The Dead Zone

There's always been something about Christopher Walken that seemed wonderfully...off. His staccato speech, his ghostly catlike eyes, and hair like static electricity -- it ain't hard to believe that Walken's Johnny is already straddling the veil.What a brisk, horrifying, yet somber joy ride of a film. For such a powerful gift, life treats Johnny like a shaggy wet dog. His girlfriend is married, his foray into crime-solving is DISASTROUS, people treat him like a freak, and his body is literally falling apart. It's a movie with a mood, and set in perpetual winter. The man just wants to teach kids about reading, but he keeps tumbling into tragedies. The few moments of joy, like Johnny playing with his ex's son, crackle like a dying fire in the night.One thing I like a lot is no one in the movie really bothers to question if Johnny is a fake psychic (even his doctor almost immediately jumps to the conclusion "Welp, you can see the future!"). Because it's not the point. While petty megalomaniac Stillson beats his chest about "his DESTINY", Johnny's just a meek guy with an unnatural gift, in a cruel universe, holding onto his humanity.

My all-time fav Stephen King novel. Bought it to replace the copy I had from decades ago. It fell apart from being read so often. I'm just disappointed that the hardcover "library" edition was so ridiculously expensive that I had to get another paperback.The Dead Zone rang especially true in the wake of the last presidential election. It's like SK has prescient powers.Johnny has a car accident that puts him in a coma for 5 and a half years. He wakes up with "psychic powers" that are triggered when he touches a person or their belongings. When he shakes the hand of gladhandling wannabe politician Greg Stillson, Johnny knows he's a dangerous man who will claw his way into the White House and start WWIII. Now Johnny's got a dilemma as to what to do about Stillson.Absolutely fantastic read. Can't recommend enough!

I saw this movie on cable or VHS back when it first came out, in the early eighties. I read the book that is its source material back then, too. It's all been stuck echoing in my memory ever since then: Images from the film, the sense of eerie dread that pervades the story.Scenes from the book actually seem to have inhabited my memory as being from the movie, interestingly enough, because I had "memories" of Christopher Walken doing a few things that he apparently didn't do in the film.. Either there's a slightly longer cut of the film that I saw back then, or else my memories of the book have fused with, confused my memory.. He was so perfectly cast here, his character in the book may have taken on his features in my imagination and memory.As I say, this movie feels a bit a time capsule to me. It's reminded me how the 70's and 80's we were scrappier, poorer, less materially refined. Everything from the interior furnishings of the houses, the cars, the rotary phones - all of it was more boxy angular and grimier, less smooth rounded and glossy. I've noticed this in other media from back then- e.g. watching talk shows from the 60's through the late 80's, Carson, Parr, Letterman, etc. - how their sets were rudimentary, the furniture was obviously mass produced - of basically the same sort of quality that normal people had at home who bought their furniture and clothes from a Sears catalogue.. Consumer products have gotten a lot more elegant since the late 80's - just look at car design. Something happened between 1985 and 1995; so many sharp angles, corners and boxes have been smoothed away..The politician who is the villain in this story runs around wearing a hardhat at campaign rallies for a senate race. Another salient indicator of how much this country has changed: try and imagine a senatorial candidate doing that today. "The working man's candidate" - he'd have a national constituency of about 30.A few other reviewers here have said this political villian reminds them of Trump - well, all I can say to that is that politicians back before about 1984 (ahem) often thought it useful to create the fiction that they were of the working class (used to wear a hardhat, were born in a log cabin, all that) now they find it useful to bllsht us that they're billionaires.Again, we've come a long way.. baby. We used to have a system where the unions and blue collar vote used to really matter. Now only speculators and billionaires matter.There's a scene in the movie where this evil politician invades a newspaper editor's office at night, and threatens him with violence and scandal to make him withdraw a negative editorial. There's a picture of Ronald Reagan barely visible behind the desk on the editor's dimly lit office wall. I thought that was pretty deft and amusing. The evil politician is a "third party challenger," neither a Democrat nor a Republican.. Neither the movie nor Stephen King (who is, I think, a Democrat) want to alienate anyone by making their villain partisan in raw terms.Martin Sheen plays the politician. It's pretty amazing how much of a resemblance his son Charlie actually has to him in this picture, when Martin was younger. Qualis pater, talis filius. It's striking.Anywhich, what, however the case, this is a terrific film and story. It's spooky, sad and heroic; a tale of frustrated love and triumph over evil. It's a classic, and you should watch it.

Few movies are better than the book but such is the case with Stephen King's Dead Zone. Early in his career King was churning out books quick as he could to cash in on his sudden popularity. As a result some, but not all, of his books failed to live up to King's literary talent. Dead Zone was one such story that made the connection on film much better than paper. This is due solely to the acting ability of Christopher Walken who brings life to the character of Johnny Smith a young man on the verge of marrying the girl he loves when his life takes a dramatic change after he has a car accident, rendering him into a coma for 5 years. Upon waking Johnny discovers not only that his girlfriend has moved on and got married but also he has a unique psychic talent. On paper Dead Zone fails to deliver largely in part to the fact it followed the hugely popular, The Stand which in, my opinion, is King's finest work. This movie delivers and I highly recommend it.

I have read his books most of my life. Not so much for the horror factor, but because his characters are so real. They are funny, and have problems, and seem like people I know. Stephens gift is not so much writing stories about horrifying circumstances, but more about writing how real people would react if those things happened. Stephen definately has a huge imagination, and it leans toward fascinating and little known subjects. But his real talent is writing about how real people would respond if we were somehow thrown into unknown circumstances. Love him, have always loved him. He is a gifted and treasured story teller. No one will ever match him.

If you love Christopher Walken and his speech timing and oddness of personality, then this is the film for you. I only wish the director had said, "we are doing the full story as the book was written!" as I would love it even more. Without reading the book first not sure I wold have loved it as much as I do.

Five stars for gripping horror / drama.Based on the Stephen King novel, this film is one of my all time favourites. Christopher Walken gives a brilliantly moving portrayal of a man (Johnny Smith) who loses 5 years of his life to a coma and wakes in a specialist institute to discover he's gained psychic powers but lost his fiancée to another man.I first saw this film in the eighties and Walken's acting skills blew me away; he gets so deep into the character's experiences that I feel what he was going through; the moment he discovers he's lost his girl, the fear, frustration and anger he feels about the power he's gained, the cruel media guy who calls him a freak which results in the death of his mum, the way his now married ex turns up, uses him and 'discards' him again (boy was I angry with her for treating him so mean), Walken's relationship with his screen parents which is incredibly moving and personal - I can't watch this film without my heart breaking for Johnny Smith.Add to that sterling performances from the actors who play his parents, Tom Skerrit as the desperate sheriff trying to solve a speight of sex murders, Herbet Lom as his concerned, compassionate doctor and Martin Sheen as the dangerously ambitious wannabe senator - result - incredibly entertaining and heart wrenching film. I've watched it more times than I've had hot dinners. It never bores - and I always cry my heart out. IMO a must have for one's DVD collection.Recommended to anyone who enjoys anything to do with the occult / a gripping story.

yes!10 out of ten!love this film if only for the tentative nature of any american presidency that follows on from this...killer in said film an utter psycho - and he his the minimal point of reference - and the poor soul bedecked with issues such as second sight etc gets my vote and welcomed me into the wonderful and frightening world that is walken.there isn't much one can say in reviews other than that you need to decide for yourself as to the worth of storyline and acting... i for one love this and it's worth hitting you over the head to get it..

What a load of boring old rubbish, I was looking forward to watching this after listening to The Dead Zone on Audible, a superb book but this film did not do the book justice, poor acting, no development of characters and the story has changed too much and huge chunks of it left out

I don't have the pretension to be a film critic so I stick to reviewing the product, in this case a DVD, and want to warn potential buyers that this DVD (ASIN: B00005V8UW) has no subtitles at all despite what it says on Amazon's product page.