Christopher Walken plays Johnny Smith, a high school English teacher who gains psychic abilities after a horrific (or hilarious) car accident puts him in a coma. All Johnny has to do is touch a person and he can see that something horrible is going to happen to them, like hosting a Tupperware party. After this five-year long coma, he discovers that his fiancé Sarah (Brooke Adams) has moved on with her life, having gotten married and having birthed a male child. Even though using his powers causes him great physical and mental strain, Johnny decides to use them to help the local sherrif (Tom Skerrit) to solve a rash of serial killings taking place in their town. But that’s small potatoes compared to when he shakes the hand of charismatic (but comically unstable and villainous) presidential hopeful Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen).

I think I was only 8 years old when my parents let me watch The Dead Zone with them and to say I was too young for such a heady experience would be an understatement. Luckily, it instilled in me a downright Cronenbergian sense of the bleak, inescapable existential terror that I still treasure in my broken heart to this day! But seriously folks, that rather harrowing murder in the middle of the film was a tad intense for me and I remember my mom having to explain to me that it was just a movie. Little did she know that I’d develop a sick gazebo fetish. Check out my profile on Gazebro dot org to know more.

Once in a while, an outside-of-the-box choice director gets paired with the right material and something truly special happens. This is the case when David Cronenberg, fresh from writing and directing Videodrome (1983), one of the best and most original films of the decade, took the directorial reigns on The Dead Zone (1983), an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Now that decent films based on Stephen King adaptations have started happening again, it’s nice to look back at one of the absolute best. It’s a heartbreaking and tragic story that will stick with you long after it’s over.

The Scream Factory Blu of The Dead Zone is a must have for fans of the film as it looks and sounds frickin’ fantastic, especially compared to the other editions out there. If you were thinking of upgrading, especially if you had the old DVD, this Blu is a must have. The extras are massive as Scream Factory made some new ones as well as imported old stuff from previous releases as well. New on this disc are interviews with Brooke Adams (who is the literal best), production manager John M. Eckert, and associate producer Jeffrey Chernov. There is also a Trailers from Hell episode with Mick Garris. But there’s more! There are four audio commentaries on this disc! One with director of photography Mark Irwin, another one with film historian Michael Gingold, one with author Dr. Steve Haberman and filmmaker Constantine Nasr, and finally, one with Film Music Historian Daniel Schweiger who discusses isolated selections from Michael Kamen’s film score.