Firestarter (1984)

There are some Stephen King movies that got sassed pretty hard back in the day. This one seems to be pretty damn close to the book and overall, was made quite well. I had seen it as a kid when it first came out (I was ten) but this was the first time watching as an adult.

The Shop was a cool idea. A fleeing adult/child combo works for Stephen King (like Salem's Lot). The psychic bent made it all the more exciting. The description calls it a science fiction horror, which I thought was interesting. I never thought of it as sci fi until today.

Most people have probably seen Firestarter by now. Aside from miscasting (George C. Scott playing the guy who was supposed to be Native American) and the music (hired the band, didn't let them see the movie, they delivered random music to use), it was an entertaining and well paced film.

Shockingly, they squeezed it in under two hours. Considering how long Stephen King books typically are, the stories tend to suffer from being shortened for cinema. I felt there was enough on screen to get the point across and still keep it fun.

The special effects are a little dated but then, it was 1984. Same production people were busy messing up Dune around that time so maybe they were spread a little thin. The practical stuff worked well though (boiling water, ice instantly turned to slag).

I didn't find the movie particularly scary until they got into Rainbird's motivations. His speech about why he helped convince Charlie to do the experiments disgusted me. Super well done.

The sequel supposedly has him in the movie, horribly scarred and messed up. I read that he's still obsessed with Charlie but considering why he wanted her in the first movie, it makes zero sense he'd still care in the second film. After all, he wanted to kill purity and after murdering everyone at the Shop (and god knows who else in the intervening years), you'd think he'd have forgotten about her.

Oh well, this isn't about that. Apparently, it's a travesty anyway.

This movie, I liked and recommend it if you haven't seen it, especially since they're talking about a remake coming soon. Not many details yet but I'm sure there will be soon. These newer Stephen King films are pretty high quality.

Rating: 4 out of 5