Firestarter Reviews Blast Dull & Disjointed Stephen King Adaptation
The reviews are in for Blumhouse's Firestarter are in, and they are not thrilled about the film's lack of spark. The Firestarter franchise, which is now surprisingly robust, began its life as a 1980 novel by Stephen King, which follows the exploits of Charlie McGee, a young girl with pyrokinetic powers, as she and her father Andy run from an experimental government organization known as The Shop that gave him his own powers, which he passed on to his daughter. That book was adapted into a film starring Drew Barrymore and David Keith in 1984, which King later called "one of the worst of the bunch." That film was followed up in 2002 by the miniseries sequel Firestarter: Rekindled.
Blumhouse has now released a brand new adaptation of Firestarter into theaters, from The Vigil director Keith Thomas. This time around, Charlie is being played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who cut her teeth on projects including American Horror Story and last year's Black Widow, in which she played Young Antonia. Her father is played by Neighbors heartthrob Zac Efron, with the rest of the cast being filled out by Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben.
Related: Every Stephen King Horror Adaptation The Author Has Hated
Many different outlets released their reviews of Firestarter. Considering how many of the review titles include a variation on the pun "Firestarter Failed to Ignite," it seems that the critical establishment has roundly rejected this new entry in the Stephen King canon. While some reviewers lament how the film fails to live up to the director's tightly wound thriller The Vigil, others are disappointed by the fact that it had the opportunity to improve upon the not-much-liked original and failed to
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