Firestarter (2022) Review

Blumhouse, the horror production company, make their first adaptation of a Stephen King, with their version of Firestarter.

Charlie McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is an 11-year-old girl who struggles with her pyrokinetic powers. After a bullying incident in school Charlie’s powers get exposed and force the girl to go on the run with her father (Zac Efron). Hot on their heels are the secret government agency DSI and their psychic operative Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes).

This version of Firestarter had two big warning signs. The first was its release model: it was released in cinemas and on Peacock at the same time and was not screened to critics. It seemed like the studio knew they had a turkey on their hands and were trying to perform damage control. The film has received a kicking from critics and audiences and performing poorly at the box office.

Adaptations of Stephen King’s do vary in quality. This was true with films made at the height of his powers with films like Carrie, The Shining, and The Shawshank Redemption being seen as movie classics, whilst Children of the Corn and Maximum Overdrive were critical disasters. This trend has continued in recent times since It, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep were well regarded and The Dark Tower and Pet Sematary performed poorly. The adaptation of Firestarter had an especially tough challenge because the 1984 version has been seen as a cult classic and gave Drew Barrymore an early leading role.

Let’s start with the positives. There were two effective moments of horror: the first involved a man losing his eyeballs and a chilling scene involving a cat. These were personal triggers for me because I have a phobia about eyeballs and hate seeing animals suffer. Another positive involved Kurtwood Smith who gave an excellent performance in his brief role. Finally, B-Movie legend John Carpenter, along with his son Cody and musician Daniel Davies composed the music for the film and it did echo Carpenter’s work on Halloween by being effectively minimalistic. But these were drops of good in a sea of bad.

Stories about children with supernatural abilities have been popular within King’s body of work. This was the case in Carrie, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and The Green Mile (John Coffey was mentally childlike). There have also been films, like Chronicle and Brightburn, which showed young outsiders who had superpowers. And this affected this version of Firestarter because this made the new version seem old hat because it was going over familiar territory. Firestarter, Chronicle, and Brightburn were all about young people exploring their dark sides because of their superpowers. Chronicle and Brightburn did it a lot better and I didn’t even like Brightburn that much.

An unoriginal plot can be overcome with a good presentation. Sadly, Firestarter fails on that front. Firestarter was made on a budget of $12 million and it looked cheap. It was meant to be a special effects-heavy film and it was using some poor CGI effects. It’s a real shame because Blumhouse made The Invisible Man on a $5 million budget and it looked great. The final act of the Firestarter took place in dark, grey corridors like the 2015 version of Fantastic Four.

It didn’t help the actors were made to speak in cliches. It was hard for any of the actors to give a natural performance. The characters didn’t come across as believable humans. Nor did it help that Andy seemed to be teaching his daughter to become a superpowered psychopath. Gloria Reuben was meant to be playing the villainous mastermind leading DSI but she came across as well too reasonable. She was less monstrous than the main characters.

In the pantheon of King adaptations and in the midst of recent sci-fi, horror, and superhero films Firestarter makes zero impression.