I first read the book within the last five years, and since I was going to be watching the movie again, I went ahead and listened to the audio-book. They also aren’t among my least, but I like both of them. Neither are among my very favorite Stephen King books or adaptations. Both the book and the film adaptation fall somewhere in the middle. The Dead Zone fits within Cronenberg’s filmography in a similar way the 1979 novel fits in with Stephen King’s ( Carrie, The Shining) work. Overall though, I might call it a supernatural…drama? It certainly has enough horror elements to qualify as one. And yet I wouldn’t say The Dead Zone is strictly a horror film. Movies such as Jaws (1975), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Get Out (2017), etc. I’m usually the horror fan who gets annoyed when people try to argue certain films aren’t horror films. It’s not an extreme departure like The Straight Story (1999) was for David Lynch ( Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) or Music of the Heart (1999) was for Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream), yet it’s a departure all the same. That’s maybe why I’d place it somewhere in the middle of the films of his I’ve seen. I would still say that The Dead Zone is one of his more restrained, normal horror films. There were also a couple of other non-horror features. I see he directed a movie about drag-racing called Fast Company (1979). I originally thought The Dead Zone (1983) was Cronenberg’s first departure from his usual over-the-top body horror. My impression was wrong. I was in high school at the time, so my teenage libido was going into overdrive. Someone told me it had some pretty memorable sex scenes. I’m talking about the movie about sex and car crashes starring Holly Hunter (Raising Arizona, Broadcast News) and James Spader ( Less Than Zero, Pretty in Pink). No, not the much-derided 2004 Best Picture Oscar winner, which I’d probably still defend. There’s still plenty of Cronenberg films that, horror or not, I still haven’t seen. While I appreciate some of the satire Cronenberg delved into, I just don’t really like the film. But Rabid (1977) I only thought was decent. I remember Scanners (1981) being good (and who can forget that exploding head?!). Cronenberg’s style is just not my brand of horror, though I do enjoy his remake of The Fly (1986). Those are other films I’d never want to watch again. Along those lines, I wonder if Salo (1975) or Dogtooth (2009) would count as body horror. An example of that would be The Human Centipede series-I would never desire to watch those again. Cronenberg’s body horror doesn’t unnerve me. I’m not the biggest fan of body horror, which Cronenberg is significantly associated with. I have mixed feelings towards Cronenberg’s work within the horror genre.

The dead zone stephen king book