This is low key sci-fi thriller that doesn't know what it wants to be. The ominous opening credits are foreboding and suggest a quiet horror underneath the small snow-covered town of Castle Rock. Cronenberg seems to be the best director to handle this sort of premise, but the result is rather lame and restricted. There's none of that grotesque power that he is known for - the early effects involving Johnny being literally transported into a burning house and that open-jawed bloody corpse of the murderer policeman have a little promise, but even that is censored, and we don't actually see the act itself. Gunshot wounds materialise with an obvious unmistakable bloodiness on bodies like some B-movie, sex becomes unbuttoning the top two buttons and dry hugging, and Psycho-inspired sound effects pipe up whenever he has one of his horrifying visions. It's all very unconvincing.
There's so many moments that seem to threaten the horror and seriousness of this movie, but it seems the script is unaware of this. The romance sideplot starts off corny as you like with the girl running back and a kiss in the rain. After 5 years, where it seems logical that this sort of love would subside, it pricks up again, and for a moment her husband is non-existent. And in the final moment, she weeps unashamedly and they reconcile again...even though from any rational perspective it just seems like he's tried to assassinate a politician. This ending could very well be a comedy skit, but the soundtrack and Walken's morbid whispers of the future seem determined to make it dark and grim and tragic. Martin Sheen's presidential candidate is the most hammy and over-the-top character of them all, saying "Hallelujah" and celebrating a nuclear holocaust, and the way he holds up a child as a shield...but I'm sure the intention is not to make the viewer burst out laughing.
The dialogue at times betrays itself and makes it very clear that this is a Stephen King adaptation. God forbid Sarah move on with her life: she is referred to as someone who has turned her back upon Johnny and 'cleaves' onto another man like some hell spawn. The officer's mother refers to Johnny's abilities as though he has struck a deal with the devil from hell itself. The creaky house is bathed in green light as if to enhance its supernatural atmosphere. There's a little junior rainman character that speaks cryptically and much more advanced than his age suggests...this mystery of course goes nowhere. They recite Edgar Allen Poe as if this is something they just do everyday for fun. This might have worked if the world created wasn't so fake and facile with all its super serious yet hilarious horror visions...unfortunately there's nothing fresh or tense about this movie at all.
There's so many moments that seem to threaten the horror and seriousness of this movie, but it seems the script is unaware of this. The romance sideplot starts off corny as you like with the girl running back and a kiss in the rain. After 5 years, where it seems logical that this sort of love would subside, it pricks up again, and for a moment her husband is non-existent. And in the final moment, she weeps unashamedly and they reconcile again...even though from any rational perspective it just seems like he's tried to assassinate a politician. This ending could very well be a comedy skit, but the soundtrack and Walken's morbid whispers of the future seem determined to make it dark and grim and tragic. Martin Sheen's presidential candidate is the most hammy and over-the-top character of them all, saying "Hallelujah" and celebrating a nuclear holocaust, and the way he holds up a child as a shield...but I'm sure the intention is not to make the viewer burst out laughing.
The dialogue at times betrays itself and makes it very clear that this is a Stephen King adaptation. God forbid Sarah move on with her life: she is referred to as someone who has turned her back upon Johnny and 'cleaves' onto another man like some hell spawn. The officer's mother refers to Johnny's abilities as though he has struck a deal with the devil from hell itself. The creaky house is bathed in green light as if to enhance its supernatural atmosphere. There's a little junior rainman character that speaks cryptically and much more advanced than his age suggests...this mystery of course goes nowhere. They recite Edgar Allen Poe as if this is something they just do everyday for fun. This might have worked if the world created wasn't so fake and facile with all its super serious yet hilarious horror visions...unfortunately there's nothing fresh or tense about this movie at all.