Product: The Dead Zone [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 5.0
The Best Movie Adaption of a Stephen King Novel
I loved this movie for a lot of reasons:One, Christopher Walken gets to play a very sympathetic character and really makes it work. Even when Walken is playing a total maniac, you still like the guy.Two, this is probably the best adaption of a Stephen King book to hit the screen. 'SALEM'S LOT was a TV movie that looked like a TV movie, and THE SHINING was the best-looking but least-scariest horror film ever. The rest are just a mess. Ironically, the worst screenplay adaption was, in my opinion, done by Mr. King himself: PET SEMETARY was an ugly hack job of one of his finest novels!Three, Director David Cronenberg did a great job directing (and probably restraining himself!). By having Johnny Smith's visions hit him in violent jump-cuts instead of the dream-like pages of the novel, the movie really gives a visual edge to the dead zones.Four, the rest of the cast is fun to watch, from Herbert Lom to Tom Skerritt to Anthony Zerbe.And Five, the maniacal would-be president played by a frothing Martin Sheen is probably closer to his real personality than the one he plays on "The West Wing."