The Dead Zone

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A real creepy read very hard to put down – it is also very current in 2020! I hadn’t really thought of the Dead Zone as one of SK greats as it is often overshadowed by IT, The Shining, Carrie and many MANY others – but this really was a stand out for me and maybe and good introduction to King. This book wasn’t as gory or ‘scary’ as a normal King but it is disturbing and thought provoking!

The Dead Zone is one of those critically acclaimed movies which I'm astounded has taken me this long to get around to. A fun fact: King said that it was highly irritating that many people were more upset by the antagonist killing a dog than by many other scenes in his books including violence against women and children and ironically said that this is pretty telling about human nature. „Stop hitting that dog, spank your kid instead! Thanks!“ The same happened with the completely consensual sex scene in his novel It, go read it immediately, that was considered worse than all blood, gore, rape, and torture combined. Humans are strange, man. My advice to you dear reader is, if there’s a movie being made of a Stephen King book, read the book first!As he moves from discovery to horrific discovery, the amount of darkness he unearths in human souls pushes John further and further down into a sort of spiritual abyss. There seems to no purpose to his tragic life, until he meets Greg Stillson, prospective presidential candidate. A casual handshake allows John Smith a look into the cesspit that is the soul of the future president of the USA: and suddenly, he finds that there is something he has to do. Finish of Stillson, before he finishes of civilisation as we know it...

Starring Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen and the late great Herbert Lom this Stephen King adaptation tells the story of a man who upon coming out of a coma learns he has gained the power of premonition. The Dead Zone, on the other hand, is the one with the ordinary schoolteacher (John Smith, no middle name) who might be a touch psychic, who gets in an accident, ends up in a coma, wakes up from the coma to discover he’s really psychic, avoids using this new ability, then (reluctantly) uses it a bit, mostly to save people/property from fires, once (reluctantly) to chase a serial killer, then … eventually … to try to save America and the world from a loose cannon politician. The Dead Zone is King's seventh novel and the fifth under his own name. The book spawned a 1983 film adaptation as well as a television series. Stillson, today the mayor of Ridgeway, nevertheless suffers from his psychological issues. Agree to “tear out” a buddy’s teenaged nephew for sporting an obscene t-shirt, he pops placing the top on fire and hammering the childhood using a broken bottle, threatening to kill him when he tells anyone about it.I think many people recommend Carrie or The Shining to people just starting King. I rarely hear The Dead Zone. But, to me, this would be a fantastic place to start. It is not too long to be daunting (like It or The Stand). It does not involve the potential commitment of a series (like The Dark Tower or Hodges Trilogy). I think the story is fairly straight forward and would be easily accessible to many. Also, hoping that I am not saying too much, I think this story is particularly terrifying in the world’s current political climate.

The Dead Zone isn’t really horror, but it could feel like horror if you suddenly have the same ability that Johnny Smith does after his accident. Johnny Smith wakes from a coma with the psychic ability to read a person when he touches them. Will he use this ability for good or for selfish reasons? And what's the deal with this Greg Stillson character that's swiftly becoming a heavy hitter in the political realm? King found himself in a similar position after he was nearly killed in a car accident, so the scenes he´s describing the slow convalescence and therapy of the protagonist became a kind of self fulfilling prophecy. Cronenberg criticized the film's theatrical distribution and stated that it could have been number one at the box office had its distribution been better. [24] The head of marketing at Paramount, David Rose, was arrested for embezzling money and Cronenberg theorized that Rose might have taken money meant for the marketing of the film. [25]Johnny is ridiculed, exposed as a charlatan. He is fine with that. It might mean he has a chance to find a normal life. Magistrate, Tony (2003). "Defining Heroic Codes of Survival". Hollywood's Stephen King. New York City: Palgrave MacMillan. p.120. ISBN 0-312-29321-6. The last chapter, "Notes from the Dead Zone", is one of the most beautiful passages of prose in my experience. Stephen King rises almost to the level of a poet here, the way the words flow. It's a pretty gripping read but it's not one of my favorite King books. I like the story but the only characters I felt any kind of attachment to were Johnny and his father. I was surprised by the ending, though, but I guess I shouldn't have. Stephen King was just getting started tearing the guts out of his readers at this point.