The Dead Zone

Adapted from Stephen King’s eponymous novel, The Dead Zone follows Christopher Walken’s Johnny Smith as he emerges from a years-long coma with incredibly accurate psychic powers. It’s ultimately fairly interesting (and surprising) to note that The Dead Zone bears more of a resemblance to a slow-paced character study than to a thriller or exercise in horror, as director David Cronenberg, working from Jeffrey Boam’s screenplay, has infused the picture with a decidedly deliberate sensibility that emphasizes the protagonist’s post-coma efforts at readjusting to society – with the movie punctuated by a series of admittedly electrifying sequences involving Johnny’s accurate and often terrifying psychic visions. (The best and most enthralling example of this is the character’s initial experience with prognostication, as he envisions a young girl pleading for help inside a burning house.) And although the movie is subsequently only spellbinding in fits and starts, The Dead Zone undoubtedly benefits substantially from a consistently great performance by Walken – as the actor transforms Johnny into a far more compelling and layered (and downright sympathetic) figure than one might’ve anticipated. It is, as such, not surprising to note that the film improves steadily as it builds towards its fairly engrossing final stretch, which ultimately does cement The Dead Zone‘s place as a top-tier King adaptation and certainly one of Cronenberg’s more accessible endeavors.

*** out of ****