The Dead Zone
Today's horror (which wasn't really horror) was David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone. Now I walked into this movie figuring, hey, it's Stephen King. It's Cronenberg. The Dead Zone sounds pretty horror-y, right? I mean, "dead" is even in the title, right? Well, I stand corrected. While The Dead Zone isn't exactly horror, it's got some horror elements and is definitely a different Cronenberg movie.
I have made no secret of my love for David Cronenberg. From Videodrome to The Fly to The Brood, I've spent a lot of time on the man across my horror binges. Cronenberg has his own vision of horror, a vision where the body rebels against us, where technology runs rampant and rules us. I love it. Cronenberg is one of a kind, and a horror genius at that.
That's what makes The Dead Zone such a different movie for Cronenberg. For one, he's adapting someone else's work; for someone with such a singular vision, it's not only surprising but also risky. Second, The Dead Zone, at least on the surface, doesn't have any of the elements of Cronenberg's usual output. There's no body dysmorphia, no rebelling technology, etc. It's kind of, again on the surface, a typical thriller movie. It's when you delve deeper that you see Cronenberg's fingerprints and why this movie attracted him in the first place.
The Dead Zone centers around a man (Christopher Walken) who wakes from a five year coma after a car accident. After reeling from finding out that his girlfriend has gotten married and had a child while he was in the coma, he finds out that he was awoken with a new gift: visions of the future, past, and present when he touches people. The movie follows his travails in coming to grips with his new abilities and the ramifications that come from them.
This is actually an absurdly accurate meme for this movie.
The Dead Zone is, in typical Cronenberg fashion, incredibly well made. Maybe this is why he was the perfect pick: a movie that in the hands of a lesser director would have just been run-of-the-mill and average. Despite seeming to be out of his norm, upon closer inspection The Dead Zone actually reveals itself to have some of Cronenberg's tropes: Walken's body, his mind, is actually out of his control. He is saddled with this power, a power beyond his control. That's pretty classic Cronenberg.
I have made no secret of my love for David Cronenberg. From Videodrome to The Fly to The Brood, I've spent a lot of time on the man across my horror binges. Cronenberg has his own vision of horror, a vision where the body rebels against us, where technology runs rampant and rules us. I love it. Cronenberg is one of a kind, and a horror genius at that.
That's what makes The Dead Zone such a different movie for Cronenberg. For one, he's adapting someone else's work; for someone with such a singular vision, it's not only surprising but also risky. Second, The Dead Zone, at least on the surface, doesn't have any of the elements of Cronenberg's usual output. There's no body dysmorphia, no rebelling technology, etc. It's kind of, again on the surface, a typical thriller movie. It's when you delve deeper that you see Cronenberg's fingerprints and why this movie attracted him in the first place.
The Dead Zone centers around a man (Christopher Walken) who wakes from a five year coma after a car accident. After reeling from finding out that his girlfriend has gotten married and had a child while he was in the coma, he finds out that he was awoken with a new gift: visions of the future, past, and present when he touches people. The movie follows his travails in coming to grips with his new abilities and the ramifications that come from them.
The Dead Zone is, in typical Cronenberg fashion, incredibly well made. Maybe this is why he was the perfect pick: a movie that in the hands of a lesser director would have just been run-of-the-mill and average. Despite seeming to be out of his norm, upon closer inspection The Dead Zone actually reveals itself to have some of Cronenberg's tropes: Walken's body, his mind, is actually out of his control. He is saddled with this power, a power beyond his control. That's pretty classic Cronenberg.
9/10
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