The Dead Zone Special Edition Blu Ray Review (Via Vision Entertainment)
The Dead Zone is a 1983 thriller film directed by David Cronenberg (The Fly, Scanners, Shivers, Videodrome, & Crash). It’s based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Stephen King (Castle Rock, Maximum Overdrive, Silver Bullet, Doctor Sleep, IT, Pet Sematary, The Outsider, & Creepshow). It was written by Jeffrey Boam (Lethal Weapon 1/2/3, The Lost Boys, The Phantom, & Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). It was produced by Dino De Laurentiis (Silver Bullet, Sometimes They Come Back, Firestarter, Cat’s Eye, Maximum Overdrive,& Army of Darkness) & Debra Hill (Halloween franchise, Escape from New York, The Fog, Adventures in Babysitting, & Escape from L.A.). The Sheriff Bannerman character also showed up in Cujo. The project was originally developed at Lorimar Film Entertainment. It was remade into a television series from 2002 to 2007. The budget was at an estimated $10 million & it grossed an estimated $20.8 million at the box office worldwide!!!!
In the town of Castle Rock, John Smith (played by: Christopher Walken from Batman Returns, The Deer Hunter, King of New York, & True Romance) is a schoolteacher that’s in love with his colleague Sarah Bracknell (played by: Brooke Adams from Shock Waves, The Unborn, Sometimes They Come Back, & Days of Heaven). After having a headache following a ride on a roller coaster, Johnny politely declines when Sarah asks if he wants to spend the night with her. As he drives home through stormy weather, he has a car accident that leaves him in a coma. He awakens under the care of neurologist Dr. Sam Weizak (played by: Herbert Lom from Pink Panther franchise, Ten Little Indians, Count Dracula, & Asylum). He finds that five years have passed & Sarah is now married with a child. Johnny soon discovers that he now has the psychic ability to learn aspects of a person’s life through physical contact with them. As he touches a nurse’s hand, he has a vision of her daughter trapped in a fire. He also sees that Weizak’s mother who was thought to have died during World War II is actually still alive & that a pushy reporter’s sister committed suicide. Johnny’s mother has a heart attack & dies after being visited by Johnny in the hospital. As news of his “gift” spreads, Johnny is asked by Sheriff George Bannerman (played by: Tom Skerritt from Alien, Top Gun, Poltergeist III, & Poison Ivy) for help with a series of murders. He sleeps with Sarah after reuniting with her. Having a change of heart about the murders, Johnny agrees to help Bannerman & through a vision at the crime scene he discovers it’s someone close to Bannerman’. Deputy Frank Dodd (played by: Nicholas Campbell from Naked Lunch, Cinderella Man, A Bridge Too Far, & The Omen) is trapped in the middle of it. A disillusioned Johnny now barely able to walk & moves away to attempt to live a more isolated life. He takes on tutoring jobs for children & working from home until a wealthy man named Roger Stuart (played by: Anthony Zerbe from American Hustle, The Matrix franchise, Licence to Kill, & See No Evil, Hear No Evil) implores him to come visit & tutor his son Chris (played by: Simon Craig from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues). They form a friendship, but Johnny soon receives a vision of Chris & two other boys falling through the ice of a local pond then drowning due to wearing heavy hockey equipment during a practice. Johnny attends a rally for Greg Stillson (played by: Martin Sheen from The Departed, Badlands, Firestarter, & Apocalypse Now), a superficially charismatic third-party candidate for the United States Senate. Johnny shakes Stillson’s hand & has a vision of him becoming president then ordering a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union that results in a nuclear holocaust. Johnny is forced with a hard decision but he must stop this evil man with power. What will he do? Can he change the future again????
The Dead Zone is one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made & it’s definitely the highest quality one produced by Dino De Laurentiis. David Cronenberg was a hired gun here & The Dead Zone is very different from all his other films. It doesn’t feel like it’s from him but that’s kinda what makes it so great because he stepped outside his comfort zone here & let Stephen King’s work show up on the screen. Plus it was one of the best casts he ever got to work with especially at the time. It plays out like an anthology film because Johnny has to deal with so many different people & situations in The Dead Zone. My favorite section was the Castle Rock killer, it kinda had a Psycho vibe to it with the son & the mother. The script has some changes from the original source material but it manages to stay pretty faithful to the book. This is one of my all time favorite Christopher Walken performances & I think the John Smith role had so much more potential for other films besides this one. Martin Sheen was pure evil in this & he was a great villain. You actually hated Greg Stillson when it was over. This had a great supporting cast that included Herbert Lom, Tom Skerritt, Anthony Zerbe, & Brooke Adams. Plus it had a few familiar faces & regulars from other Cronenberg projects. It’s a high quality thriller with some horror elements in it. It has aged better than most older King films to be honest so the replay value is very strong. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Via Vision Entertainment! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer has been digitally remastered but it appears to be an older one when everyone was first getting into the blu ray format. It’s definitely an upgrade over my older VHS & DVD copies but don’t expect reference quality with this release. It has a English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 which actually sounds way better than all the past home video releases & it’s a major improvement. All of the dialogue is crystal clear, all the chaos is elevated, & the music has a killer boost to it.This is worth upgrading from their previous blu ray release from 2015, it now has all the extras included on it!
Lets discuss the special features from Via Vision Entertainment! “Audio Commentary” with writer Stephen Jones & Film Critic Kim Newman. This was originally only on the U.K. DVD home video release & it hasn’t been used much at all so this was a nice addition. They chat about the changes from the book. They talk about original choices & other Stephen King productions from Dino De Laurentiis. They go over the cast & stories from The Dead Zone. They bring up David Cronenberg & his work plus regular actors that he used in this. Both are full of knowledge & they don’t hold back at all when it comes to this feature. “Memories from the Dead Zone” is a little over 12 minutes. It has interviews with director David Cronenberg, actress Brooke Adams, & others. Cronenberg chats about how he got the gig. He was hanging out with John Landis & he got introduced to producer Debra Hill. She offered him the film & he accepted it right away because he wanted to work on someone else’s material for once. He says they had 5 different scripts to choose from & he explains why he picked the one from Jeffrey Boam. It still felt like the book & original source material. He goes over the cast including using some of his favorites from his other films. Brooke Adams said it was the first Stephen King novel that she ever read & she loved the character. She brings up personally knowing Walken before he got big in acting. She was doing a play with him at the time & he actually got her the role for this. “Look of the Dead Zone” is a little over 9 minutes. It has interviews with director David Cronenberg & his DP Mark Irwin. They chat about the look of the film. They talk about the locations, costumes, production design, & tricks for the shoot. They go over using Canada to look like the United States in this. “Visions and Horror From The Dead Zone” is almost 10 minutes. It has interviews with director David Cronenberg & his DP Mark Irwin. They bring up some deleted scenes that were shot for The Dead Zone. They go over all the different visions & situations Johnny get into during the feature. They break down each segment. “The Politics of the Dead Zone” is a little over 11 minutes. It has interviews with director David Cronenberg, actors Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen, & others. They chat about the Greg Stillson character. They talk about the politics & outcome of it all. They bring up the music for it. They mention that it still holds up & gets praise after all these years. All of the bonus material is in standard definition & it’s from the collector’s edition that Paramount put out a long time ago. It also has a “Trailer” for the film. GOOD NEWS, this release is region free so anyone can play it. It’s also one of the rare releases that actually has the special features on it for the feature. It’s available at a variety locations overseas, CHECK IT OUT!!!!
I recall liking this movie but forgetting it was directed by Cronenberg!