The Dead Zone (1983)

The Dead Zone has an interesting concept, but no real follow through. This slow-paced film has a few thrilling moments, but, for the most part, it consists of Christopher Walken brooding about and staring at things. It's another Stephen King adaptation done wrong.

I had a few problems with this movie from the beginning. I didn't think Christopher Walken was a great choice for the role. He doesn't emote all that well, and his weird delivery doesn't play well in a dramatic role. I think the movie could have been written better. If the character had stuck with the "hunt for the serial killer" aspect, for the entire movie, it would've been more compelling, and would probably have made the movie a classic. What we got though were three separate cases, which don't really lend themselves to each other. No case Walken's character works on seems to segway another. By the time we get to the end of the film, it feel as though it could have been a better climax. The story arches in the wrong places, the character doesn't progress very well, and you kind've get sick of trying to watch Christopher Walken fake a really bad limp. I also had to yell at him when in the end he stood up to shoot the rifle. He had a perfect shot while he was knelt down, why would he stand up? That all being said, I did enjoy it for its simplicity and mystery. The light sprinkling of violence throughout the movie kept me going too.

Written by Stephen King, directed by Cronenberg, starring Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, music by Michael Kamen... this simply can not be bad movie. And it isn't. But it isn't specially good either. Story is entertaining and nicely told, acting and music are good, ending is distinctively Kings, but this really good movie lacks something to be great. I am not sure what genre it is, but I would say supernatural thriller, and for thriller this movie has serious lack of tension and anticipation. Emotionally it did not move me an inch. It does not make you smile, it does not make you cry, it does not force you to think, it does not scare you or keep you at the edge of the seat. Smart, entertaining, but not strong or deep enough for excellency.

Revisited this one not long ago just to see if my initial impression of it would change; it didn't. Well-crafted but oddly COLD (as are many of Cronenberg's films), THE DEAD ZONE DOES boast one unforgettable scene: the scene where Sheen snatches up the baby to use as a shield. It's a quintessential Political move- especially in this Day and Age. Like it or not, we live in what Norman Mailer, writing in CANNIBALS AND CHRISTIANS, called "a world whose ultimate logic is war, because in a world of war all overproduction and overpopulation is possible since people and commodities may be destroyed wholesale." THE DEAD ZONE suggests, too, that a Psychological Evaluation of potential Political Leaders might be in order. "Politics," wrote Mailer, "was the place where finally nobody meant what they said- it was a world of nightmare; psychopaths roved." As for World War "Three" (there've been so MANY World Wars, from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan to what-day-of-the-week-is-it?, that it's hard to keep track), said Mailer: "One's own suicide might be lost in a national suicide."