Hooptober Neun (2022) - Film #25
5 Films from David Cronenberg, Ti West, Bill Rebane, Charles B. Pierce, William Grefe and/or Joy N. Houck Jr. (David Cronenberg)

Throughout this Hooptober, I’ve been watching a lot of Cronenberg, who definitely now sits in my pantheon of favorite directors. I’ve also been watching a lot of Stephen King material. I sat through the 2002 made-for-TV adaptation of Carrie, I marvelled at the weirdness of The Lawnmower Man (even if King disowned it), and having thoroughly enjoyed Christine (by another favorite, John Carpenter), I was looking forward to another 1983 King adaptation. Unfortunately, when I fired up the DVD, I realised it was a pretty poor print, but still; this was King, directed by Cronenberg, featuring Christopher Walken. I knew I had to soldier on.

I found the concept to be relatively straightforward - man sees visions of future tragedies. Perhaps my view is skewed a little by the fact that I recently watched both Phantasm II and Final Destination, and in both of those films, a character is able to see such events. So, as the concept is unremarkable, other elements needed to lift it up.

Christopher Walken is the main one of these elements. Walken is one of those actors that I always find engrossing, and there’s no exception here. There’s a scene about a third of the way through where Walken interacts with a journalist. It’s a small scene, throwaway almost, but it’s a great indicator of the intensity that Walken can generate. That’s not to say the rest of the acting here is poor. Martin Sheen shines as a megalomaniacal motormouth politician, and some of the smaller roles feature great performances too - I liked Herbert Lom’s doctor, and Sean Sullivan gave out some great old man dad energy. On a side note, having just watched The Brood, it was nice to see the kid from that picture in a less tragic role, albeit far smaller, role.

There’s some nice detail in the writing. The film explores the implications of having such a power well, the thin line between blessing and curse, the skeptics, the people that want to take advantage and the decisions that one must make. The story has a strange structure, almost like a variety of short stories, strung together by Walken’s character and the overarching theme. This has an impact on the tension that can be built at the end - the main concluding thread isn’t really introduced until at least an hour in, so there’s not long to build the characters involved.

There’s no particular problem with the direction here, but I felt that the director could have been any number of people - there aren’t many distinctly Cronenbergian touches. It’s all pretty straightforward stuff, definitely a tame picture in the context of Cronenberg’s oeuvre. I guess that’s the problem when you have such a distinctive style - when you play it a little more plain, it’s all the more noticeable. Tame doesn’t mean it’s all bad though, and there’s a lot of great nuance in The Dead Zone, even though there are times at which the movie drags a little, feeling longer than it’s hundred minute runtime. That’s down to the type of movie that this is, but I felt there must have been ways to amp up the excitement here.

Overall, the movie is filled with sadness and tragedy. It’s a thoughtful film, and a solid piece of work, but at times I found it more demanding of my respect than my engagement.