- Title: Firestarter (1984)
- IMDb: link
With the release of a new adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, Flashback Friday takes a look back at 1984’s Firestarter starring a young Drew Barrymore as a child with the power to start fires with her mind. Definitely of its time, the 80s adaptation would likely be totally forgotten except for Barrymore’s involvement. To be fair, the goofy plot doesn’t fit the rather straightforward telling of a man (David Keith) and his wife (Heather Locklear in limited screen time) experimented on in college by a secret government organization who have passed on even stronger powers to their young daughter.
After being chased by mysterious agents for the first-half of the film, “the Shop” captures their prey allowing the second-half of the film to be centered around the (more than a little naïve) scientists testing the young girl to find out how much she can do and how they might use her power for their own ends.
Aside from limp story that can’t build any momentum even when the father and daughter are being chased around the country, the script also has consistency issues as Charlie at times seems to have perfect clairvoyance knowing when agents are at their heels but at the Shop she’s completed hoodwinked by one of agents posing as her friend (George C. Scott) which, of course, pushes events to the climax.
For a movie about a girl who can combust things at will, when properly motivated to do so, Firestarter is a bland film that really only gets interesting at the end when young Charlie’s (Barrymore) powers are finally unleashed. The film isn’t helped by its budget (I can’t see how the film could look more like a made-for-TV movie despite its theatrical release) nor the limited effects of the time (some of which looks downright laughable today). Other than some limited nostalgic value, there’s little here worth going back to as even King himself has called the film one of the worst adaptations of his work.
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