Cronenberg would use the success of "The Dead Zone" and
"The Fly" to launch a series of far more personal and interesting
films.6/10 – Television has effectively rendered this movie obsolete. TV
shows like "The Medium", "X-Files", "The Mentalist", "Ghost Whisperer"
and even "The Dead Zone TV Series", have explored all these paranormal
tales from every possible angle. As a result, Cronenberg's film now
seems bland and unimaginative. The film packs no surprises, and is at
times laughably ridiculous. 80's audiences may have found this
interesting, but we've now seen it all before and done better. Brian De
Palma's "Sisters" faced a similar problem, it's tale of "evil twins"
now a cliché absorbed by everything from "Sesame Street" to "Baywatch".
The reason "Sisters" is still watchable is because De Palma relies on
visuals and camera wizardry. Cronenberg, however, is a man of intellect
and is largely uninterested in aesthetics. The result is a badly shot
film which is unfortunately also very stupid.
A good film but I don't think I would ever want to watch it again.
The Dead Zone starts as school teacher Johnny Smith (Christopher
Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK - 2 January 2009Walken) is involved in a serious car accident which leaves him in a
coma. Jump forward five years later as Johnny eventually comes round
from the coma & is told what happened & that he has missed the last
five years of his life. Besides that Johnny soon discovers that he has
awoke with heightened psychic ability after correctly predicting a
nurse's house would set on fire & endanger her young daughter who as a
result of his premonition is saved. However the gift of second sight
quickly becomes a curse which ruins Johnny's life & turns him into a
circus act to the point he has to hide away in his house all day. With
both emotional & moral turmoil eating away at Johnny he has to make
some tough decisions…Directed by David Cronenberg & based on the novel by Stephen King this
is not as horror orientated as those two high profile well known genre
names would lead you to believe, sure it has aspects of horror but it's
as much a drama & thriller which ask's questions as anything else. The
script is as much a character study of Johnny & the effect his new
found psychic abilities has on him both emotionally & physically & the
way it completely changes his life, the way it changes how those around
him view him & how he deals with it. In that sense The Dead Zone is
successful as Johnny is a well written & fleshed out character who I
became interested in as a person & wanted to see where his story went.
The film certainly engages & it's fairly absorbing as well & the time
passed quickly while I was watching it. However, the film does feel a
bit fragmented, it goes from a murder case to Johnny helping a young
boy to Johnny wrestling with his conscience in order to decide whether
assassination for a greater cause is the right thing to do in a series
of subplots that come & go a little too quickly. Some modern day
audiences might be put off by the dialogue heavy script & the slightly
sedate pacing which often forgoes action & gore for exposition,
character study & drama.There's some intense psychic visions suffered by Johnny as seen in
flashbacks which are well staged. The film looks good but is maybe a
little forgettable & doesn't have much in the way of Cronenberg's style
or visceral visuals. There's a bit of gore, a few gunshot wounds are
seen & a guy with a pair of scissors stuck in his mouth is also shown.
There are one or two unsettling moments as expected but the scares are
generally absent in favour of solid drama.Apparently this had a budget of about $10,000,000 which sounds like a
lot of money especially when you consider it was made in the early
eighties, it's certainly well made with an eye for detail but I didn't
think it was anything spectacular. Filmed in Ontario in Canada. There's
a great cast here including the always reliable Christopher Walken, Tom
Skerritt, Brooke Adams, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe & Martin Sheen who
put in fine performances to add even more dramatic weight to an already
dramatic story.The Dead Zone is a solid supernatural drama thriller that I enjoyed but
the slightly slow pace means I probably wouldn't want to see it again &
to be honest I prefer films with a bit more incident. Followed by the
TV series The Dead Zone (2002 - 2007) which ran for eighty episodes
over six seasons & an edited film compilation of the first two episodes
was released as The Dead Zone (2002) on video/DVD.
Cronenberg and King Hybridize a Nightmare
Fresh out of the bizarre, surreal, horror-worlds of Scanners and the
mstomaso from Vulcan - 23 November 2008excellent Videodrome, David Cronenberg took on one of Stephen King's
more challenging works - The Dead Zone - a psychological horror story
lacking all of the gore and shock which so often killed film
adaptations of King novels. Add Chris Walken near the top of his game,
and the results should be fairly predictable - either an esoteric
morasse of horror-poetry illustrated by Walken's incredible physical
expressiveness, or powerful, disturbing and smart film. Fortunately,
the Dead Zone is the latter.Johnny Smith (Walken) lives in Castle Rock Maine where he teaches
school and is engaged to a nice local girl (Sarah - Brooke Adams). On
his way home one night his Volkswagen is flattened by a jack-knifed
truck. Smith experiences a severe brain trauma and slips into a coma
which lasts several years. WHen he wakes up, it doesn't take long for
him to slip into a deep depression because of all that has happened
since his accident, nor does it take long for him to realize that
physical contact with others often allows him to see their future.As with many of King's 1970s and early 1980s stories, halfway through
the story, it is not clear whether the protagonist is to become a hero
or a very very bad guy. Cronenberg uses this ambiguity perfectly and
Walken (greatly aided by the script) makes his character both edgy and
sympathetic.Walken gives this film everything he's got, and his performance is
spot-on. The supporting cast is also excellent - especially Herbert Lom
and Anthony Zerbe. Cronenberg, to his credit, sticks to the story this
time around - apparently King gave him more than enough to work with
and the uncontrollably creative director reigned himself in so that he
could give the story the treatment it deserved. This film fits better
among Cronenberg's later works such as A History of Violence and
Eastern Promises than among Naked Lunch, ExistenZ or Videodrome. Even
the cinematographic technique is unusually straightforward.The Dead Zone's script was written by the very talented Jeff Boam, who
unfortunately succumbed to a rare disease at the age of 53 in 2000,
after achieving a nearly unbroken nine-year streak of hit screenplays
from the Dead Zone (1983) to Lethal Weapon 3 (1992).
The best of Walken, and possibly the best of King?.
Johnny Smith is a perfectly happy man, a great job in education and a
JohnRouseMerriottChard from United Kingdom - 1 November 2008loving and beautiful partner. One blizzard strewn night he is involved
in a car accident and lays in a coma for five years, upon waking he
finds that he has psychic abilities. His once love of his life is now
married with a child and as Johnny tries to come to terms with that and
also his new found ability, he's hurtling towards confrontations with
monsters that literally could have consequences for mankind.Director David Cronenberg's first dip into in the waters of mainstream
cinema, gone is the weirdness and goo sodden traits, in their place
comes a great adaptation of a wonderful novel, and a triple pronged
sword culminating in a shatteringly brilliant ending. Amazing that some
Cronenberg fans missed a trick by pouring scorn on this picture during
its original release, for the theme of alienation figures heavy in the
piece and Cronenberg, coupled with a brilliant Christopher Walken
performance {as Smith}, has crafted a most excellent piece of dramatic
cinema.It would be outrageous, and wrong, of me to over tell of the monsters
and inner turmoil that Johnny Smith confronts, suffice to say here is a
picture that if you haven't seen before then you really need to stay
clear of any potential spoilers. The plot summary is in place for all
to read, you just need to sit back and enjoy the serial killer strand
in the piece, and in this day and age of political monsters, get
involved with the excellently Stephen King written political finale
that impacts royally the more the years roll by. Backing up the
wonderful Walken is the under praised Brooke Adams {as love interest
Sarah}, Herbert Lom, Tom Skerritt, Anthony Zerbe and a very memorable
weasel turn from Martin Sheen, all of whom excel at being given meat to
chew on from Cronenberg.Great story, great cast and very astute direction, so what you waiting
for?, a hauntingly wonderful 9/10 from me.
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