“The Dead Zone” (1983) has two essential ingredients for turning Stephen King’s sprawling, light-on-plot 1979 novel into a compelling film. One is Jeffrey Boam’s screenplay, which compresses the text into a forward-moving thriller without sacrificing too much naturalism. The other is Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith.
Walken about
Walken, recently seen on “Severance,” is a famously idiosyncratic actor. But he shows restraint as this schoolteacher with a perfect girlfriend who wakes up from a coma to find he has psychic powers — but no girlfriend. Sarah (a smiley Brooke Adams, embodying “perfect girl” status without much development) has married another man during Johnny’s lost half-decade.
As I noted in my review of the book, a palpable sense of loss hangs over Johnny (who also loses his mother to religious mania and eventually death). The movie isn’t so slathered in tragedy. But Walken does balance Johnny’s confusion, isolation and frustration, all the while embodying a certain resignation.
“The Dead Zone” (1983)
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: Jeffrey Boam, based on the novel by Stephen King
Stars: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen
David Cronenberg – who would helm “The Fly” three years later and whose “Crimes of the Future” is in now in theaters — is often an edgy director. But he presents Boam’s screenplay in mostly straight and somber fashion. We do get screeching music stings whenever Johnny gets a vision by touching someone – accompanied by Walken’s big-eyed flinch.
And Cronenberg gives us one strikingly cinematic shot: a long tunnel at nighttime where the sparse lights reflect off the bricks. This is the hiding spot of the serial killer Johnny helps catch at mid-film.
Boomin’ Boam
Boam (1946-2000) is the only writer to pen two of the top three box-office films in a year — 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Lethal Weapon 2.” But “The Dead Zone” is only his second screenwriting credit, and he notably stumbles when redefining the title. Johnny and Dr. Weizak (Herbert Lom, channeling the kindly doc) label Johnny’s visions as originating in “the dead zone.”
In the novel, the dead zone is the damaged part of Johnny’s brain. Because this area is shut down, the psychic part of the brain – unused by most people – activates. This makes more sense, and it’s a cool idea, so it’s a shame to nix it.
One of Johnny’s visions strikes me as goofy. “The Dead Zone” strives to distill King’s flash-forwards of future-President Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen, infusing unhinged Trumpian energy) literally pressing a button to start World War III.
Also potentially silly: Johnny envisions a hockey team falling through New Hampshire pond ice and drowning. It’s an absurd event, but when Walken shouts “The ice is gonna break!” we have to take heed. Every moment that could be laughable via another actor is legitimate under Walken.
On the other hand, Boam’s succinct 103-minute take on the novel is often smart. We don’t get full development of the shy youngster Johnny tutors, but the boy’s smirky rejoinder helps us know him right off the bat: “I’m not the one in a shell; my dad is.”
Truly using his brain
“The Dead Zone” has a lower budget than is ideal, as is obvious right up front. King’s novel provides a tailor-made opening hook: Johnny and Sarah are on a date at a neon-lit summer carnival, and Johnny wins hundreds of dollars by using his powers. The film opens with the couple on a roller coaster, with seemingly no one else at the fair.
Despite good chemistry between Walken and Adams, the movie is more about Johnny’s powers. These are tested by two adventures where bad guys must be stopped: first the serial killer, then the nutso political candidate. These could be TV episodes.
Indeed, many long-running TV series have since been built around psychic crime-solving, including “Millennium,” “Medium” and, of course, Anthony Michael Hall’s “The Dead Zone” (2002-07). It was a fresher concept 39 years ago, but still not enough to hang a movie on – unless you have an actor as good as Walken.
Having read the novel beforehand, I figured my hook into the movie would be to academically study Boam’s adaptation choices. While Cronenberg’s film feels dated because of the psychic crime-solver, I was engaged with Johnny as an individual.
The book is better because it’s (inevitably) more substantial and detailed. But as far as adaptations go, “The Dead Zone” is remarkably lively.
On Fridays, RFMC reviews a Stephen King book, adaptation or related work. Click here to visit our Stephen King Zone.