Review of The Dead Zone (1983) by Zach T — 23 Sep 2014

The Dead Zone has a nice premise. I like the idea of a psychic who can use his powers to save lives, and catch criminals. I also think it's interesting that he has been in a coma for years and has to deal with a woman he loves being lost to him because she didn't wait for him to wake up. In fact there were loads of interesting plot devices in this film that I was very excited to see. I even got pumped up about Christopher Walken starring in the movie, because he's always fun to watch (although I prefer a more over-the-top passionate performance from him rather than this more subdued and quiet character he plays.).

The big glaring problem with The Dead Zone is that it looks and feels like a made-for-TV movie, or even a TV miniseries. I understand that a TV series was indeed spun off of this story, and I can see why the creators saw that potential. The sets all feel small, and outdoor scenes appear to be filmed on some small studio backlot. Even the story is kind of episodic instead of fitting together as one coherent whole. In this episode he helps the doctor find his lost mother, in the next episode we find he saves the life of one of his students, and so on. Every one of these little stories are OK on their own but they have very little connective tissue making them into a single film. By the end of The Dead Zone I was entertained, but in the way I am when I finish watching a good pilot episode of a TV show. "Well, that wasn't bad, I wonder what will happen in the coming weeks." But since this is a movie I just find it small, and unsatisfying.