“If you could go back in time to Germany, before Hitler came to power, knowing what you know now, would you kill him?”

Justin’s rating: The Anthony Michael Hall series was pretty good too, if I recall

Justin’s review: When you stop to consider it, it was a minor miracle that The Dead Zone actually succeeded as a film. David Cronenberg aiming for the mainstream? Christopher Walken as the good guy? A Stephen King adaptation? So many projects have failed for less. And yet this is one of the more successful Cronenberg/Walken/King movies, an anomaly that often gets overlooked until pointed out.

After getting smacked into a coma by an 18-wheeler in the late ’70s, Johnny Smith (Walken) wakes up to find that everything’s changed. It’s now five years into the future, his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) left him to get married to another guy, and — oh yeah — he’s able to psychically see into a person’s past and future by touching them.

A gift? A curse? A burden and responsibility? Johnny’s going to have to figure that out as he becomes an unlikely superhero striking a blow for justice.

What keeps him from sitting on the fence of indecision too long is a most horrifying premonition after shaking the hand of a senator candidate named Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). Johnny sees the future President, mad with power, pushing the nuclear button.

Nobody believes him when he tries to warn others. So it’s either do nothing and let the world end, or take radical action that could propel Johnny into the annals of notorious criminals. What would you do?

Like many Stephen King stories, The Dead Zone was a way to kick over the seedy underbelly of people’s lives and see what’s writhing beneath. Johnny Smith’s psychic power is a spotlight that doesn’t allow evil to flourish in secret, even if the discovery causes him considerable mental anguish. Unlike many of his stories, the “monsters” are people while the supernatural entity happens to be the hero.

There are plenty of terrifying moments even without a Pennywise or Overlook Hotel. A nasty house fire, a World War II tableau, a serial killer, kids drowning at an ice hockey game, and visions of a nuclear holocaust all have the potential to stick in your mind the way it does Johnny’s.

Psychic visions aren’t usually easy to put on screen, but it kind of works here. Cronenberg shows a deft hand at pulling this off. It may be the most normal thing I’ve seen him do. And while I won’t call Walken “normal,” he fits this role well as a nice guy thrust into the deep end of another reality. Everyone’s a little unnerved at his ability, and it’s not like Walken’s odd mannerisms are putting them at ease. Yet he is also quite relatable with his sardonic sense of humor, his earnest desire to do the right thing, and his occasional bouts of grief and/or anger.

And he’s got a pretty cool visual language with his popped collars and cane. It fit Walken’s tall and lanky frame quite well.

In comparison, Sheen’s Stillson is one of the most unnerving roles I’ve seen him play — shifty and speaking out of both sides of his mouth like a possessed politician. And yes, in hindsight it’s pretty funny to watch Martin Sheen be a world-ending president a decade-and-a-half before he took up a slightly more gentile role in The West Wing.

Sometimes scary, often sad, The Dead Zone reminded me a bit of King’s later The Green Mile. Both feature a person with an incredible gift that brings them sorrow, yet they feel compelled to use it to help those in need. He may not be the superhero who graces a comic book cover, but that makes him no less than a hero in my eyes.

Intermission!

• These opening credits are pretty cool, even if it ends up saying “The Dead Zone” twice
• Walken’s ’70s haircut is so unfortunate
• Having Christopher Walken as your grade school teacher would either be the most awesome or most terrifying thing ever
• Johnny’s mom talks like she wrote the King James Bible. I don’t think they talked like that even back then.
• That fire is terrifying, especially with the boiling fish bowl
• Didn’t think we’d see a WW2 sequence in this kind of movie
• “I’d really like to see you do some serious chugging.”
• Castle Rock Killer
• “You knew!”
• The killer’s house is claustrophobic and harrowing in its own right
• “This thing is sucking the life right out of you.”
• “THE ICE IS GONNA BREAK!”
• We should make more senatorial candidates do 100 pushups for the crowd
• “Get registered. Vote against this turkey. He’s dangerous.”
• The moment of grief at the door is so well handled
• That newspaper headline, dang
• “It’s over, you’re finished.”