Firestarter starts as Andrew McGee (David Keith) & his young daughter Charlene (Drew Barrymore) escape the clutches of some federal agent type guy's, you see a shadowy Governemt organisation called 'The Shop' conducted some experiments on Andrew & Charlene's mother Victoria (Heather Locklear) who then got together, had sex & ended up with Charlene who as a result of the experiments is a pyrokinetic & can start fires by just thinking about it. Now the evil guy's & gal's who run The Shop want Andrew for his own telekinetic abilities & Charlene for hers, Andrew knows they want to conduct experiments on himself & Charlene for their own evil purposes & is determined not to let The Shop get hold of them...
Directed by Mark L. Lester & adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name Firestarter is fairly mean spirited but watchable horror/thriller. The script by Stanley Mann which takes itself very seriously is at it's most enjoyable during it's first half when Andrew & Charlene are on the run which is when it is pretty interesting & relatively absorbing, unfortunately the second half of the film switches gears completely & it becomes evil scientists vs. Charlene & lets face it there was only ever going to be one winner. I'm not happy about the long sequences of Charlene making people burn to death, I'm sorry but I felt no sympathy for her as a character & the scenes of these people burning, whether they had done anything to her or not, were pretty strong & Lester certainly likes to dwell on their pain & the screams they make as they burn. I usually love exploitation & the nastier the better but these parts in Firestarter just didn't sit well we me at all & thought they were gratuitous & unnecessary. The character's aren't great, the dialogue is OK & I didn't really see why they wanted to capture Andrew & Charlene so badly, I mean whose bright idea was it to suggest they could control her anyway? Ultimately what did they intend to do with her? It moves along at a reasonable pace & isn't too boring but I doubt I'd want to watch it anytime again soon.
Director Lester does a good job, the suitably fiery climax is pretty brutal as Charlene dishes out some swift & severe punishment. Apparently Lester replaced John Carpenter who was originally set to direct but after the critical & financial failure of The Thing (1982), which coincidently is one of the biggest travesty's in cinematic history, the money men at Universal 'removed' him from the project. I wouldn't call it scary, it's not particularly creepy or exciting either but it does have a certain sinister atmosphere. There are some strong scenes of people being set on fire & burning to death here, the special effects do a great job perhaps even too great a job as they come across as excessive. Forget about any gore or violence as there isn't any.
Shot in North Carolina & boasting a very healthy sounding budget of about $15,000,000 Firestarter has a very slick & professional look about it, it's well made with impressive fire effects & it has high production values. There's a surprisingly good cast here, Martin Sheen who took over from Burt Lancaster at short notice, Drew Barrymore who was riding high on the success of E.T. (1982), coincidently E.T. was the reason why The Thing bombed at the box-office, George C. Scott complete with comedy eye-patch & Heather Locklear are all probably recognisable to the average film-goer.
Firestarter is a decent enough time waster, it's an OK Stephen King adaptation, it has a good cast & some impressive fire effects but as a whole it's average with a predictable & lightweight story that ultimately goes nowhere. Followed by the made-for-TV sequel Firestarter II: Rekindled (2002) which brings the villain John Rainbird back from the dead somehow...
Directed by Mark L. Lester & adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name Firestarter is fairly mean spirited but watchable horror/thriller. The script by Stanley Mann which takes itself very seriously is at it's most enjoyable during it's first half when Andrew & Charlene are on the run which is when it is pretty interesting & relatively absorbing, unfortunately the second half of the film switches gears completely & it becomes evil scientists vs. Charlene & lets face it there was only ever going to be one winner. I'm not happy about the long sequences of Charlene making people burn to death, I'm sorry but I felt no sympathy for her as a character & the scenes of these people burning, whether they had done anything to her or not, were pretty strong & Lester certainly likes to dwell on their pain & the screams they make as they burn. I usually love exploitation & the nastier the better but these parts in Firestarter just didn't sit well we me at all & thought they were gratuitous & unnecessary. The character's aren't great, the dialogue is OK & I didn't really see why they wanted to capture Andrew & Charlene so badly, I mean whose bright idea was it to suggest they could control her anyway? Ultimately what did they intend to do with her? It moves along at a reasonable pace & isn't too boring but I doubt I'd want to watch it anytime again soon.
Director Lester does a good job, the suitably fiery climax is pretty brutal as Charlene dishes out some swift & severe punishment. Apparently Lester replaced John Carpenter who was originally set to direct but after the critical & financial failure of The Thing (1982), which coincidently is one of the biggest travesty's in cinematic history, the money men at Universal 'removed' him from the project. I wouldn't call it scary, it's not particularly creepy or exciting either but it does have a certain sinister atmosphere. There are some strong scenes of people being set on fire & burning to death here, the special effects do a great job perhaps even too great a job as they come across as excessive. Forget about any gore or violence as there isn't any.
Shot in North Carolina & boasting a very healthy sounding budget of about $15,000,000 Firestarter has a very slick & professional look about it, it's well made with impressive fire effects & it has high production values. There's a surprisingly good cast here, Martin Sheen who took over from Burt Lancaster at short notice, Drew Barrymore who was riding high on the success of E.T. (1982), coincidently E.T. was the reason why The Thing bombed at the box-office, George C. Scott complete with comedy eye-patch & Heather Locklear are all probably recognisable to the average film-goer.
Firestarter is a decent enough time waster, it's an OK Stephen King adaptation, it has a good cast & some impressive fire effects but as a whole it's average with a predictable & lightweight story that ultimately goes nowhere. Followed by the made-for-TV sequel Firestarter II: Rekindled (2002) which brings the villain John Rainbird back from the dead somehow...