Back to Stephan King, who had his first rise of popularity in the late 70's. With a nice string of hits to his name, it made sense to strike while the iron was hot. Add in the aforementioned habit of bringing in independent horror directors and you've got a pretty decent recipe for horror.
Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) is an English teacher in Castle Rock, Maine. He has a girlfriend, Sarah (Brooke Adams), a steady job, and yup, everything is coming up roses for Johnny.
Then he gets knocked into a coma for five years.
When he wakes up, things are different. Sarah has married and has a child, but the biggest change is Johnny can now see things. Like when he touches hands with his physical therapist and sees the woman's daughter trapped in their burning house. The visions also go into the past as evidenced when he touches Dr. Weizak (Herbert Lom) and sees him fleeing Warsaw during World War 2. He also sees the man's mother being separated from her family and her making her way to America. He can even give him the address.
News like this can't hidden forever, and after a press conference exposes a reporter's past and the real reason for his sister's overdose Johnny finds himself talking with Sheriff Bannerman (Tom Skerritt). It seems his quaint little burg has been plagued by a serial killer and the sheriff is running out of options.
Johnny, after some soul searching, helps the police. Checking out the latest crime scene doesn't tell him the present or the past but rather puts everything through the eyes of the killer...Deputy Frank Dodd (Nicholas Campbell). Dodd flees home and a massive shoot out occurs, ending with Johnny taking a few slugs into his already atrophied leg.
After that, Johnny decides to retire to as quiet a life as possible. He takes up tutoring to make ends meet, and through that he ends up meeting Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen), a politician looking to use Johnny's current employer as a stepping stone to the senate.
Johnny doesn't put much thought towards the populist politician at least until he shakes hands and see Stillson not only as president but the last president as he unleashes nuclear hellfire on the rest of the world.
The question now, what can Johnny do?
Absolutely the best King adaptation until this point. Cronenberg was a master of body horror and here it works both in a physical and mental sense. Johnny starts out an average guy but throughout the course of the film he transforms into a gaunt scarecrow of a man. The mental change is subtle , but also there. How would you react to knowledge of the world's end?
Walken steals the show. He did get type-casted as a weirdo but this is easily the best role he had at this point. Sheen comes a close second. Stillson is a danger to everyone, but he hides it well enough to pass as normal.
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