Firestarter, 2022
It is an American horror and science fiction movie of director Keith Thomas, from the screenplay of Scott Teems, and based on the novel of Stephen King of similar name. It is also the remake of the same movie from 1984.
Cast Lists
John Beasley acted as Irv Manders
Zac Efron acted as “Andy”, Andrew McGee, Charlie’s telepathic father
Michael Greyeyes acted as John Rainbird, the bounty hunter that has been assigned by the DSI in hunting Charlie.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong acted as “Charlie”, Charlene McGee, the 11 years old disturbed girl pressured with anger and mood swings issues mostly due to her pyrokinesis.
Sydney Lemmon acted as “Vicky”, Victoria Tomlinson-McGee, Charlie’s mother and the telekinetic wife of Andy.
Gloria Reuben acted as Jane Hollister, their Capt. and head of DSI, the gender-swapped part of James Hollister.
Kurtwood Smith acted as Joseph Wanless, the doctor
Plot
In a flashback, the baby “Charlie” Charlene McGee sits in the crib, spontaneously setting a room ablaze with the Pyrokinesis power and transferring her father Andrew into panic. In one more flashback, his girlfriend Vicky and the young Andy talked to the doctor in the clinical trial, who explained to them that there will be an injection that will take place with the investigational chemical drugs Lot-6, which furtively gives them supernatural power: Andy gains telepathy, while Vicky has telekinesis.
During the present time, Charlie was sitting on a kitchen table right after a nightmare. Then her parents joined her and Charlie to explain that she was repressing something bad, and her powers become more unstable. She accidentally caused the ruckus at the school after exploding the bathroom stall because of anger when being bullied. Andy had been shown using also his power, “push”, to influence the client to halt smoking, even though the strain caused the bleeding of his eyes.
Meanwhile, in the secret facility, Capt. Jane Hollister, the head of DSI or Dept. of Scientific Intelligence was monitoring thermal signature caused by the outbursts of Charlie. She visited Dr. Joseph Wanless, maker of Lot-6 with the resulting superhuman, who implored Hollister on terminating Charlie before her power become uncontrollable. Hollister enlisted the fellow superhuman John on assisting her. Rainbird visited the McGee house, confronting Vicky, who attempted to counterattack with the repressed telekinetic power. Rainbird overpowered and killed her, holding Charlie in the knifepoint as Andy and she entered the house. Charlie’s power overwhelmed him and she transmitted the concussive burst of flame throughout the house. Charlie and Andy escape into the truck.
Writer’s Opinion
Firestarter is the movie that looks ugly, handled to be rushed and feels cheap, yet needlessly slow and still feel bored. It does not really succeeded in any genre and with just some cheap jump scares of being a horror and this movie definitely failed as a superhero film.
The cast did their best, but with the weak material, it just almost makes the movie work. It is just nice to see a more dramatic performance from the casts, but they had been let down by certain lifeless and bland stuffs. However, Smith’s brief appearance has been great and threatened to give the movie some actual energy. Thankfully, the movie is short and the movie music is fantastic, simply the best part in the film. It is better than anything else happening and then just tricked you into thinking that something actually interesting will take place and then nothing happen.
