Rating of
3.5/4
"The Dead Zone" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/13/12
A teacher involved in a near fatal car crash reawakens from a coma five years later with the power of second sight. David Cronenberg's most restrained and mainstream movie is based upon a Stephen King novel, but don't let that put you off. The Dead Zone, along with The Shining, is one of the very best examples of his numerous adaptations and is a fine exercise in supernatural suspense. The inventive plot sees a man haunted by images of future events, finely played by Christopher Walken in one of his least flamboyant performances. His hollow eyed, almost shell shocked interpretation strikes the mark perfectly and he is ably supported by Herbert Lom as a pragmatic doctor and holocaust survivor and Martin Sheen as an insidious senatorial candidate. The score also deserves a mention, providing exactly the right mix of the otherwordly and oppressive and the film as a whole is a perfectly engineered, tightly plotted and tautly paced chiller which still stands as one of Cronenberg's best.
