40 Years Later, Stephen King's Most Ominous Thriller With Severance Star Is Streaming for Free
This underrated adaptation deserves much more attention than it has received.
Stephen King has long been a household name on the big and small screens around the world. In total, more than two hundred films and shows of varying quality have been released based on King's novels.
Many of them have long since become cinematic classics: The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Misery. With such intense competition, it is no wonder that many adaptations have been forgotten.
Christopher Walken Played the Main Role in The Dead Zone
With the phenomenal popularity of Severance, it is time to remember the underrated thriller starring Christopher Walken, who played Burt in the Ben Stiller series.
We're talking about one of David Cronenberg's most underrated films, and one of King's most underrated adaptations – The Dead Zone.
What Is The Dead Zone About?
This is the story of an ordinary man with an ordinary name, Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken), who is suddenly given a superpower – by touching people, he can now see their future.
Johnny tries to use his gift for good, but one day he accidentally meets Senator Greg Stillson. He sees that Greg will become President of the US in the future and destroy the whole world. This means that if Johnny does not stop him, all other good deeds have no meaning.
The Dead Zone Is a Perfect Example of David Cronenberg's Signature Style
The Dead Zone is perhaps the most melancholic adaptation in King's filmography. David Cronenberg has made an unusual movie for him, in which there is practically no physicality, but there is a sense of terrifying and persistent fate.
The Kind adaptation was released right after Videodrome, Cronenberg's breakthrough film that opened the door to Hollywood. It's clear that even then, the director was less interested in the physical transformations of characters that made him famous than in psychological metamorphoses.
In The Dead Zone, he convincingly reveals a conflict that has preoccupied science fiction writers for many years, especially the great Philip K. Dick: if we know that a person will commit a crime in the future, can we punish him now?
The Dead Zone Is a Unique Collaboration Between Three Horror Masters
In The Dead Zone, the paths of a rising star of literary horror, a future famous performer of villainous roles, and a visionary director whose films will soon be called cult cross.
And it is in this project that each of the three breaks stereotypes. King, almost for the first time since the beginning of his literary career, changes the genre of mystical horror and writes a science fiction novel with a political message.
Christopher Walken, which is rare for this actor, creates the image of a truly positive character.
As for Cronenberg, he dispenses with audiovisual and other cinematic delights: there is a simple image, a calm soundtrack and a clear plot, even more straightforward than in the original.
The Dead Zone Has Found a New Streaming Home
The Dead Zone is now available to watch for free – it dropped on Pluto TV on February 4th.