The Dead Zone (film)
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| The Dead Zone | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | David Cronenberg |
| Produced by | Debra Hill |
| Written by | Novel: Stephen King Screenplay: Jeffrey Boam |
| Starring | Christopher Walken Brooke Adams Tom Skerritt Martin Sheen |
| Music by | Michael Kamen |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Editing by | Ronald Sanders |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (USA) Dino De Laurentiis Productions (non-USA) |
| Release date(s) | October 21, 1983 (USA) |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Dead Zone is a 1983 horror film based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Directed by David Cronenberg, the film stars Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Brooke Adams and Colleen Dewhurst. The plot revolves around a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith (Walken), who wakes from a coma to find he has psychic powers.
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[edit] Plot
Johnny Smith (Walken) is a young New England schoolteacher in love with his colleague Sarah (Adams) when he is involved in a serious car accident that sends him into a coma. He awakes under the care of neurologist Dr. Weizak (Lom) and counts himself fortunate when he notes no casts, bandages or visible signs of injuries on his body. However, the awakening turns rude when he is told that five years have passed since he last knew consciousness: his girlfriend has long since married and had a child.
Johnny's transition back to life is made rougher when he discovers that he has the ability to learn a person's secrets (past, present, future) through making physical contact with the person, or even by touching an object that the person has touched at some time in the past.
After reluctantly using his ability to help a local sheriff (Skerritt) solve a series of brutal rape-murders, Johnny attempts to resume his profession, as a private tutor. However, his ability continues to haunt him. Smith foresees that a rising local politician, Greg Stillson (Sheen), who is a candidate for the United States Senate, will someday be elected President of the United States. In John's vision, Stillson launches a nuclear war, presumably destroying a large percentage of the worldwide human population.
Johnny decides to take the future into his own hands and plots to assassinate Stillson at a campaign rally. Though he himself is mortally wounded in the incident while Stillson escapes unscathed, he nonetheless accomplishes his mission: hearing shots, Stillson snatches Sarah's baby and uses it as a human shield, and the news of his cowardly act is broadcast nationwide, ruining his chances of any future in politics. As Johnny lies dying, he is approached by Stillson, demanding to know who sent him, and receives one final, reassuring vision - that of the haggard politician, ruined by the scandal, committing suicide. Satisfied that he has averted the impending armageddon, Johnny simply tells the politician, "You're finished," and promptly expires.
[edit] More Information
The film was generally regarded as a career turning point for director David Cronenberg; helming a large successful studio production following a series of B-movie horror films. The success of this film and the critical respect it received directly led to Cronenberg being offered big directing jobs like his 1986 hit The Fly.
The film was fairly well received by critics at the time with Roger Ebert who had panned previous Cronenberg efforts, awarding the film three and a half stars. It is also rumored that it is Stephen King's favorite film adaptation of any of his books.
Despite the reputations of both Cronenberg and King, the film's emphasis is not on blood and guts horror.[1]
[edit] Trivia
- The gazebo where one of the attacks took place was a permanent structure in a park at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
- Christopher Walken parodied his character in a Saturday Night Live sketch, in which he has the same abilities, but only for fairly useless things, such as vision of a man forgetting a "really good cup of coffee" on top of a taxi.
- Sheen later went on to play two fictional Presidents, Josiah Bartlet, on the television drama The West Wing (1999-2006) and the unnamed, fictional President in the made for television movie Medusa's Child (1997).
- Sheen also played president John F. Kennedy in the 1983 miniseries Kennedy.
- The photographer who takes the pictures of Stillson shielding himself with Sarah's baby is Martin Sheen's son, Ramon Estevez. According to the filmmakers on the 2006 Special Edition DVD, Estevez was visiting his father on set and was asked to make a cameo in the film.
- In the opening scene Johnny Smith tells his students to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Later on in his career Christopher Walken actually played the headless horseman in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow.
- This film was #51 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
[edit] See also
- The Dead Zone, a television series also based on the novel.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "The Dead Zone." Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide
[edit] External links
Transfer • From the Drain • Stereo • Crimes of the Future • Shivers • Rabid • Fast Company • The Brood • Scanners • The Dead Zone • Videodrome • The Fly • Dead Ringers • Naked Lunch • M. Butterfly • Crash • eXistenZ • Spider • A History of Violence • Eastern Promises • Maps to the Stars
