Firestarter (2022)

2022 • 94 minutes

About this movie

Blumhouse reignites Firestarter with this explosive adaptation of the classic Stephen King thriller. Protected by her parents, Charlie has lived her childhood on the run and has kept her extraordinary pyrokinetic powers in check. But now that she's turning 11, the flames are harder to control, and sinister forces are seeking to capture her. Charlie must learn to embrace the fire from within and fight to control it in order to protect her family and freedom.

Ratings and reviews

Having loved the original starring Drew Barrymore, I was excited to see this despite the bad reviews. I watched this with great anticipation and was sorely disappointed. I am STILL not sure what I watched, but it bore no resemblance to the Stephen King novel or original at all. Why Zach Efron signed up for this piece of garbage is beyond me. The writing, acting, and special effects were just awful. Top 3 worst remakes I have ever seen.

Essentially a low budget indie film. Acting is okay, the number of people in screen is limited, possibly many reuse of actors. Music is not good, for several times I was forced out of the plot due to the music being so generic that I couldn't stop thinking if they downloaded some online stock music as BGM. VFX is disappointing, fires are mostly 2D After Effect, the biggest one at the end is obviously done by a flamethrower, which really makes her power feel weak.

Three stars for being serviceable. I accept part of the blame for my disappointment with expecting this movie to have anything to do with the original beyond the basic "dad and daughter with powers, daughter make with the fire". It's not actively bad, but it isn't entertaining either. Again, maybe that was just my expectations, actually wanting or expecting a dramatic finale, but regardless: meh.