Dead Zone (1983)

"...a very good film...  Dragan Antulov, Rec. Arts. Movies. Reviews
"...vivid and effective...very well staged.  Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"Brilliantly creepy...  Micheal Szymanski, Zap2it.com

Editor's Note David Cronenberg's first foray into mainstream filmmaking is also one of his most satisfying pictures. Adapted from a Stephen King novel, it stars Christopher Walken as Johnny, a man who has been in a coma for five years and wakes up to realize that he can tell a person's fate just by touching them. Realizing that he can change the future as well, Johnny soon gets intervenes in a number of would-be tragedies. Consequently, he soon becomes famous for his gift, but he longs for his former life, when he still had his job, his fiancee, and a normal life. However, when he shakes hands with a future president of the US (Martin Sheen, in a wonderfully hammy performance) who could end up being the biggest mass murderer since Hitler, Johnny wrestles with what seems to be his destiny. Walken's bravura performance forms the soul of this excellent and touching thriller.

	Brooke Adams
	Christopher Walken
	Herbert Lom
	Tom Skerritt
	David Cronenberg - Director
	Debra Hill - Producer
	Jeffrey Boam - Screenplay
	Mark Irwin - Cinematographer
	Michael Kamen - Original Music By
	Ronald Sanders - Editor
	Stephen King - Based On Novel By

Sight and Sound
"...Cronenberg's most accomplished film so far, created with flair, fluency and welcome understatement..." 03/01/1984 p.150

New York Times
"...A sad, sympathetic and unsettling movie, quietly forceful....Cronenberg's direction is vivid and effective..." 10/21/1983 p.C8

Variety
"...An accomplished psychological thriller....[Cronenberg] gets some appealing performances....Walken links each episode together quite well, accurately conveying the character's growing mental, physical and emotional anguish..." 10/12/1983

USA Today
"...With its small-town milieu, lots of snow and supernatural mayhem, THE DEAD ZONE is one of the better Stephen King movie adaptations..." 09/29/2000 p.11E

Total Film
"...[A] quietly effective Stephen King thriller..." 11/01/2000 p.118

DVD Times 8 of 10
In the case of The Dead Zone, this emotional depth is provided mainly by the exceptional performances Cronenberg has elicited from his cast, particularly the always-excellent Christopher Walken, whose sad, haunted face perfectly encapsulates the melancholy, the frustration and finally, the resignation of a man who, in his own words, "can't live [his] life". We completely empathise with this man who we know is still in love with a woman fate has conspired to take away from him, and who seems cursed by a supernatural power he does not want...if you're a fan of Cronenberg or indeed Stephen King, this superior chiller is a worthwhile addition to your collection. - Alan Daly

Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
"The Dead Zone" does what only a good supernatural thriller can do: It makes us forget it is supernatural. Like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist," it tells its story so strongly through the lives of sympathetic, believable people that we not only forgive the gimmicks, we accept them. There is pathos in what happens to the Christopher Walken character in this movie and that pathos would never be felt if we didn't buy the movie's premise...They all work together to take a movie that could have been just another scary thriller, and turn it into a believable thriller -- which, of course, is even scarier. - Roger Ebert