David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone is an absolute masterpiece. Well made, moving, and thrilling, this gem from 1983 is celebrating its 40th anniversary on October 21st. Let’s take a look back, shall we?
The legendary Christopher Walken plays our lead, Johnny Smith. Johnny is a schoolteacher engaged to his colleague, Sarah (a radiant Brooke Adams). After a date, where Johnny experiences a spell of lightheadedness, he heads home early. Unfortunately, he’s involved in a freak car accident on the way home which puts him into a five-year-long coma. Upon awakening, he discovers his fiancé has moved on and is now married with a child. He also seems to have gained some psychic abilities that allow him to envision the past, present, and future. Eventually, this puts him on a collision course with Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen pulling off as gregarious, ambitious, and menacing) a demagogic political candidate who will one day trigger a nuclear holocaust.
Additionally, Tom Skerrit shows up as a sheriff needing assistance on a serial killer case. Herbert Lom plays Johnny’s loyal and caring physician, and Anthony Zerbe is a wealthy businessman and the father of Johnny’s favorite pupil. It’s a great cast, but this is Walken’s film and he kills it. His Johnny is a deeply wounded but fundamentally decent man. His anguish when he finds out the love of his life has moved on is palpable. This is absolutely one of his warmest, and best, performances.
Jeffrey Boam’s script, based on the Stephen King novel, is tight and precise but allows room for characters to breathe. Maybe the most notable element of the film besides the story and acting is Michael Kamen’s haunting, ominous, and mournful orchestral score. Cronenberg masterfully weaves it into DP Mark Irwin’s chilling visuals, providing depth to the cold New England setting. Sets and costumes convey the required ordinariness of the backdrop, allowing the supernatural elements to feel effectively grounded.
Up to this point in his career, Cronenberg had mostly made body horror pics. This film proved he could also terrify in a completely different way. The paranoia leading up to Johnny’s fateful confrontation with Stillson is expertly composed. You can almost taste the dread. Though it plays on Cold War fears, the Stillson character seems newly relevant but is also still broad enough to represent sinister intent in any corridor of power.
Philosophical, political, authentic, and engaging, David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dead Zone is a master class in filmmaking. While retaining a literary flavor, it’s nevertheless propulsive and starkly cinematic. Christopher Walken is sympathetic as the tragically Shakespearean Johnny Smith. While not really epic per se, it tackles some heady subjects, and it’s still a breathtaking film. I’m of the opinion that it’s flawless and it may be my favorite Cronenberg flick. Highly recommended.
Michael Cavender