The Dead Zone is one of those movies that I
have been meaning to see for a while. I'd be going about my internet travels
and would keep hearing about it, encountering the film's poster featuring young
Christopher Walken's eyes staring frighteningly out into nothing, on movie
websites and the like. It is, of course, based on the Stephen King novel of the
same name, which I read in high-school, and the concept has always intrigued
me.
On the
other hand, I remember seeing Arachnophobia
as a kid and being absolutely terrified of it. Mainly because the spiders that
they used in the movie, whilst foreign to American audiences, are actually very
common in Australia-- the dreadful huntsman that spins no web but moves with
frightening speed.
So here
goes nothing, round-two of the genre movie showdown.
The Dead Zone (1983):
David
Cronenberg directed this so I was expecting quite a lot. His version of The Fly was horrifying and fun, and who
could forget the head exploding scene in Scanners?
It saddens me to say that The Dead Zone
was actually pretty crappy. Cronenberg doesn't get to use much of his cool 80s
special effects (save for a scene involving suicide via pair of barber
scissors), and Walken is terribly miscast as American everyman, Johnny Smith.
About
the only element worth sticking around for is Martin Sheen as the sociopathic Senatorial
candidate, Greg Stillson. One scene, a psychic flash-forward (something Walken
experiences whenever he touches someone), is particularly memorable. In it,
Sheen (now President of the United States), forces the Secretary of Defence to
help him launch nukes at Iran with the nuclear football. When the Vice
President protests, telling everyone in the room that they don't need to resort
to warfare but can find a diplomatic solution, Sheen says "It's too late,
Mr. Vice President, the nukes are already flying. Hallelujah!", and it's a
piece of maniacal brilliance that contrasts brilliants with Sheen's turn as the
fatherly President Bartlett in The West
Wing.
Also, I
like the musical stings that shriek on the soundtrack whenever Walken has one
of his psychic future visions.
Despite such
positive traits, The Dead Zone was
slow moving and moments in the movie's logic are actually quite silly if you
think about them.
Arachnophobia (1990):
A lot of
people may take umbrage with me saying this, but Arachnophobia is just about the perfect creature feature as far as
I'm concerned. It could just be that I'm terrified of spiders and therefore the
whole thing has a kinetic, anxious energy that only arachnophobes experience,
but in the realm of subjectivity (where movie reviews live) that doesn't make
it any less good, does it?
The best
moments are when the spiders (all real for the most part-- this was before the
days of CGI) creep into houses of the well-meaning country folk and hide in
horrible places: a tub of buttery popcorn, inside a fluffy slipper, on top of a
shower-head, etc. The fun is in not knowing when the spider will strike and
there are many moments where you think it will, only to be denied. It's similar
to the Paranormal Activity movies in
that respect, you spend the whole movie waiting for the scare that doesn't come
until the final act, and by that time you're so fraught with anxiety that the
thought of having to turn off the light to go to sleep later on is unbearable.
There
are also lots of clever scenes in Arachnophobia.
At one point in the beginning of the movie, the big mean General spider gets
picked up by a bird that flies off with it clasped in its claws. A long-shot
shows the bird soaring across the country town, but when it reaches the middle
of the frame, the bird stops and falls as if it has hit an invisible wall (or
dome if you are so inclined), dead from spider bite.
And
there is a line at the end of the film that is just hilarious. Jeff Daniels,
having had a really bad time living out in the country, moves back to the city
with his family and says something along the lines of how much he hates the
country. This was back in the time when production companies weren't so worried
about pissing off sections of the audience, and so instead of our city-boy
protagonist learning the value of simple-living, we have him fleeing and
essentially saying "Fuck the country, and fuck country folk! But most of
all, fuck spiders!"
You
should watch:
Arachnophobia.
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