Product: The Dead Zone [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 5.0
Intelligent Horror Movie
The film adaptation of THE DEAD ZONE strays quite a bit from Stephen King's original novel. The movie version is an excellent film that actually expands on some timeless themes King introduced while trimming some of the book's less important characters and plot points. Both book and film are basically about nice guy Johnny Smith. At the beginning of the story Johnny is a straight laced young English teacher in love with a pretty girl and looking forward to a happy ordinary life. A tragic accident (car crash in both movie and film but quite different details) puts him in a coma for five years and when he miraculously recovers he finds his sweet girlfriend is now married and a mother and he has been "gifted" with a strange psychic ability that lets him see the most traumatic scenes of people's pasts and futures.Christopher Walken is close to perfect in creating the character of Johnny. We sympathize with him as he encounters the problems that come with recovering from years in a hospital bed and with being burdened with such a scary and important psychic "gift". Early in the film Johnny, saves a girl from death by fire, identifies a serial killer, prevents a young boy from drowning and is able to tell his own doctor that the doctor's mother who was presumably killed in World War II is alive and well all thanks to his special abilities. Late in the film he has a vision that leads him to ask others "What would you do if you could go back in time and kill Hitler before the Holocaust and World War II happened?" It is his answer to this question of the ability to stop evil that leads to the unforgettable climax and resolution of the plot.The movie though presumably set in Maine was filmed in Canada mostly during the winter season and the frozen landscapes perfectly match the movie's often dark mood. The soundtrack is also noteworthy as it expertly captures the film's nightmarish qualities. There are several bloody scenes and the serial killer material is particularly disturbing so a caution to the very squeamish. Still this is so much better than most films of the horror genre and actually raises some interesting questions in the audience's minds.