Firestarter 2022 Repeats It: Chapter 2’s Worst Stephen King Mistake
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Firestarter 2022.
In the 2022 Firestarter remake, it is almost impossible to tell how threatening the main villain is, and this is a Stephen King movie problem that It: Chapter 2 also ran into. As an adaptation, Firestarter 2022 improves upon the 1984 version in numerous ways. The plot moves at a faster pace, the effects are less campy, Michael Greyeyes makes a more unsettling Rainbird than George C. Scott did, and John Carpenter’s Firestarter 2022 score is more appropriately dark and creepy than Tangerine Dream’s oddly ethereal accompaniment for the original movie.
However, Firestarter 2022 also runs into a recurring Stephen King movie adaptation problem. The villain of Firestarter 2022 is inconsistent in terms of his strengths and weaknesses, and this issue derails the remake much like the same problem ruined the tone of the 2019 sequel It: Chapter 2. In both instances, the Stephen King movie adaptations took a villain who was terrifying in their original novel incarnation and changed them enough for viewers to be uncertain about how powerful — or weak — these characters actually are.
Related: Every Stephen King Horror Adaptation The Author Has Hated
It is absolutely unclear how powerful Rainbird, the primary villain of Firestarter 2022, is. When he murders Charlie’s telekinetic mother, Vicky, he is almost unstoppable, killing her with ease and apparently unfazed by her psychic abilities. However, in a repeat of It: Chapter 2’s biggest tonal mistake, when Rainbird faces off against Charlie at the end of Firestarter 2022, he is suddenly completely powerless. He gives up instantly and survives only because she opts to let him off the hook, even though her powers have already
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