Blumhouse’s new adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter, from 1980, features strong performances from Zac Efron and young Ryan Kiera Armstrong is pretty good but struggles to properly ignite.
A couple desperately tries to hide their daughter, Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for turning fire into a weapon of mass destruction. Her father (Zac Efron) taught her how to defuse her power, but as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. When a mysterious operative finally finds the family, he tries to seize Charlie once and for all — but she has other plans.
Firestarter is not a high-tech, over-budgeted, blockbuster movie, but it accomplishes the task of bringing fire to life with impressive special effects that are both computer and what looks like traditional pyrotechnics. Fire is the main theme of this movie, I mean it’s literally in the title, and major props for bringing the elements of the heat to the big screen. Smoldering air currents, steam, boiling, and the raging flames that are about to emerge in the darker means of King’s imagination, come out perfectly with the special techniques used.
Feeling like something coming off the pages of the book, the screen adaptation accomplishes hitting that dialogue we expect in a drama/thriller like Firestarter. King’s writing comes out in full force as they do their best to tame the beast of the “special feeling” deep inside them. Several parts come out poetic, while other parts are not as artistic or fluid but have an emotional depth to them which comes out quite well from the performances. It feels like one of those more character-driven plots King does so well and was definitely one of the stronger aspects of the movie and delivers the emotional moments quite well.
Firestarter has some performers in this film picking up the load, carrying the characters and movie pretty far as it tries to fill its 90-minute runtime. Zac Efron really understands the role of the caring father with a heavy past. This role definitely helps diminish the High School Musical vibes in a big way, and it was nice to see Efron return to the thriller genre. Sydney Lemmon had one of the best performances in the film, a great strong role of someone who carries the weight of the world on their shoulders and doing her best to handle the fallout of a decision made in the past She’s collected, cool, but shows just enough immorality to bring out other elements of her emotion to create a balanced performance. As for newcomer Ryan Kiera Armstrong, this young actress is a rising star and showcases her ability to play an adult and child in this insane tale. Her ability to cry and react to the horrors of her new powers is incredibly well-honed, the third act is where she really executes her promise as a horror actress in the future.
Firestarter has a great soundtrack to help add that shiver down your spine. It’s hands down the biggest strength of the film. The fact that they were able to get John Carpenter to helm the film’s score works so well to bring out that disturbing background noise that gets into your head and unsettles you.
Overall, Firestarter accomplishes a loose feel and brings the haunts of the King Universe that you can play in. It has a quick pace, solid opening, decent acting, and visuals to paint the world in that foreboding light the author is famous for having in his books. And even though these elements and the chilling music are golden, there are also elements that don’t quite succeed in making this the best that it could be, despite the improvement with today’s technology. Secondary characters aren’t used to their full potential, and the scares/suspenseful elements aren’t completely there. Still, the benefits of Firestarter being not only in theaters but also streaming on Peacock TV should help plenty of people to see it, which you should definitely do and give this movie a chance.
Firestarter is now playing in theaters and streaming only on Peacock TV.
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