The Dead Zone (1983)

Note : this review is a contribution to the Kingathon hosted by Movie Reviews 101 and Movie Rob.

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)

A man awakens from a coma to discover he has a psychic detective ability.

Top Films of David Cronenberg by LMdC

 

1. Videodrome
2. A History of Violence
3. Crash
4. Scanners
5. Naked Lunch
6. The Fly
7. Dead Ringers
8. Eastern Promises
9. eXistenZ
10. Spider

Films Unseen : Stereo, Crimes of the Future, Shivers, Rabids, Fast Company, The Brood, The Dead Zone, M. Butterfly, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars.

 

Scanners

Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981)

A scientist (Patrick McGoohan) sends a man (Stephen Lack) with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.

Spider

Spider (David Cronenberg, 2002)

Spider is the story of Dennis Cleg (Ralph Fiennes), a man who is given a room in a halfway house catering to mentally disturbed persons. Cleg has just been released from a mental institution and in his new abode starts piecing together or recreating in his memory an apparently fateful childhood event.

Crash (1996)

Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996)

Based on J.G. Ballard's novel, which I haven't read, David Cronenberg's Crash depicts the changes in  the lives of cinematographer James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), an open minded couple with no boundaries on fidelity. The film opens with each having sex with another partner and shortly after telling each other their experience. If this seems twisted you haven't seen the rest of the film yet.

eXistenZ

eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)

Have I already said how original and unique I find David Cronenberg’s films? Well, let’s just say that as of today I consider him as one of the most important Canadian director. Forget James Cameron or Paul Haggis, have you seen his A History of Violence and his Eastern Promises? If not, I recommend them it’s not mandatory but almost. I really like how he dismantle the human body and the sexual desires of modern day men and women. His special effects are unique and their touch is immediately recognizable.

Dead Ringers (1988)

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg has been one of the most surprising and interesting directors of his generation. At the beginning of his career he made horror oriented movies like Shivers, Rabid, and The Brood. In the 80's, he invented a genre: body-horror it locates human's monstrous enemy inside its own body' with films like Videodrome, Naked Lunch, and much further Dead Ringers. In the 21st century his cinema will be more around cultural issues and less about horror. But always in his own way.

At first I did not knew what to think about Dead Ringers. A film I've been craving to see for years, its character oriented plot got me off balance and the strong performance from Jeremy Irons just blew me away. It may not have been the first time the theme of the double has been used but I think here it has been pushed further by Cronenberg. The twins Mantle gynecologists are recognized in their discipline. They live together, they share everything and they always have been together. One can't live without the other. But when Beverly falls in love he also falls into drug abuse. On the other side Elliott, will do anything to help his brother because he is more than his brother, he's his other half. The alternate title of Dead Ringers is Alter ego and it explains its on the relationship of the twins. Together they make one complete and super-human being, but apart they can't be even one average human being. It's like if they are one person cut in half and one got some parts and the other the other parts (nervous system for example).

Besides thinking the theme couldn't be as interesting as it actually is the film is probably not Cronenberg's best film to date but still one of his strongest efforts. Personally, Videodrome is a favorite but I still think that A History of Violence is his best film to date. I'm looking forward to see his A Dangerous Method in 2011 and to catch up to all his films I haven't seen yet.