Movie Appraisal: The Dead Zone (1983)

The ICE... is gonna BREAK!

A "horror thriller film," eh? This is where I'm supposed to roll my eyes and wonder how people put movies into genres in the first place. Calling a movie a horror thriller is like calling it a thrilling suspense. It's absolutely redundant. The "horror thriller" line is from Wikipedia. Just ignore that website when it comes to most of these movies. It's a terrible website to get information from in the case of 90% of the stuff I review.

Anyway, this is a "horror" movie by absolute technicality. The director, David Cronenburg, does an absolutely fantastic job of capturing the horror of a terrible curse... or a wonderful gift... whichever you'd like to take it as. It's not precisely a horror film in the classic sense. It's never scary, never terrifying, never really all that horrific. The terror comes from what Johnny sees, and what he goes through in the course of the story. The original novel, also billed as horror, is much of the same way. There is no true horror. The realism is always there, but it is realism with a twist of the supernatural. This film is also a great adaptation of the novel, something I rarely have the chance to say.

The Dead Zone is mostly a collection of vignettes told in a rough story arc. Johnny Smith, played by Christopher Walken, gets into an accident, loses five years of his life to a coma, loses the love of his life, and loses most of his reason for living. He keeps pushing on, but as half a man, one lose to time as much as he is lost to life itself. The story very much pushes the fact that he really dies when he gets into the accident. Sure, five years later he goes on living, but it is no longer him, but a man given a gift, who is eventually told to give his life for the gift anyway.

This movie is not as fun as Graveyard Shift instead relying on serious performances rather than over-the-top ones, and sad moments rather than great lines. I don't know if this is the best adaptation of a Stephen King novel to screen, but it is damn well one of the best. The serious tone mixed with great performances by almost everybody in the film brings this movie to the forefront as a brilliant one from beginning to end. That being said, it's not precisely a horror film in execution, but rather a horror film by premise... if that makes any sense. It probably doesn't. My point is that this won't keep you up nights afraid... but it will make you wonder what you might do if you were given the "gift."

David Cronenburg is at the height of his game here. Coming in the midst of some of his greatest films of all time, and directly after Videodrome, this movie, while a more more "normal" film, does exactly what it needs to do, being both a fantastic and beautiful film as well as a depressing story of a man with a terrible gift. The little stories, all taken from the novel, are incredibly well done and well paced, with the beginning of the movie being nearly heartbreaking. Christopher Walken's performance is easily the best performance I've ever seen by him, and easily one of the most emotionally investing performances I've seen in a long time. Watching the struggle of a man trying to heal his shattered body, then trying to heal his shattered mind is both upsetting and heart-wrenching  Watching as he decides to give up his own life to the greater good is damn near hard to watch. This is a man who could do a lot of good for the world, and he does, but nobody will ever know but him.

Strangely, despite being both a huge fan of David Cronenburg and of Stephen King movie adaptations, I have never seen this movie, although I have owned it for years without watching it. I should have watched it long before now. It was a wonderful experience, and while not precisely the classic horror movie, it really does bring about a melancholic feel to me in late October, a feeling I kind of like this time of year. The Dead Zone, strangely, was one of the last non-recent Stephen King novels I read as well. Not sure why I waited so long for either, but I'm glad I finally read/watched the story unfold. It was really worth it to experience.

I don't have much else but praise for the movie. Sean Sullivan plays the perfect father to Walken's Johnny. I saw that exact man when I read the novel originally, and I felt he was perfectly cast to the role. Walken, although not precisely what I expected for Johnny, worked well here. I had kind of expected a younger man to play the role, but by the end, he really worked for me. He worked especially well after the accident. You really start to feel for him. He is a broken man, and a man who you could easily feel pity for... and so much remorse as well. He's nearly dead... maybe even should be dead, but he isn't. He keeps on living through the pain, through the problems, through losing the love of his life. He loses almost everything but keeps carrying on until he has no choice anymore but to do what needs to be done. And he is easily the most likable man in history. I was endeared to him in good-bye scene to Sarah after the carnival. He walks her to her door, she asks him inside. It starts to rain. And he says no. "Some things are worth the wait." I can't help but like him after that. And when he finally does get passionate when people might die, it's almost heart-wrenching  There are times you want to punch the people who won't listen to him in their faces. Walken and Johnny are really the centerpieces of the movie and they both pull off their jobs amazingly, with Walken acting brilliantly and Johnny being one of the best characters in a movie I have ever seen.

Saying that... Brooke Adams, playing Sarah Bracknell also worked decently, although I never really saw the chemistry between her and Walken, not as much as I thought I should see. Then again, I've never really liked her character, even if I understand her decision to marry someone else; it's still a cruddy decision for her to make. Martin Sheen plays a role he was basically meant for, a corrupt and overbearing politician, Greg Stillson, who has hopes for the White House... and even more hopes to basically destroy the damned world. He works well here, both sleazy and charismatic enough to pull off this political powerhouse of a man.

While some of the scenes happen fast and others take a long time to get anywhere at all, I do believe the movie is well-paced. I don't think a knowledge of the novel itself is needed when seeing the movie either, although in my case I definitely appreciated the background the novel provided. I do somewhat wish the movie had been slightly more fleshed out, with a little bit more added into it, maybe a little bit more establishing or something, but that is a very weak complaint, and really only says that I only truly wished for more. I guess that's why a television series of The Dead Zone existed.

I guess all I can say is that I just reviewed two excellent Stephen King movies in a row, both of which I recommend heartily despite both being completely different types of movies. While this is serious and more thrilling and suspenseful than horrific, it does have its moments. It's a good watch and probably one of the absolute best quality movies I've reviewed this October at least. Give it a watch if you haven't. It's definitely worth your time.

Movie Appraisal: The Keep (1983)

I'm going to dig into The Keep directed by Michael Mann and largely forgotten by everybody else. This movie has the distinction of having Nazi zombies in it, which I have to say makes this movie pretty damn awesome.

Now, this movie has a bit of a soft place in my heart. I'm not really certain why. It's a bad movie. I just want to get that out of the way. The pacing is bad. The plot is confusing and hard to follow, and the characters are muddled and poorly written, but I still like this film for some reason.

I think part of the reason I like this film is because of a young Ian McKellan (or at lest younger than very old) as Dr. Theodore Cuza, a professor of Jewish history, to come to a particular keep in Romania so that he can decipher some strange symbols inside the keep. Dr. Cuza, as you might guess, also happens to be Jewish... and the main characters of this movie are Nazis... during World War II. So, this movie already has a message of one sort or another before too long in. Watching the Nazis one by one be taken down by some unseen force is nice in a way, but it also invokes a certain sympathy even for those darn Nazis. They're terrified to stay in the keep, but they're under orders to stay there anyway.

One of the reasons I really do like this movie is because of the story showing that not all Nazis agree with the death camps and the extermination of all lesser races. The primary protagonist for much of the film, Captain Klaus Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow), is actually against a lot of the Nazi policies and is actually not a Nazi himself. He fights for Germany to be stronger and recover, not for philosophical and terrible goals. And I like that. I like seeing that even though this man fights alongside Nazis, he finds the way they think and do things abhorrent. Of particular interest throughout the film are the fights between Woermann and Sicherheitsdienst Officer Sturmbannführer Eric Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne), who is a member of the SS. They frequently argue about everything from leadership to what to do next to combat the force killing off the Nazis.

The movie is interesting in that the primary protagonist, Glaeken Trismegestus (Scott Glenn), is not really introduced until fairly late in the film, and the same is true for the primary antagonist, who is seen in a cloudy form, and reminds me very strongly of Sauron in the prologue to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

So, getting into the story a little more, the professor, helping the Nazis decipher the strange symbols and lettering, brings along his daughter Eva (Alberta Watson) with him. Dr. Cuza has a terribly debilitating case of scleroderma, and he feels that his daughter can help him with simpler tasks. Soon after they come, Eva finds herself in the midst of two Einsatzkommandos and is sexually assaulted by them before being helped by Molasar, who is very clearly not a good guy. What Molasar wants is for Dr. Cuza to help him escape the keep, and Molasar is willing to do anything for that help, including healing the professor of his debilitating disease.

Glaeken soon comes to the small Romanian village which is at the edge of the keep, since he somehow knew that there was going to be trouble because of some kind of psychic link between himself and Molasar. He meets and starts having a relationship with Eva while Dr. Cuza really just wants him gone so he can repay Molasar by setting him free.

The end of this film is trippy and weird, involving a fight sequence between Molasar and Glaeken, with Nazi zombies, Dr. Cuza going a little insane, Eva trying to help,but failing miserably and everything looking like it could be lost. Glaeken does eventually prevail and defeat the evil Molasar, who is likened in the film to Dracula, but at what cost? Glaeken falls for a long time, and eventually awakens seeing his reflection in a puddle. Throughout the film, he has been certain that he will die when he confronts Molasar, which is strange for him because he is very old. He is technically an immortal linked to Molasar, and he figured since there is that link he would die if Molasar did. Well, he survived and Eva comes to him in the end and they very obviously live happily ever after.

Now, what can I say other than that? I actually read the book by F. Paul Wilson of this a while after I originally saw the movie, and I have to say that maybe the book adds a little more sense to this movie, but that's not saying much. I liked the movie more, possibly because of the visuals. So, in fact, I've done two reviews back-to-back, praising the movies of certain stories and saying that the stories themselves aren't as good. And I'll stick by that.

Also, I know that a lot is mentioned of the soundtrack of this film being by Tangerine Dream and therefore excellent, and I have to agree. The music is fitting for the movie and works really well.

Now, for any of you out there who would like to watch this movie, good luck with that. This movie is hard to find. There is no DVD and the VHS is hard to find from what I've seen, but if you do happen to find it and watch it I guarantee it will be worth it despite Michael Mann and F. Paul Wilson taking an extreme dislike to this movie. I liked it, and maybe you will too.