David Cronenberg Month: The Dead Zone (1983) Review by: Ted "Ritualistic" Brown

In the 1983 classic "The Dead Zone" Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) is a young school teacher with his whole life ahead of him. Until one night when after leaving his fiancée's home , he is involved in a horrible wreck with an 18 wheel tractor trailer, putting him into a coma for 5 years. When he wakes up, he discovers he has an ability to see into other people's lives, past, present and future, by coming into physical contact with them. But the visions he has are often frightening, leading to him to make the decision to use these new powers to change the outcome of events that could very well be the end of the world as we know it.

Out of all the film adaptations of Stephen King novels "The Dead Zone" is one of my all time favorites and much of this is due to the magnificent performance by Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith. Walken is truly on top of his game in this film, his facial expressions do a splendid job of portraying moments of raw human emotion. On top of Walken you are also treated to remarkable performances from Martin Sheen, and Brooke Adams creating a very believable and entertaining piece of cinema.



 
The thought of waking up one day only to find that you have been in a coma for 5 years is beyond a frightening one, and on top of such a horrible realization to find out the love of your life now belongs to another makes it almost too much to bare. To even worsen the situation to touch someone's hand and suddenly be bombarded with ghastly visions, well needless to say if you ran this scenario through you head long enough you'd quickly find yourself in a state of panic.

"The Dead Zone" uses a fear mechanism I miss greatly that the modern horror genre seems to ignore for the most part, it uses politics as a way to cause tension and fear in the viewer which when used correctly as a fear tactic can be one of the most effective in my opinion. No matter what the era, politics are always relevant and are a great way to immerse a viewer into your film forcing them to look at current issues and more often than not will leave them frightened at the notion that this could really happen.



 
During my viewing of this film last night I found myself dwelling on a thought, what if Cronenberg was approached to remake George Romero's politically charged zombie classic "Day of The Dead", I know what you're thinking "but you hate remakes" but that is not true what I hate are remakes that are done half assed but when done with love and care they can be ultra interesting.

"The Dead Zone" is another example of why Cronenberg has earned his place in the halls of horror legends as one of the most prolific and awe inspiring directors the horror genre has ever seen. Outside of the horror genre he has also proven himself time and time again as one of the greats.



 
On behalf of The Liberal Dead I give "The Dead Zone" a 8 out of 10 and highly recommend anyone who has not seen this film make a point to do so.

8/10

- Ted "Ritualistic" Brown