Hello film fanatics, Slick Dungeon here. I’m back to review yet another Stephen King film. This one is not so much a horror film as a psychological thriller involving psychic powers. The film is directed by David Cronenberg and stars both Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen. I’m talking about the 1983 film The Dead Zone. There will be spoilers for the movie in this review so if you don’t like that, take your date to an amusement park and then go straight to the movies afterwards, drive very carefully and come on back here to read the review.
The Dead zone Background
The Dead Zone is an adaptation of the 1979 Stephen King book of the same name. Unlike many of King’s books, this one isn’t an outright horror story. It’s the tragic tale of a man who misses out on life due to unforeseen circumstances but makes a heroic decision only he understands.
David Cronenberg directs the film. He is known for body horror films. Christopher Walken plays the main character, Johnny Smith and Martin Sheen plays the antagonist, Greg Stillson.
The film was positively received by both audiences and critics but it went a bit under the radar at the box office. It did earn a solid $20.8 million but it wasn’t the mega-hit some of King’s other films have been.
It’s got excellent directing, stellar acting, a nearly flawless script and builds the tension without using too many gimmicks. And it’s a really sad story.
Tragedy Strikes
The film starts out in a hopeful manner. Johnny Smith is a school teacher and all around nice guy in Castle Rock, Maine. He’s got a nice girlfriend named, Sarah Bracknell, played by Brooke Adams. The two go on a little date at an amusement park and things are looking good for the future, despite the fact, Johnny has a sudden headache come on after the ride. Sarah asks Johnny to spend the night with her but Johnny decides not to because of work and the weather getting bad.
Driving home the weather gets worse and Johnny ends up in a terrible crash. He’s rushed to the hospital but is unconscious. When he wakes up he finds out he’s been in a coma for five years. And Sarah has moved on with her life and gotten married and has a young child. Johnny is of course upset by this but is understanding about the situation. Because Johnny is a kind and caring person. He’s just in a tough situation.
Recovery and Ability
When he wakes up Johnny’s doctor tells him he’s going to have a long and difficult physical recovery. Johnny touches a nurse at one point and sees her daughter trapped in a fire. When Johnny shakes the doctor’s hand, he sees into the past and sees the doctor’s mother alive. She had long been assumed to have died in World War II.
Sarah comes to see Johnny and it’s clear she still has some feelings for him but she loves her family. It’s a complicated situation to say the least. But Sarah knows she’s not going to leave her family for Johnny in the long run.
Through all of this emotional and physical trauma, Johnny gains fame for his psychic ability.
Johnny’s Fame Spreads
As his fame spreads, Sheriff George Bannerman from Castle Rock hears about Johnny’s ability. He asks Johnny to help solve a case involving several murders. Johnny discovers the Deputy, Frank Dodd is the one responsible for the crimes. In the chaos of the situation, Dodd kills himself and Dodd’s mother ends up shooting Johnny.
As if recovering from a coma and losing the love of your life from no fault of your own wasn’t enough, Johnny has now been shot, and is nationally famous. That’s a lot for anyone to deal with.
Just a side note here but while the whole psychic finding a killer thing works great in fiction, in real life, these people who claim to be psychics and solve crimes are nothing but swindlers who cause real harm. But since The Dead Zone is fiction, we’ll leave that alone for now.
Isolation and the Discovery of The Dead Zone
Johnny has about had it with fame and who could blame him? He decides to move to a different part of town and keep to himself. Roger Stuart is a wealthy man who wants Johnny to tutor his son, Chris. Chris is a bright boy and it seems he needs adult understanding more than a tutor but nevertheless the tutoring pays Johnny’s bills and he doesn’t have to be in the public eye. At one point, Johnny meets a politician named Greg Stillson through Roger. Roger tells Johnny Stillson is dangerous but he’s giving the guy money to basically hedge his bets in case he gets elected.
After a tutoring lesson one day, Johnny touches Chris and has a vision of Chris drowning during his hockey practice. Johnny tells Roger about it and Roger fires Johnny but says he won’t take Chris to practice. At home, Roger still expects Chris to go but Chris refuses. Two other boys do drown under the ice though.
It seems Johnny can alter the future. He describes an area in his visions where he can’t see what is happening as the dead zone and realizes he can actually change the future.
The Dead Zone
One day, Sarah shows up passing out voter information for Stillson. Wanting to get a glimpse of Sarah once again, Johnny goes to a rally the politician is having. There he shakes the man’s hand and Johnny has a vision of Stillson maniacally hitting the nuclear button. Johnny has just come into contact with the man who will literally end the world.
The doctor finds Johnny to check on him and deliver some bad news. Johnny’s ability will weaken his body until he dies. Johnny asks the doctor a hypothetical question. He wants to know if the doctor could go back in time and kill Hitler before he did any damage if he would do it. The doctor says, considering his profession is to save lives, he would have no choice but to do it.
Johnny goes to Stillson’s next campaign event held in a local church. And this time he has a shotgun. Sarah and her husband and son are in attendance as well. Johnny fires a shot at Stillson but misses. Stillson, being the coward he is, grabs Sarah’s baby and holds it up to shield himself. Johnny is shot by the police but he’s not dead. Stillson rushes over to Johnny who is injured and on the floor. Johnny grabs Stillson’s hand and instead of seeing Stillson hitting the nuclear bomb, he sees the picture of Stillson holding Sarah’s baby on the cover of a magazine, ending the man’s political career. And then he sees Stillson takes his own life.
Johnny has saved the world and only he knows it. Sarah says goodbye to Johnny and the film ends.
the Dead Zone In conclusion
Considering the current political climate, I just want to mention political violence is not a good thing in reality whatsoever. But, of course, this is a fictional film. It’s a sort of what if you could kill Hitler exercise.
Ultimately this is a really tragic story. Everything works against Johnny but he has to end up where he does to save the world. In that way it’s hopeful but as far as a personal journey it’s nothing but sad. What might have been with Sarah can’t be known. Johnny goes through a ton of pain both physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
I think it’s this tragic arc that makes the story so enduring. It’s unfortunate it didn’t do better at the box office on initial release but I’m glad more people have come to find this one.
And while there are clear differences between the book and the film, I don’t think any of the changes are so major that it doesn’t work. There are other adaptations of this story but I still like this one quite a bit. If you haven’t seen this one, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Want More?
Want to see some of my other King reviews? Take a look here!
Psychically yours,
Slick Dungeon
