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Late to the Party: ‘The Dead Zone’ (1983)

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The Dead Zone Stephen King David Cronenberg

Welcome back to another weekly edition of Late to the Party, the review series that pits iHorror writers against the cult classics and fan favorites we somehow haven’t seen. This week is all about David Cronenberg’s take on Stephen King’s novel, The Dead Zone. This 1983 classic features Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen, and a lot of chewed scenery.

I really wanted to review The Dead Zone because it was filmed in a town in which I spend an obnoxious amount of time, Niagara-on-the-Lake (in Ontario, Canada).

So that being said, let’s start with a fun fact. The gazebo (featured in the film as a location where a young woman was brutally murdered by the Castle Rock Killer) was built specifically for the film and donated to the town. It is now a wildly popular location for wedding photos and a tourist favorite for quaint-as-hell picnic lunches.

via Getty Images

The Dead Zone also features a scene in the notorious Screaming Tunnel! Local landmarks – creepier than you think!

As previously mentioned, The Dead Zone is a film adaptation of Stephen King’s fifth novel published under his own name (his seventh novel when including the two published under Richard Bachman). It’s also the first novel that focuses on the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine (which has inspired an upcoming anthology series).

A TV series adaptation followed in 2002 that ran for six seasons, ending in 2007. Six seasons! That’s insane.

Anyways, on to the film.

via Getty Images

The plot concerns Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken), a school teacher who is involved in an automobile accident that leaves him in a coma for five years. When Johnny wakes up, he discovers that he has some psychic abilities that allow him to see tragic events in the lives of those he touches.

Johnny is able to use his newfound skill to save the lives of those around him and shed some light on past secrets. This weighs on him greatly, and after he is enlisted to help track down a serial murderer (which ends in a delightfully gruesome way, as we would expect from David Cronenberg), Johnny chooses to live in seclusion to avoid future trauma.

via Getty Images

The titular “dead zone” refers to an area of Johnny’s brain that suffered damage as a result of the accident. This “dead zone” curses Johnny with these violent visions, but it also grants him the possibility of altering the outcome of what he sees.

That’s, essentially, the crux and climax of the film. Johnny sees a future in which a volatile politician, Greg Stillson, (played by Martin Sheen) wins the presidency. In this vision, Stillson orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union that results in a nuclear holocaust. Johnny struggles with the pressure of knowing this possible outcome and decides that he must do something to prevent this global tragedy.

The film does a wonderful job of wrapping up the story in a satisfying (if not, perhaps, abrupt) way.

via Getty Images

The Dead Zone weaves the spectacular world of the psychic and occult with the reality of everyday life seamlessly. The scenes of Johnny’s visions feel deeply rooted in reality, which makes them even more shocking and unnerving.

Normally, you would think this gift would be desirable, but it’s easy to see the affect the traumatic images have on Johnny. It’s no surprise he would want to distance himself from that.

via IMDb

Christopher Walken’s performance as Johnny Smith evokes sympathy and understanding from the audience. Martin Sheen as Greg Stillson, on the other hand, is so perfectly unhinged. Stillson is a smarmy crowd-pleasing politician with a hair-trigger for emotional outbursts. It’s… eerily familiar these days (good thing this was pre-twitter).

During the scenes with Stillson on the campaign trail, the crowd reverberates with chants of “Stillson! Stillson! Stillson!”. Because of the strong emphasis on the first syllable, these cries sound a lot more like “Kill! Kill! Kill!”, which is actually perfect.

via Getty Images

Overall, it’s an impressive film from a legendary director with a spectacular cast, based on a novel by the most prolific genre writer of our time.

You really can’t go wrong there.

 

Stay tuned next week for more Late to the Party, or check out our past reviews here!

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The Pope’s Exorcist Officially Announces New Sequel

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The Pope’s Exorcist is one of those films that’s just fun to watch. It isn’t the most terrifying film around, but there’s something about Russel Crow (Gladiator) playing a wise cracking Catholic priest that just feels right.

Screen Gems seems to agree with this assessment, as they have just officially announced that The Pope’s Exorcist sequel is in the works. It makes sense that Screen Gems would want to keep this franchise going, considering the first film scared up almost $80 million with a budget of only $18 million.

The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope’s Exorcist

According to Crow, there may even be a The Pope’s Exorcist trilogy in the works. However, recent changes with the studio may have put the third film on hold. In a sit-down with The Six O’Clock Show, Crow gave the following statement about the project.

“Well that’s in discussion at the moment. The producers originally got the kick off from the studio not just for one sequel but for two. But there’s been a change of studio heads at the moment, so that’s going around in a few circles. But very definitely, man. We set that character up that you could take him out and put him into a lot of different circumstances.”

Crow has also stated that film’s source material involves twelve separate books. This would allow the studio to take the story in all kinds of directions. With that much source material, The Pope’s Exorcist could even rival The Conjuring Universe.

Only the future will tell what becomes of The Pope’s Exorcist. But as always, more horror is always a good thing.

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New ‘Faces of Death’ Remake Will Be Rated R For “Strong Bloody Violence and Gore”

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In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the Faces of Death reboot has been given an R rating from the MPA. Why has the film been given this rating? For strong bloody violence, gore, sexual content, nudity, language, and drug use, of course.

What else would you expect from a Faces of Death reboot? It would honestly be alarming if the film received anything less than an R rating.

Faces of death
Faces of Death

For those unaware, the original Faces of Death film released in 1978 and promised viewers video evidence of real deaths. Of course, this was just a marketing gimmick. Promoting a real snuff film would be a terrible idea.

But the gimmick worked, and franchise lived on in infamy. The Faces of Death reboot is hoping to gain the same amount of viral sensation as its predecessor. Isa Mazzei (Cam) and Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) will spearhead this new addition.

The hope is that this reboot will do well enough to recreate the infamous franchise for a new audience. While we don’t know much about the film at this point, but a joint statement from Mazzei and Goldhaber gives us the following info on the plot.

“Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online.”

“The new plot revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website, whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, that stumbles across a group that is recreating the murders from the original film. But in the story primed for the digital age and age of online misinformation, the question faced is are the murders real or fake?”

The reboot will have some bloody shoes to fill. But from the looks of it, this iconic franchise is in good hands. Unfortunately, the film does not have a release date at this time.

That’s all the information we have at this time. Make sure to check back here for more news and updates.

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Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘The Ceremony Is About To Begin’

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People will look for answers and belonging in the darkest places and the darkest people. The Osiris Collective is a commune predicated upon ancient Egyptian theology and was run by the mysterious Father Osiris. The group boasted dozens of members, each forgoing their old lives for one held in the Egyptian themed land owned by Osiris in Northern California. But the good times take a turn for the worst when in 2018, an upstart member of the collective named Anubis (Chad Westbrook Hinds) reports Osiris disappearing while mountain climbing and declaring himself the new leader. A schism ensued with many members leaving the cult under Anubis’ unhinged leadership. A documentary is being made by a young man named Keith (John Laird) whose fixation with The Osiris Collective stems from his girlfriend Maddy leaving him for the group several years ago. When Keith gets invited to document the commune by Anubis himself, he decides to investigate, only to get wrapped up in horrors he couldn’t even imagine…

The Ceremony Is About To Begin is the latest genre twisting horror film from Red Snow‘s Sean Nichols Lynch. This time tackling cultist horror along with a mockumentary style and the Egyptian mythology theme for the cherry on top. I was a big fan of Red Snow‘s subversiveness of the vampire romance sub-genre and was excited to see what this take would bring. While the movie has some interesting ideas and a decent tension between the meek Keith and the erratic Anubis, it just doesn’t exactly thread everything together in a succinct fashion.

The story begins with a true crime documentary style interviewing former members of The Osiris Collective and sets-up what led the cult to where it is now. This aspect of the storyline, especially Keith’s own personal interest in the cult, made it an interesting plotline. But aside from some clips later on, it doesn’t play as much a factor. The focus is largely on the dynamic between Anubis and Keith, which is toxic to put it lightly. Interestingly, Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Lairds are both credited as writers on The Ceremony Is About To Begin and definitely feel like they’re putting their all into these characters. Anubis is the very definition of a cult leader. Charismatic, philosophical, whimsical, and threateningly dangerous at the drop of a hat.

Yet strangely, the commune is deserted of all cult members. Creating a ghost town that only amps up the danger as Keith documents Anubis’ alleged utopia. A lot of the back and forth between them drags at times as they struggle for control and Anubis keeps continuing to convince Keith to stick around despite the threatening situation. This does lead to a pretty fun and bloody finale that fully leans into mummy horror.

Overall, despite meandering and having a bit of a slow pace, The ceremony Is About To Begin is a fairly entertaining cult, found footage, and mummy horror hybrid. If you want mummies, it delivers on mummies!

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