The Dead Zone

I didn’t like this one as much as I was hoping. I’ve been on a major Cronenberg kick recently and likely got my expectations too high for this. Not for lack of trying, but I have never been a super big fan of Stephen King, so that could certainly be a factor in my slight disappointment. I also have not read the source material, so I also cannot tell if it is to blame for the movie’s bizarre pacing. I know that not every film by the same director is going to act or feel the same as the others, but I really missed that typical sense of dread, disgust, and tension that I’ve come to love from Cronenberg.  The best sections of this movie are the brief moments where these can still be felt— Johnny’s first vision, Stillson’s future (both instances), the scissors part…. There is a lurking menace to this movie, especially in the final third.  The worst can be overly sentimental, jarring in tone, or, most often, feeling like filler. I really feel like there is a huge amount of fat that could be trimmed from the first hour, particularly the incredibly long sections of mundane padding between the more exciting instances of Johnny using his abilities.  What’s disappointing is that even with David Cronenberg, Christopher Walken, and Stephen King as director, lead actor, and writer, the movie still feels kinda “eh,” especially considering what likely could have been if any one of the three had just gone for it a little bit more.  TLDR- extremely good not great.