Stephen King books that are made into movies are sometimes very good (The Shining, Cujo, Carrie, Misery, Pet Sematary, The Shawshank Redemption) and others are just really bad (Maximum Overdrive, The Dark Half, Thinner, Graveyard Shift, The Dark Tower).

The Dead Zone is one of the best. Unlike many others, it adheres to the original material fairly closely. I remember reading the book as a teenager and it stuck with me like few books have. When I saw the movie was coming out, I was hoping it would be worth seeing. It was, and still is. It’s one of those movies that if I stumble across it, I’ll get sucked in and watch it to the end.

Rotten Tomatoes (which is pretty hit and miss sometimes) recently had a list of all Christopher Walken’s movies ranked in order of best to worst. It ranked The Dead Zone #9 out of 88 movies. I’d probably rank it higher but that’s pretty good praise considering his roles in The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction, Seven Psychopaths and others.

Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen and a young Tom Skerritt (he was only 50 at the time) are also terrific in the movie. If you want to check out a horror movie that isn’t heavy on blood but will freak you out, check out The Dead Zone.