Very Underrated

[BCush1]

In my opinion the first great theatrical film of King's work. Carrie was good, and i was never a big fan of the Shining. But the Dead Zone hit a home run. Christopher Walken was fantastic as John Smith. My only complaint was that it left out the whole wheel of fortune segment. But a great film nonetheless.

The movie often gets overlooked when listed the best adaptations of King's work.

[aptpupil]

Totally agree with you. Due to circumstances largely outwith my control, "The Dead Zone" was the first SK novel I ever read, and it's what effectively turned me on to the man himself.

The movie adapatation is also a fine piece of work. Given the right role, Christopher Walken is an awesome actor, IMO.

[walkingdude]

My favourite of all Stephen King movie adaptions and a film I never get tired of watching. Christopher Walken nails the part of John Smith and David Cronenberg gives the movie enough of his trademark weirdness without taking away too much from the story. One of my favourite SK books as well.

[Bryan James]

Needed more cowbell.

BJS

[Srbo]

I`ve just seen it for the first time tonighte.

Awesome movie, Cronenberg as the director, Walken as the lead - what can go wrong there ?

The movie was done in 1983, but it`s still far better than a lot of todays` Hollywood movies.

Great flick!

[Checkman]

I agree. It's one of the King adaptations that has gone unseen by too many. In contrast to Kubrick's version of The Shining I think Cronenberg was more faithful to the spirit of King's novel.

[Agincourt Concierge]

Many people do not like this movie.....I do.... really.... I like Christopher Walken anyway..
he's so bizarre....

[Theregulator]

I have seen it so many times I know the script. Christopher Walken melts me.

[mousenmile]

I also loved the book, and the Movie, The Dead Zone. Walken was fabulous. I too dont understand how it is not more popular. It was a compeling story.

[pixiedark]

I also think that The Dead Zone tv show was way underrated. I think it should have been on a major network like NBC. (The Dead Zone was certainly way better than any of the garbage they usually have on!) I can't believe that it got canceled after just 6 seasons! :down:

[JRLauer]

Needed more cowbell.

BJS

:rofl:

That was funny.

[Cruze]

In my opinion the first great theatrical film of King's work. Carrie was good, and i was never a big fan of the Shining. But the Dead Zone hit a home run. Christopher Walken was fantastic as John Smith. My only complaint was that it left out the whole wheel of fortune segment. But a great film nonetheless.

The movie often gets overlooked when listed the best adaptations of King's work.

Totally agree!
Loved this one!

[luckygehrig]

I actually liked the book much better than this movie. I thought it could have been much better if they had followed the book more closely. Why do directors feel the need to butcher Stephen King's stories when they make them into movies? They're popular as books for a reason. Many of the changes in this movie seemed completely unnecessary. I will give Walken credit though, he made a great Johnny Smith.

[Space Hitler]

It took me YEARS to re-appreciate this movie. When I first saw it I was amazed, but then a week later got a job at a movie theater where it was playing and saw the first ten minutes and last ten minutes so often that I was turned off to the film until....I want to say two years ago when I got it on DVD.



Still cannot watch Footloose for this reason.

[Denise Marsden]

It must be so difficult to recreate SKs books on film, the stories have a magic all their own and often find their home within each individual imagination.Casting can be difficult for the same reasons but I thought Christopher Walken brought something to the roll that added to the story in a positive way, even though he was not my imagined Johnny Smith.

[Adrian]

Whats cowbell about????
I forgott...

[foehn]

I read the posts on the “underrated” thread.

"The Dead Zone" is very, very underrated

I too feel that “The Dead Zone” movie is one of the best, if not the best adaptations of Mr. King’s works. It is true to the book and everything and everyone fit in this movie.

Further it completely captures the tone of the book: a Cassandra-ish feeling of doom. Johnny knows what is to happen, but would anyone believe him?—No. He knows he will be doomed to regretting any inaction he may take (and thus bringing on horrendous war) or he must take action, sacrificing himself and his life to the prevention of the future that he knows is certainly assured if he should not act. Talk about “damned if you do and damned if you don’t!”

This theme was also explored in another favorite book of mine: “Dune,” by Frank Herbert. In “Dune” Paul Atriedes, an un-planned for and unexpected messiah of sorts is fated to leading a holy war across the universe, whether or not he likes it. Short of killing himself very early on, no matter what he does will lead to a holy war, the war is a given. BUT, Paul does have a choice: to try to stay alive at the head of the holy warriors and thus be able to mitigate some of the war’s atrocities or he can be dead martyr to the Holy War, and thus the cause of every sort of possible atrocity in his name.

Both of the above books have movie versions, but I feel the best is “The Dead Zone.”

[AlexTuis]

Chris Walken was brillant, and he was so special with his androgyn look.

I think the lack of effects was one of the best thing for this movie.

[mr.jingles120]

the dead zone was my first book also =)

"the green mile" my second

[Trueivy]

I agree as far as the movie it was extremely underrated. What I love about the series is that it resurrected the careers of one of my my favoriite actors when I was a kid, Anthony Michael Hall. And as far as the movie WOW! It was the first Christopher Walken movie I ever saw and he's been my favorite actor ever since. I prefer the movie because it went for the tragic ending.

[armadillo]

I agree. I loved the book and the movie.

[foehn]

. . . My only complaint was that it left out the whole wheel of fortune segment. But a great film nonetheless.

The movie often gets overlooked when listed the best adaptations of King's work.

Yeah, they did leave that out, but the way the rest of the movie was written and made, everything worked for me, everything fit right for me.

Walken brought just the right kind of sympathy to the role to make me feel and think about what this guy must be acting on and feeling. I like this movie, and it is often overlooked as you said.

[whispermare]

I finished the book yesterday and loved it. I saw i can see it for free at imdb.com so ill check it out there. And if i like ill buy it. Which I probably will anyway since I have a sk movie section next to the books.

[TJLamb0518]

I havc a different view of the film than most for ....well, different reasons. I was working in a movie theater when this film came out and saw the first 10 minutes and the last ten minutes FAR too often. It doesn't matter what film it was, if it had a long run in the theater I was working in.....I got a little sick of it.


Don't even ask me about Footloose or Risky Business.

[shipoffools]

I disagree with Carrie (love that movie!), but The Dead Zone ranks up there with some of the best Stephen King adaptions. Christopher Walken was perfect to play Johnny, since he's eccentric enough as an actor to make the character believable. And while there were changes (and it could have been better with a bigger budget), I thought that the movie transferred well to screen.

I pull this movie out every now and then and watch it. It not only ranks as one of my favorite SK adaptions, it's also one of my favorite movies of all time.

[helenk579]

I agree. It's one of the King adaptations that has gone unseen by too many. In contrast to Kubrick's version of The Shining I think Cronenberg was more faithful to the spirit of King's novel.

I also think so.

[lisakmusco]

Whats cowbell about????
I forgott...

It's a reference to a very funny Christopher Walken SNL skit.

[JSP552003]

Wow. I was actually shocked to see all the great reviews of this movie. maybe its just me, and thats very likely ha, but I really had a hard time getting through it. I just finished reading 'The Dead Zone' last week and LOVED it. Really great book and after I saw there was a movie I decided to check it out as well. I was extremely dissappointed. I mean yes they touched on some major points but to me they missed the spirit of the characters (Johnny, Sarah, Greg Stillson, Frank Dodd, Vera Smith, and the list goes on). I understand that with a book-to-movie adaptation some changes have to be made but to me they really dropped the ball with this one. And I don't say this to knock anyone's opinion. I'm sure there are movies I like that people would rip to pieces and thats not what I'm trying to do here. I just really loved the book and thought this could have been a great movie. hopefully they'll try again one day...

[Anna Rose]

i just finished The Dead Zone last night! it was amazing and i would recommend it to any of my friends. but i haven't seen the movie or show or whatever...

[Seb Shaw]

Wow. I was actually shocked to see all the great reviews of this movie. maybe its just me, and thats very likely ha, but I really had a hard time getting through it. I just finished reading 'The Dead Zone' last week and LOVED it. Really great book and after I saw there was a movie I decided to check it out as well. I was extremely dissappointed. I mean yes they touched on some major points but to me they missed the spirit of the characters (Johnny, Sarah, Greg Stillson, Frank Dodd, Vera Smith, and the list goes on). I understand that with a book-to-movie adaptation some changes have to be made but to me they really dropped the ball with this one. And I don't say this to knock anyone's opinion. I'm sure there are movies I like that people would rip to pieces and thats not what I'm trying to do here. I just really loved the book and thought this could have been a great movie. hopefully they'll try again one day...

honestly... I couldn't agree more.

Now don;t get me wrong the book was great, one of the best, so my high expectations may have ruined he movie for me in some ways.

If it had a bigger budget I'm sure they could have been even more faithful to the book... E.G. the fire scene which is in the book is replaced by a hockey on ice scene... talk about complete opposite haha

Christopher Walkin's acting was great but I didn't see him as a Jonny tbh... however the Jonny from The Dead Zone TV show was on the button.

I know when doing an adaptation for a film audience things need to be changed, but it just didn't sit quite right (like Greg Stillson's hat) with me.

The actor who played Greg Stillson though was in my opinion, great!

[lovely1]

Thumbs up to both the book, the movie and the tv series.

[Seb Shaw]

On second viewing of the of the film, It is in fact VERY underated :)
A real classic :)

[btobey]

I know this is an old thread, but The Dead Zone is one of my favorite King books, and I loved the movie as well--Walken was perfect!

[lovely1]

The Dead Zone movie:y:

[fushingfeef]

Just re-watched this for the first time in many years. It was even better than I remember it. It's amazing how much of the story they kept, what with all the various subplots going on.

[Smush]

I wholeheartedly agree - THE DEAD ZONE movie is underrated. Christopher Walken is superb. I was eurphoric when it came out on DVD. Also, I liked THE SHINING (with Jack Nicholson) before I read the book. Now I feel they should never have included "...based on the novel by Stephen King..." in the credits. Rather it should have said, "...VERY, VERY LOOSELY based on the premise in the novel by Stephen King..." IMHO, the made-for-TV miniseries was fairly true to the novel, but with some liberties, and even more creepy than the earlier film version. Leaving out the topiary animals?! Blasphemy!

[tmac61]

This is one of my favorite SK books. I think the movie is a lot better than some of the adaptations ofthe masters work, with a excellent job in casting the characters.

[guido tkp]

great movie...along with 'misery' and 'stand by me', gets my vote for among the very best adaptions

cronenberg caught the mood of the story very well, i thought

[patticake]

The Dead Zone is my favorite, but I thought Carrie was amazing. The choice of actors was perfect = they did a great job. I've never been able to bring myself to watch the Shininhg. Recently, I watched the Running Man movie. Though it was nothing like the book, Arnold Schwarzeneger looked spectacular in spandex, and great special effects. Nut the book was so great. They should remake the movie. I liked how the man cared about his wife and sick child and how all these interesting characters helped him along his way. I seriously could not put the book down and it was such a surprise to discover a Stephen King novel written under a different name! The Dead Zone is my all time favorite.