The Dead Zone (1983)

Director: David Cronenberg                           Writer: Jeffrey Boam
Film Score: Michael Kamen                          Cinematography: Mark Irwin
Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Herbert Lom and Martin Sheen

Stephen King hasn’t had a very good track record when it comes to having his works made into films. He collects the check from Hollywood and then the production company goes about butchering his work and serving it up as summer schlock. Every once in a while, though, someone gets it right, like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Rob Reiner’s Misery and Stand By Me. Well, The Dead Zone is one of the good ones. And it certainly didn’t hurt that it was directed by David Cronenberg, at the height of his popularity having just finished Videodrome earlier the same year. It was a good match, too, a good story for Cronenberg as it lacked a lot of the overt gore he had become known for. More of a supernatural suspense story, he was able to focus more on character the way he would later in his career in films like A History of Violence and Eastern Promises.

The story begins with English teacher Christopher Walken and his teacher girlfriend Brooke Adams dating. When Walken goes home from her house one night he gets into a head-on collision with a semi and winds up in a coma for five years. When he comes out of it he has the ability to see things when he touches people, things associated with them both past and present. It’s very chilling. Sheriff Tom Skerritt asks Walken to help with a serial killer case and Walken manages to solve it. But Herbert Lom is Walken’s doctor and he has alarming news about his condition: it’s killing Walken. At the same time Walken has reconnected with Adams, somewhat. She’s married and has a child, but he keeps running into her while she is working on a U.S. Senate campaign for dirty politician Martin Sheen. The climax of the film is a fascinating “what if” question that arises out of Walken’s psychic abilities.

The intensity of Walken’s personality and acting style is perfect for the role. He is alternately bitter, angry, and confused about what has happened, and he elicits a great deal of sympathy with his considerable acting skills. Brooke Adams is positively radiant onscreen. After a great job in the remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, she did a few other films before landing this part. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to turn it into the kind of film career her acting deserved. One of the most brilliant jobs of casting on the shoot was Herbert Lom as the doctor. He was an amazing talent and when Walken is at his crisis point before the climax, he delivers one of the best lines in the film. Tom Skerritt is also good in a small role, as is Martin Sheen as the psychotic politician, and Colleen Dewherst as the serial killer’s mother.

This was only screenwriter Jeffrey Boam’s second film, and he did an excellent job of structuring Stephen King’s story in three distinct acts. The first is the prolog and Walken coming out of the coma. The second is the discovery of his psychic abilities and helping solve the murder cases. The third is the politician. Cronenberg shows tremendous restraint and, as a result, this is one of the most artistically successful films in his career. The film score by Michael Kamen is fairly atmospheric. It still holds up today and doesn’t sound dated like a lot of eighties soundtracks. The Dead Zone is a powerful film with a strong cast and confident direction, making it one of the handful of successful Stephen King films and a must have for any horror buff’s collection.