DVD Reviews

The Dead Zone: Special Edition

Another tale from the mind of Stephen King gets the DVD upgrade treatment in the form of The Dead Zone, a suspense-thriller tale involving Johnny Smith, a teacher who awakens from a coma, only to find himself gifted with powerful psychic abilities.  After using the gift to assist the law, Johnny comes across a corrupt politician that he envisions will be responsible for a worldwide massacre.  Unlike King’s usual tales of horror, The Dead Zone is more a dramatic offering, with some touches of romanticism, along with political satire.  It was a story that attracted a number of high-profile actors including Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter), Tom Skerritt (Alien), Anthony Zerbe (The Matrix Reloaded), and Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now) when the production rights came to the late Debra Hill (Halloween), and a certain psychological filmmaker was attached as the director.

Even though the front cover says “Stephen King’s The Dead Zone”, and granted, he is the author of the novel the film is based on, this new DVD upgrade should really be titled “David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone”.  There are a couple reasons for this.  First, the 1983 version featured here is a pure David Cronenberg (The Fly, A History Of Violence) film because of its tone, and its style.  There are certain things Cronenberg intentionally changed from the book to mold the story to match his tastes (among them, the detail that Johnny should be directly present in his visions, a tactic further utilized and enhanced in the current hit spin-off TV show starring The Breakfast Club’s Anthony Michael Hall).

The next reason is that King’s presence or input on this DVD is absolutely zero, and Cronenberg is front-and-center in every special feature (there is no commentary track, but it’s not needed as Cronenberg covers almost all angles in the four featurettes).  It’s fun to hear about how the film was shot in Niagara-On-The-Lake, and how there are several Canadian cast-members that Cronenberg likes to use in his movies.  Although there are no interviews with Christopher Walken about playing Johnny Smith, there are old clips from Martin Sheen in “The Politics Of The Dead Zone” that discuss the political angle the film has, and his character of power-hungry Greg Stillson.

Unlike the recent DVD upgrade of Pet Sematary, the sound and image for The Dead Zone does not appear to be improved in any way from its original DVD release.  Both are decent enough for viewing purposes, but there’s nothing terribly intricate to report.  The special features are a nice addition to enhance the package, and running about 10 minutes in length per feature gives enough scope on the flick to make you feel you got your money’s worth out of it.

As a DVD upgrade, this new addition of The Dead Zone is not too shabby.  The film definitely honors the original material while making significant minor changes that further enhanced its quality.  Normally, I’m not a Cronenberg fan, but I will go on record in saying he made an admirable film in comparison to the novel.  In “The Look Of The Dead Zone” he quotes “To honor the book, you must betray the book”, and in some strange way he was right, because it worked.

 Review By Ryan Young