The Dead Zone (1983)

*Get the film on Amazon here*

Seeing this film almost forty years after my first viewing, it still remains one of the stronger Stephen King adaptations.

Johnny (Christopher Walken) is a mild-mannered English teacher in a chaste relationship with Sarah (Brooke Adams). He is involved in a car accident, and wakes up from a coma five years later. Sarah has understandably moved on, he has no job, and his only friend seems to be his doctor, Weizek (a sympathetic Herbert Lom). Johnny also starts having psychic episodes when he comes in contact with a person through touch, able to see into their past, present, and future. The film then follows Johnny as he tries to adjust to his new life, and begins to gain local celebrity notoriety thanks to helping the police with a series of assaults and murders. Eventually, Johnny runs into bombastic Senate candidate Stillson (Martin Sheen), and his ability to see the future has universal consequences.

Walken and the entire cast does an outstanding job in their roles. Cronenberg proves he isn't just a gross-out director, he can pull some great performances from a massive, recognizable supporting cast. The film isn't as epic as I remembered, but its smallness works in its favor. Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam was able to turn Stephen King's novel into a lean, empathetic drama with some horror and fantasy elements, and Cronenberg makes the most of every minute of film. Michael Kamen's memorable score is melancholy, showing us Johnny's plight, and the snowy locations (this was shot in Canada) are nothing short of chilling and awesome. This was an early adaptation of Stephen King's works, I read the novel back in the early 1980s and should re-read it today, and I loved it. King was one of my writing inspirations, and this film was icing on the cake. Later spawned a television series.

Stats:
(1983) 103 min. (* * * * *) out of five stars
-Directed by David Cronenberg
-Screenplay by Jeffrey Boam from the novel by Stephen King
-Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Martin Sheen, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Nicholas Campbell, Sean Sullivan, Jackie Burroughs, Geza Kovacs, Roberta Weiss, Simon Craig
(R)- Contains physical violence, gun violence, brief sexual violence, gore, brief female nudity, some sexual references, strong adult situations, alcohol use