The "Dead Zone" is David Cronenberg film based on a Stephen King Horror book. I am not a big horror movie watcher because most stories are drawn out plot where the main character are tormented by an evil person. They border on Slasher movie where the Hannibal movies cross the line into slasher movie.
The dead zone movie is different. It is based on the story of Casandra who was given the "gift" of seeing future but not able to change it. The main character , John Smith, is ordinary guy. He is a school teacher who is engage to a fellow teacher. He suffers a car crash and it sent into a coma. When he awakes, he finds he is alone and given the "gift" of foresight. Similar to Will Graham's gift in "Manhunter" , it is very difficult to control and threaten to destroy his life.
For me, the movie is not so much a horror movie but more an examination of what it foresight into the future would be like. The director, Cronenberg, handles this perfect. In fact, he does a better job than Stephen KIng's 800 plus page book. Stephen King's rolling Stone interview is quoted as saying "" The book is about 700 pages long, and I'm thinking, "There's probably a good 350-page novel in there.". I believe this can be applied to all of King's books.