Firestarter Review: Unambitious Stephen King Remake Lacks Horror & Thrills
There is no doubt that Stephen King and his novels have a chokehold on the horror genre. His work has been consistently adapted to the big screen since the 1970s. Now firmly in an era of where his work is being re-adapted, each new entry offers diminishing returns. Firestarter, a remake of the 1984 movie of the same name, doesn't justify its existence. Firestarter is a dull rehash of material viewers are likely already familiar with and which was done better the first time around.
The film's opening introduces baby Charlie, Vicky (Sydney Lemmons) and Andy McGee (Zac Efron). They are a young, seemingly ordinary family — that is, until Charlie nearly sets her nursery on fire and then combusts in her father's arms. This is, of course, a nightmare that the concerned and stressed out Andy is having. Thereafter, a montage sequence is shown of Andy and Vicky as co-ed students entering into a medical trial. The two are injected and they survive the trials, only to walk away with their own set of powers. When they have Charlie, she develops extraordinary, and more destructive, powers than them. The story continues with Charlie (Ryan Keira Armstrong) as she navigates being a young girl ostracized at school and on the run from “The Shop.”
Related: Firestarter’s John Carpenter Role Fixes An 80s Stephen King Mistake
The segment relating to Andy and Vicky could have easily been a miniseries on Peacock because Firestarter feels like a muted knockoff of Stranger Things. Contemporary audiences will be more accustomed to the bonafide hit from Netflix and less with the Firestarter novel or the Drew Barrymore-led film from 1984. Charlie's story is not nearly as impressive as Eleven’s, nor is it more engaging than the original film. So, what
Read more on screenrant.com
