The Dead Zone [M]

Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher whose life is practically perfect with his beautiful fiancé and his rewarding career. But that changes suddenly one night when he is involved in a terrible car crash that puts him into a five-year coma. When he wakes up, he discovers that he possesses an extraordinary gift: the power of second sight. Being able to see the past, present, and future, Johnny uses his gift to help cops and save kids, but when he sees the future move of an upcoming senate candidate, he is faced with a terrifying choice; one for which he may pay the ultimate price. 

This cold-war thriller directed by David Cronenberg and based on the novel by Stephen King proves to be a bit of an undervalued gem. The story itself is very different to anything else in the psychic-thriller subgenre; it’s very unique and the cast all do a wonderful job (with the exception of Martin Sheen who steals the show as the charismatic and over-enthusiastic candidate for senate) in underplaying it enough to make the psychic aspect of it almost mundane. 

Cronenberg’s focus on the characters as people rather than vehicles of narrative proves to be a wondrous way in underplaying everything to make it almost natural and everyday. It’s all about the characters rather than the supernatural powers. Essentially, the story is about a man who loses five years of his life (and the other things that go along with half a decade) and wakes up with nothing but this terrifying power that he doesn’t understand, can’t control, and which pains him whenever he has an ‘episode’. For the majority of the film, he perceives his power as a curse, a horrible burden that brings him press houndings, fear, and eternal torment. It definitely takes its toll on him physically and emotionally and we can see this in the transformation that happens to Christopher Walken who stars as Johnny. Walken begins the film as a happy everyman complete with a funny mop haircut and round owl glasses. After the accident and his recovery, whilst his hair is better styled, his glasses are gone and he looks generally better, there is next to no life left in him and he walks throughout the scenes almost as a reanimated body: flushed with colour and alive, but deadpan expressions and delivery (unless he’s having a go at someone). He smiles and laughs a record of twice in the film, the rest of the time he is the reluctant hero, the very reluctant hero. 

Walken delivers a gripping performance: he’s simple and underplays everything, which makes the more emotionally tense scenes all the more powerful and memorable. 

Bring into the mix the recognisable villain of a corrupt and bonkers politician and it’s a recipe for cinematic thriller success. Martin Sheen plays the role of Gregory Stillson with incredible vigour, one moment laughing and joking, the next threatening to hack off someone’s head. Sheen is the character that brings real life into the story and the film by providing a character that rouses strong feelings within the viewers, mostly contempt and loathing. We know that this guy is going to turn out bad, but that still doesn’t prevent our hands shooting up to our mouths in horror at some of his actions. But what is most engaging about Sheen’s performance is that he makes the character very difficult to read and fathom, one can never truly infiltrate the inner workings of this guy’s head… and it’s fantastic. 

If nothing else, this movie is a great demonstration of a director focusing on his characters rather than the general narrative elements of supernatural powers and the everyday hero. What Cronenberg so eloquently depicts is various lives being slowly ruined and torn apart and whilst admittedly there are some moments where the underplay becomes a little too mundane and uninteresting, at the end of the day it’s Cronenberg’s simple and underplayed direction that makes this movie as moving as it is. 

Starring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt , Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Nicholas Campbell, Sean Sullivan, Jackie Burroughs, Simon Craig, and Martin Sheen, The Dead Zone is an underplayed thriller and its simplicity and seemingly mundane-ness is what makes it so good. Filled with drama, suspense, romance, death, premonitions, and the odd bit of dark comedy, it’s a film that I think deserves more attention than it gets. Cronenberg’s direction and the performances from the central cast make it very easy to get enveloped in the folds of this mystery and thriller and it’s really wonderful.