Under the article where the steve asks, can you come in? King me. King me. King me?
Welcome. Hi there. Hey, what episode number is this? Like five?
I don't know. You got a list. I can look at it. This is good entertainment.
Number six. Hot damn. Too hot. The shellfifer.
That wide gold. Shellfifer. The shellfifer. Inside joke, the get thing started.
Welcome. I'm Dan Gagliardi. I'm Rob Avon. And this is King me where we are going through every Stephen King movie and made for TV movie.
Yes. In the order of their release. Yes. So far, this has been pretty okay.
I feel like we're only six in. I feel like we're at the beginning of the end with this movie. Today we're talking about Dead Zone. We should be up with that.
Not the Anthony Michael Hall business. Yeah. That's so strange to me that Anthony Michael Hall, there was a time when Anthony Michael Hall was just the nerd in John Hughes movies. And then he disappeared for five years.
He was training in a basement like clubber Lang. And then he came back and Edward Scissorhands. And he was the heady. He was like, yeah, bully.
He was back in the shed. He was a real big ten in that movie. Yeah. I recall.
Yeah. Well, luckily we're not talking about that. Oh, no. This isn't some Tim Burton podcast.
No, none of that artsy fartzy shit. No, this is a David Cronenberg movie. Oh, God. Which is a weird place to start.
I forgot that this was a Cronenberg movie until I started watching it and his name popped up. I was like, holy shit. Yes. Yeah, because it doesn't feel at all like, like when you think of David Cronenberg, you don't think of plotting mostly dramas about, yeah, not much.
Well, yeah, this is, it's, I don't know, it's weird. When I think of David Cronenberg, I think of like murder. Yeah, just nightmarish sexuality. I think of James, James Woods, Big Vagina, Tommy.
Yeah. I want to fuck it. I want to fuck that Big Tommy. Hey, James, if you're listening, I want to fuck your Big Tommy.
So this is the dead zone released in 1983, directed by Cronenberg written by Jeffrey Boom, who I didn't look up any of his other credits. That's okay. That's fine. Stars Christopher Walken, as Anthony Michael Hall.
No, as Johnny Smith, the most lazily named character of all goddamn time. He's an everyman. Yeah. And his love interest is played by Tony Shaloub's wife herself.
Is that true? 100% true. What? It's a look her up because like, I was like, the first, it's worth mentioning, I tried to watch this movie eight times and I fell asleep at the 45 minute mark every time.
It's like a time. And I thought I could outsmart the movie by watching it in the middle of the day. Nope. I fell asleep for the exact remainder of the movie and woke up to the credits playing.
Yeah. It's a slower burn to say the least, I think. Which like, when we did Salem's lot, we talked about how we'd love to see the shorter cut of that movie. I have to sing the dead zone.
I don't know how much of a difference it would have made. Well, okay. I really liked this movie. Okay.
No, listen. Well, like, it is slow. And I guess the thing I'd seen it years ago and I totally forgot about it. I just knew the basic plot.
And it's like, I forgot that it's more of a drama than anything else. It's not scary whatsoever. No, it's no scares, I think. It gets a little thrillerish at the end, but that like, there's an in the middle part with the killer.
Yeah. That's what's so weird. It's sort of like watching this movie. I'm like, yeah, this makes sense as a TV series.
Right. The premise is like a hook for any kind of, I feel like there are a million procedurals that are almost exactly like this now. Yeah. Like it's got that network kind of, he's a detective with a gift kind of hooks, but he's not a detective.
He's just a school teacher. Yeah. Yeah. No, it felt episodic.
Like, I felt like the pacing of this movie was kind of weird. It was weird. It doesn't, it's not a pyramid kind of structure where the climax is toward the middle. It kind of just keeps heightening.
It's like an hour and a half long sketch that isn't funny. Yeah, I think it heightens up and like up until the very last minute. Yeah. That's what?
Yeah. It's a certain kind of structure for a movie. I don't think it suffers for it. I kind of like that about it.
I feel like it could have gotten the ball rolling maybe a little quicker, but I mean, I don't, I'm trying to think of a bad David Cronenberg movie. And he said like, what's that one with Robert Pattinson? Was that any good cosmopolitan? Yeah, that's right.
It's not, it's not full tilt Cronenberg. I like, I like my Cronenberg with Tommy Pajinas. No. Yeah.
So it's, it's lacking a little bit. I find your lack of Tommy Pajinas disturbing. But they were like, I will say, like David Cronenberg, his first movie was like, I'm a movie, I think was the brood. And that's a good movie.
And I've never heard that. Like all through the 80s and 90s and stuff, he like, he makes like good, just interesting movies. If he's like, this was a good story for him to tell because it's very like, there is that hook, there's that like conceptual sort of thing. Like, I feel like he does really well with that.
I'm thinking of video drum specifically. What if there was this one channel that made you go fucked up? Yeah. So I think in that respect, this worked for him, I will say it suffers for the sheer amount of terrible ADR work.
Yeah. There, especially at the beginning, man, I felt like between him being named Johnny and just the poor quality of the line reads, it had a certain, and Christopher Walken's weird accent, it had kind of a room vibe to it. Did you get that? Yeah.
When he says, I have a clip. Let's listen to a little bit. All this is our first episode with a clip. Oh my God, it's very exciting.
So yeah, I'm probably going to end up cutting part of this clip out because there's one specific thing I want to hear, but they won't know that. I hear nothing. You're going to like it's about a school teacher who gets chased by a headless demon. Very welcoming.
Okay, so here we go. Can teachers be excaled for kissing in the hallway? They get fired. Thank God, it's Friday.
It's like one of my students. Why don't you carry my books? That right there. That's insane.
And the video that accompanies it, he's not handing her books. He's taking books out of her hand. So out of the gate, I hadn't seen this movie before, and I was like, oh, this is going to be a fucking doozy. But it really kind of finds its footing after we get past their weird love story at the beginning.
Right, so it opens up. Christopher Walken is a school teacher. His girlfriend's also a school teacher. Christopher Walken also, it's worth noting, has a ridiculous haircut.
It is insanity. Put a ball on my head. It's the same haircut Jim Carrey has in Dommen Dommen. For a joke.
Yeah, but the haircut he has to be funny. Yes, so he has it for real. And his Tony Shalub's wife, she's a very attractive woman. And we don't buy for a second that she's getting with human goal virgin Christopher Walken.
That was a weird thing about this. But she is getting with Shalub. I don't know. She's getting shalubed.
You got to imagine a swarthy young shalub. I think there might have been some going on there. But yeah, so they're both school marms. Right.
So he drives her home. Yeah, there's like this interaction. Well, let's not skip past the roller coaster. I have a core abandoned amusement park.
Is that what you're talking about? That's right. Yeah, oh my god. Okay, so they ride the roller coaster.
And that's when Johnny Christopher Walken gets his first headache, which I guess was like his premonition of his own impending doom. Is that what that is? I didn't get that because I thought the accident is what sort of gave him. Right.
Right. Yeah. As far as the powers. So the headache thing kind of looks like it on the locks.
I mean, it was always kind of there bubbling under the surface, but the accident is one of what unlocks it. Yeah. But yeah, for now we see them on a roller coaster. Mm-hmm.
And then he gets to the end of the ride. The guy running it says like, all right, that's it for the day to ostensibly no one because like you said, this amusement park is completely abandoned. That was the first thing. Like it cuts from them at the school to them on a roller coaster.
And the first thing I noticed is like there is nobody else on the roller coaster. And like just the two of them. Yeah. And I feel like they had to add in that line like all right, that no one left.
Yeah. So they could just a well, okay. What everybody else has gone home for budget areas. His exact words are that's it.
Take it away, which I feel like is a weird thing to say about a thing that's attached to tracks. I can't really take it away. What's he talking to Christopher Walken about his girlfriend? All right, plenty of that.
All right, take it away. Keep it moving here. Yeah. So after that, he drops her off in her house, walks her up to the porch.
Yeah. And she's like, why don't you come inside and fuck me to death? No, she doesn't say that. But that's a subtext.
Yeah. She is. Why don't you come inside and he says she is like she's primed, bro. Bro.
And I think we've all had that school teacher fantasy that Van Halene a sing about. Oh my god. Yeah. And the drumming in that song.
Fuck. Oh, God. I just love like hair like 80s rock music. I love the drums.
That's a specific. I used to work with a guy who swore that the drummer from Death Leopard was the best drummer of all time because he had one arm. Oh, no, no, no, no, Neil Pert is the best drummer of all time because he taught the guy from Death Leopard to play with one arm or some such bullshit. Yeah.
Neither of those things are true though. No, no, Neil Pert is a terrible drummer. Neil Pert is fine if you want to surround yourself with a hundred different drums and listen to a robot try to emote with an instrument and fail. Just fall so far short.
And wear a dumb hat and appreciate Ayn Rand. Don't put Neil Pert in your band. Oh, see that? Yeah.
Rand guy. I don't know if he's like an objectivist, but he definitely like that's where I think that's where like 2112 stemmed from originally. Awesome. Yeah.
It's some real. When I want to relax, I listen to 2112. Fuck off. Bring a few girls home.
Yeah. Put on 2112. So they're on the porch. Right.
And she's like, do you want to come inside? And he says some things are worth waiting for. Like that pussy. Which like, I guess, but how long are you going to wait?
Like they were, they could all but keep from kissing each other at school. Well, that. So I looked up. I had to look up how old they were when they made this.
Because Christopher Walken could be 50. He has always apparently looked like a living corpse. Yeah. He's like, he's almost 40.
Is he really? Yeah. Oh my God. Why is he?
Why is he not sexing up his girlfriend? Why doesn't he fuck? Like, why are we waiting? That's never explained.
It's just not a good reason for it. You get the impression. Okay. Here was here's what my thinking was was that when you meet his mom, she ends up being like kind of a religious cook.
So I thought maybe a classic king trope. He loves religious cooks. He also loves weird virginity kind of stuff. I was going to say like the relationships between boys and their adult male friends.
He loves it. Yeah. It's a big thing. It comes up in this.
Not like heavily. No, it comes up later though. Yeah. It's a story that's a plot.
It's like part of the story. And walking just like every kid he meets, he just starts laughing at them at some point. Yeah. Yeah.
I could ravage you. Yeah. So she's like, okay, I guess I will go unfucked this evening. And he starts walking walking back toward his car and then she walking away.
Oh my God. Wow. Me of all people. But look out for our new show, Walking Walk.
Where we don't talk about Stephen King. I mean, Christopher Walken. I gotta get it together. Yeah, we just go over every movie that doesn't have Stephen.
Right. That's not Christopher Walken. First up, easy rider. Next up, break into electric boogaloo.
So yeah, he's walking toward his car. And she goes, Johnny, wait. And then runs out to kiss him in the rain, which was such a forced thing. Like they didn't.
Yeah. I mean, this is still this in the first like five, ten minutes. Not at all. No, it's not like they didn't overcome anything.
Right. She's just like making one last stab again or beanflipped. Bro, you gotta flick that bean. You gotta work the bean, bro.
Welcome to work in the bean, bro. What's that show about? I think it can only be about one thing. Yeah.
Just teaching your friendship, finger, finger. Yeah. Two things. Yeah.
So yeah. So, but the only reason to do that at all is to establish these two lovebirds are in love and how sad it's gonna be later on. And like you said, not earned at all. Not earned.
It's very, it's very forced. The setup here is very forced. So he gets to his car, he drives away. And he's like, the accident that happens is crazy too.
It's really funny. Okay. So basically he's driving home in the rain and he's driving like a it's a bug right? If you do, I forget.
I think probably. But I really liked him wiping the inside of the windshield as he was driving. That was the thing that people just have to do. Oh my God.
It was terrific. They're like, these cars aren't made well. I can't see anything. Yeah.
So as he's struggling to drive a car, a prop overturns in the middle of the street. It's like the semi truck. The fakest semi truck with like a big kind of gas tank looking. Right.
It's like one of those trucks that they use to deliver gasoline, right? So he see like the guy in the cab swerves at something. I don't even know what. I think he maybe fall asleep.
Yeah, I was going to say his crank was wearing off. His dirty truck's not cranked. And he like swerves and his tank tips. Yeah.
Like everything like rolls onto its side, right? And it slides. It slides forever. It slides three miles down the road to where Christopher Walken is.
It's like it slides like up and over the street. Yeah. We've seen a roller coaster in action. So we know how the physics work.
Yeah. This is not checkout. So Christopher Walken crashes. He crashes into it.
And that's when we find out that the tank has like a wooden frame. First of all, it's made of tissue paper, but it's also, yeah, it's made of tissue paper. It disintegrates immediately. Yes.
And it has milk in it. It's a milk truck. Wait, what? I didn't even catch that.
It's filled with milk. Oh my God. But filled is too much. No, there's like 10 gallons tops.
They're like, you could put it in the back seat of his bug. Yeah. So then go to the front of the quick check we need. And then don't spill it all on this.
All right. If we have to do another shot. So then the prop driver comes out to check on him. And he's all he's fine.
Oh, walk him. No, no, no, the driver is just completely fine. Yeah. So walk in.
Next thing we see is him waking up. Christopher Waken. There it is. From a coma.
Five years after he fell into it. Yeah. They tell him that he's been in a coma for five years. I, his doctor, wise act, Dr.
Sam, wise act. That's how he says it. Right. Dr.
Wiesenheim. I loved him. I feel like he was just bumbling to remember his lines and they kept every take of that. Because when he introduces himself, he says, my name's wise act.
I'm Dr. Sam wise act. Like he was like, oh, something first part, I just do the second. I'll keep him.
He said not to stop if I fuck up. So we see walk in and the accident and the coma seem to have fixed his haircut into the classic walk in up do that we all know and love that felt like home. Oh my god. It was like, yeah, it was like putting on like a nice comfortable pair of pants.
You know, you're just like, this feels much better than before. I'm out of those dress clothes. And now I'm just comfortable that there's a lot of tension in those opening scenes. It's all because his hair cuts are on.
It also fixes his eyesight, which I thought was wonderful. He doesn't wear glasses for the rest of the movie. When you're in a coma, that is one of the positive side effects. It gives your eyes a chance to rest up.
It's like getting new eyes. So I forget now because I watched it like two weeks or two ago. Is this when his girlfriend, I know his parents come in and stuff, but when does his girlfriend? I think she comes in before her after the nurse thing.
I think it's before. I don't know if she comes in while he's awake. Does she? I thought so.
Does she see him before she visits him at his house? No, no, when he's doing physical therapy. She comes in when he's in the coma to cry so that we can see that. She's very sad.
She comes to visit him during a physical therapy. She's also got a new haircut. Not as good as the old haircut, I think. No?
I like to better with the longer hair. I'm going to talk to her for that short hair. Oh, man. Will we do another episode?
We'll do another episode. The final episode. The house divided, you know. Don't get strange.
So they're talking. Stop. Go ahead. That's right.
That's our Christopher Walker part. We are walking away is the one where we don't talk about this for walking. And then talking walking. Okay, now that we're on the same page.
Got it. Okay, we're all thinking and now we're just going to purge these thoughts. These unclean thoughts. We can edit it out if we want to, but I have to get it out.
I think instead of cutting the part where I do a walk in voice, I'm going to bleep it. I'm not going to cut it. I'm just going to bleep it. So yeah, they said they're talking.
And so you got to hit that G again. That's going to be our rule for now. We're no slouches for pronunciation. And she's kind of like going over like, you know, whatever, you know, how have you been like or you feel whatever.
And I forget exactly how it comes up. But like she is what I think is a little bit insensitive about it, which is a lutely. She's just like, Oh, I'm married now. No, okay.
It's one thing if she's like, so maybe you heard that I got married and had a kid. And like that's about as sensitive as you can hope to be with something like that. That's devastating. No matter how you phrase it.
Yes. If you were making some, if you were like spinning plates, writing a unit cycle while you said that it would still be hard to take. Yes. But she then says, I think you'd really like him.
Go fuck yourself. Yeah. Cause like even Christopher Walken says this, he's like, I know for you, it's been five years, but for me, it's only been yesterday. Yeah.
Cause he's been in the coma. So it's just like him waking up and oh my God, everything in my life is different now. I don't, not only do I not have a girlfriend, but she's never going to be mine again. The girl that I love and I was saving myself for that.
I didn't fuck that one time. And then like, oh my God, I should have fucked her. I wouldn't be here right now. If I would have only fucked.
This is like a nice inversion of the Virgin lives paradigm. If you fuck, you will save life. Yes. And you would never have to deal with the gift of the second site.
Oh God. Yes. Nobody wants it. It causes nothing but problems.
Right. But then the world would have ended in nuclear holocaust, I guess. Right. That was the implication.
Well, yeah, I guess. I suppose. Well, we've seen his crazy business, but oh my God. Yeah.
Like if I had that vision, I wouldn't trust it. We don't need to get that far ahead yet. Yeah. Okay.
Well, okay. Because it builds up, I think that's the only reason it works. But so he's in, we got to jump back to when he's in the hospital because that's when he has his first right second sight. So his girlfriend or ex girlfriend now, she's gone.
And he's just like, he's bumming hard. He's still in the hospital doing the physical therapy thing. They say he's never going to walk the same again. Easy.
I'm grinning again. Easy. Okay. Oh, just like my bowels tense.
It's so hard. And then the nurse comes in. She's like, you know, I don't know if she's bringing food or mis-serving some sort of medicine or whatever. But their hands touch.
Their hands touch. Like he grabs her hand or something. And all of a sudden he starts having like these flashes like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Your daughter.
Yeah. And then he starts looking around the room and the room is changed now. He's in a different room altogether. In a little girl's bedroom.
Right. There's a little girl cowering in the corner and the room is on fire. Yes. And my favorite detail in the whole movie, I was going to bring it up.
If you didn't, there's a fishbowl and it starts boiling. It's very good. Yeah, that's good stuff. Very good.
That's sweet Cronenberg that you want. Do you not think that was a detail in the novel? I don't know. I don't ever know.
I don't care. Yeah. It goes to Cronenberg. Yeah.
It's a great detail. It's his. I, a friend of mine was texting me about this very show. Okay.
And telling me that she would, she kept like every time we would mention something. She'd be like, right, but in the book it was, I was like, Jacqueline, you can't do this. Yeah. This is strictly about the movies.
Yeah. So hopefully she'll let me know via text message. Yeah. If she's still listening at this point.
Yeah. We, I cannot stress this enough. We'll not read these books. They're too long.
Who's got the time? Yeah. Too long. Too many details.
Mostly too weird. I don't need overly developed man boy relations. Don't eat it. Tell why.
And we could talk about when we get to it. Oh, but there's a book in the book. It's gross. Later.
Yeah. All right. So, so we can go to the press conference scene probably. Well, yeah.
So he has the vision and he tells the nurse to run back to her house. Your daughter, she needs you. And she just like, hurry up. Yeah.
And she takes off back to the house and the firefighters like just finishing up the job and they're carrying out the little girl. Nurse like did not do anything at all by being there, but it's fine. So we're like, oh, he's got, he's got the gift of second sight. That's what's going on now, which gave birth to such comedy legends as John Beloush.
Dan Eck. Right. Yeah. It remains a viable institution to say.
That's CTV. Second sight TV. Yep. So what are you saying about the press conference?
Oh, yeah. I just like that scene because of how unnecessarily hostile the reporter is. Yeah. Look, such an asshole.
Not doing his job well at all. If he were a Dean's strength, then he's doing it right on cross-exam. Yeah. But he's not.
He's supposed to be gathering information and instead like he's just openly dismissive of this whole thing where that was a weird scene because like, because he was wearing a leather blazer. Well, I like that leather blazer. It was pretty smart. That leather blazer.
It's so strange because like Christopher Walken's doctor is automatically like, you've got the gift of second sight. It's even because of a doctor. A man of science. Well, no, it's because he, they shake hands.
Yeah. And Christopher Walken, you're the boy. Yeah. Yeah.
He sees like back in this guy's future and it was like some sort of a Nazi. There's a concentration camp. It was like, oh, no, they were rounding people. It was like a destroyed city.
Right. And the rounding people up and this woman like gives her boy over to like somebody else, like puts them on a car to like get, get out of town, like take off and like saves the boy. And Christopher Walken is like, you are the boy. And got to bleep it.
You got to read the other boys. Christopher Walken says, you're the boy. Okay. That was better.
Yep. And you might scare by the censors. And he says, your mother's still alive. She, she didn't die.
She's still alive. And he's got the phone number too. Yeah. And gives him the phone number, which is weird.
And then the doctor contacts the woman and hangs up and he doesn't, right. He's like, it wasn't meant to be, which is a weird thing to say. It is. Like virtual, the fact that it happened isn't it then meant to be.
Yes. It's not necessarily meant to be. Right. So that, so now the doctor just believes him.
Like wholeheartedly. He's just like, you're, you have this gift and then they have the press conference and the reporter is going out of hard with it. And, but he's not even like bringing up alternate theories or anything. He's just sort of like, so you're telling me.
Yeah. So, oh, if you could do it, well, why don't you do it right now? I've got nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?
That was uncalled for it. It was, but it felt right. Yeah. So, um, basically he's like, yeah, do me now.
Yeah. Yeah. All right, Mr. Fortune Teller.
Tell my fortune. And what? I forget what the? Right.
Ooh, ooh, maybe not so much. And this is on, it's being broadcast live, which is pretty cool. Yeah. And his, why did I say that?
It's not cool. It's pretty cool though. Like the Wiz live. That was pretty cool.
That was pretty cool. I'll give myself that. But live TV in general, not that cool. That's pretty cool.
Dick Clark's rock in New Year's Eve. It's not that cool. But his, it's the point though, because it's live, all this nothing is being cut and his parents Christopher Walken's parents are watching this and his mother just like has a stroke and dies. He killed his mom.
Because of his talents. Right. As an improviser. So, so his mom is dead now.
Well not yet. She has a stroke and he goes to visit her in a hospital and then she dies moments later. Right. Okay.
That felt nitpicky because I have nothing to add. No doubt it. We needed to know it. It's important.
All right. All right. She's effectively dead. Okay.
So she's dead. Where does it go from there? Is that, has he moved yet or is that when the cop is like I need you to help me solve a murder real quick? Oh, that is.
Yes. Okay. Right. So the cop is played by Tom Skarit.
Okay. Who is a, who's the guy from family? Not Matt. Family matters.
The guy who wrote, writes all the theme songs. Oh, Alan thick. He's not Alan thick with a mustache. That always makes those up.
But it's Tom Skarit. He plays the sheriff and he's like. What's he in that you know who he is? Nothing really.
Yeah. He's in Ted. He's an alien. Yeah.
He's an alien. Okay. Who's an alien? Dallas.
Jeez. What's wrong with me? He's a cap, bell cap 10. And he's also in a open smoke.
Wow. Classic. So let's ban that word from the show. It's not good enough to say.
I think. So Tom Skarit asks him to for help because like, because he's seen like people, the whole town is just like, we, like we are going about our business, but there's a guy that lives in the castle rock killer that well, not even the killer. I'm talking about Chris. We're walking.
Like there, like if you knew that somebody in town had like powers, how could you go on with your life? I would just be like, nothing matters anymore guys. Like, up is down. I find out when I was going to die and then I'd careen toward that.
So Tom Skarit asks him for help. They go to a crime scene at a gazebo gazebo. Gazebo. Do you like that word?
That was the weirdest thing. Yeah. We're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves by like a second or two. Yeah, only a second.
I think he touches the dead body, right? Yeah, which I didn't know that dead bodies retains their experiences after they die. Oh, bro. It's crazy.
Yeah, gross. I never knew so much about biology. So he touches his body and it goes over the whole like it takes a while. It does.
It goes through the whole murder scene shows like the killer, which he don't see his face and he calls her up there and he's like, they know each other. He knows her. I wish I could keep saying it though. He knows her.
He knows her. The way he says all of that stuff is like so strict. He's like, not scared. No, sir.
Like you can see how it was written. Yes. Like just ellipsis, ellipsis, but it doesn't he doesn't perform it really correctly. Well, I mean, first thing Christopher, while he does.
Oh, that don't even bother. Oh, fuck. Oh, yeah. Oh.
So yeah, he keeps saying, not afraid. No, sir. I got to bleep it, man. That wasn't even going for it.
But you did it. All right. I'm trying to. You done did it.