THE DEAD ZONE

After five years of deep coma, Johnny wakes up and finds his life turned upside down: his girlfriend has married another man, his friends have disappeared, and even his job as a teacher is lost. The coma, however, gave him the power to predict part of the future, and thanks to this gift Johnny will succeed in saving humanity. Directed by the always great David Cronenberg and starring the equally stunning Christopher Walken, "The Dead Zone" is one of the most effective Stephen King adaptations ever made. All of the Canadian director's films are linked by the common theme of the mutation of the human body (and also its fusion with other elements), and this film is no exception. The protagonist's body undergoes a very strong mutation thanks to the precognitive abilities acquired after the accident, but we are dealing with an "invisible" mutation to the eye. Cronenberg then shows us the visions that occur through physical contact, thanks to Johnny's hands, with which the protagonist merges with what he is touching (and here is the theme of fusion). The film offers good moments of suspense, but no purely "horrific" sequence, for once Cronenberg sets aside his taste for the "strong" image, for the "overflowing" makeup, limiting himself to spilling a few drops of blood. Curiosity: in one of the first sequences of the film we witness one of the protagonist's visions that project him into the center of a room on fire; this is the room of the daughter of a nurse with whom he has just had a simple physical contact. In this sequence we see an E.T. doll on a shelf. Cronenberg was forced to reshoot the scene without the doll because Universal Pictures threatened to sue him!