Dead Zone (1983)

Dead Zone (1983)

An American fantasy/horror film by David Cronenberg. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by the ultra-avant-garde writer Stephen King, published in 1979.

I watched this film over the Easter holidays, even though the story is set around Christmas!

Someone had written: “And the book is much better. The best adaptation is still The Shining!” If books are often better, it’s simply because what appeals to our imagination is richer than what we’re forced to see. And books are often full of details that are impossible to convey on screen. As for The Shining, that’s not Stephen King’s view… he’d asked to remake it. As a result, the new TV film… wasn’t a success. People preferred Stanley Kubrick’s version.

David Cronenberg & Stephen King – that could only result in a very good film. A real dream team! Frank Darabont also produced three masterpieces by adapting The Mist (2007), The Shawshank Redemption (1995) and The Green Mile (1999).

The exceptional actor Christopher Walken is once again excellent. He steals the show in this flawless production. Apparently, in the original version, he speaks a bit like a thug who loves rap… but in French, we don’t have that problem. I discovered this actor very late. That is to say, nine years after this film, in Batman Returns (1992). But I’ve certainly made up for it since.

He plays a character who leads a balanced life, who doesn’t want to cause trouble, who is in love and who has a job he loves. And as always in these stories, something goes wrong. In this case, it’s a road accident.

We had to wait over an hour before Martin Sheen finally turned up! Yet, for a moment, I had the impression he was the driver of the lorry that caused the crash right at the start! Pure hypocritical horror. This story predicted Trump’s arrival forty-six years before his second term. But that criminal imbecile won’t even recognise himself in it. That’s the very nature of the narcissistic psychopathic pervert. So, yes, the film depicted the current horror some forty years before it happened.

Yet Stephen King has said that no character he has created is as horrible and terrifying as the Orange Beast currently dominating America. We are in 2026, as it happens, as I write these lines.

The most important female character is played by Brooke Adams. A likeable character, yet naive enough to become a formidable enemy without even realising it. We probably all have friends who suddenly hold political views that are very or too opposed to our own. Is it possible to remain friends with them? To still love them? And what if they are members of our families? I don’t have the answer yet…

It’s hard to rate this feature film as anything less than a masterpiece. From the story and direction to the incredible foreshadowing, the talent of the cast and the superb production. It’s an extremely violent story, though there are no endless murders or non-stop gore. Certain characters and their beliefs are enough to give you cold sweats and nightmares.

When I think he wrote The Long Walk in 1979 and Misery in 1987! Not to mention Charlie (Firestarter), Cujo and Christine in 1980, 1981 and 1983 respectively. Even a whole lifetime isn’t long enough to read all his works, unless that’s all you do!

I found a rather nice negative review. I appreciate the fact that the reviewer is questioning themselves: ‘I must have missed the point… Whose fault is it? The book’s, perhaps, which I thought was excellent; I was surely expecting just as much from the film, and Bam! Nothing… Too slow, too verbose on what seemed to me to be just a detail in the book, and yet at times too elliptical; but the problem must surely lie with me. A shame.”

I love cinema, I’m sometimes a rather indulgent viewer, and what a pleasure it was to discover this cinematic gem. Such quality from start to finish—whether in what is said, what is seen, the subtext, or the diversity of perspectives—I was impressed throughout.

A cult film that hasn’t really aged at all! Once again, Cronenberg explores his signature themes: the transformation within a man that inexorably drives him towards death, coupled with an impossible love. A film that’s clearly underrated.