The Dead Zone

The Dead Zone (1983)

  • 89% of critics liked it
    (36 reviews)

  • 72% of users liked it
    (34,247 ratings)

Christopher Walken plays a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith, who awakens from a five-year coma. He discovers that he has acquired the ability to foretell a person's future simply by touching his or her hand. After seeing several examples, Smith's doctor (Herbert Lom) becomes convinced that Smith… More

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R,
Directed By
Written By
Jeffrey Boam
Genres
Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
In Theaters
Oct 21, 1983 Wide
Paramount Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    An accomplished psychological thriller.

  • Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

    By no means a bad film, just a disappointingly bland and superficial one.

  • , Time Out

    Cronenberg pulls it off, but you can't help feeling it's a movie in search of a TV series.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    The Dead Zone does what only a good supernatural thriller can do: It makes us forget it is supernatural.

  • Janet Maslin, New York Times

    Mr. Cronenberg's direction is vivid and effective; his pacing is a little unemphatic at times, but the film's individual scenes are very well staged.

Read all 19 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Melvin W


    Johnny Smith:  If you could go back in time to Germany, before Hitler came to power, knowing what you know now, would you kill him? "In his mind, he has the power to see the future. In his hand, he has the power to change it." The Dead Zone is one of many films to populate… More

  • Chris W


    Based on a novel by Stephen King, this is easily one of David Cronenberg's more straightforward and accessible films. Christopher Walken stars as Johnny Smith- a schoolteacher whose live goes to pieces after a terrible car accident leaves him in a coma for five years. When he… More

  • xGary X


    A teacher involved in a near fatal car crash reawakens from a coma five years later with the power of second sight. David Cronenberg's most restrained and mainstream movie is based upon a Stephen King novel, but don't let that put you off. The Dead Zone, along with The… More

  • AJ V


    An interesting story from King, and a good cast too, but Cronenberg made this movie slightly too weird, so some of the less interesting scenes are pretty boring. Overall, I liked this movie, though, the story is cool and Walken is perfect in the lead.

  • Dan S


    A meandering, slightly disappointing film from the master of body horror David Cronenberg, who adapts a Stephen King novel about a teacher (Christopher Walken) involved in a horrific car accident, and how he tries to get his life back on track after awaking from a 5-year coma with a… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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