Firestarter – A Decent Barebones Reboot

The horror remake and reboot train, whether it’s warranted or not, keeps rolling with a remake of 1984’s Firestarter, also titled Firestarter. Debate on their necessity aside, nostalgia can be a powerful thing and this film certainly has that going for it for better or worse. A John Carpenter 19080s retro horror synth score sets the tone nicely, however, the film unfortunately does next to little with it. Running at a tight 90+ minutes, the film arguably suffers from an identity crisis throughout, taking the story in several directions without ever succeeding at any of them. That being said, even with those issues, the film does just enough as the sum of its parts make for a decent albeit thin and predictable watch that may not be over after the credits roll. Whether or not it will ultimately continue from here remains to be seen but a lower budget makes this film and any hypothetical sequel or sequels less of a risk. At the end of the day, instead of focusing on the future, it should nail down the present first which didn’t quite happen here.

Firestarter follows a father named Andy McGee (Efron), his wife Vicky (Lemmon), and their daughter Charlie (Armstrong) who find themselves on the run from those looking to capture the latter to experiment on. Their family was born out of unethical experimentation on the less fortunate by some mysterious organization resulting in Andy and Vicky gaining telepathic powers. Being the result of Andy and Vicky, Charlie develops an even more volatile set of powers for which she couldn’t control. Instead of helping Charlie control her powers, Andy’s wish was for her to repress them so she can focus on just living a normal life in spite of their circumstances. Suffice it to say that it was easier said than done as that volatility made their family a target. Either way, the McGees couldn’t do this forever as their cover would eventually be blown. Where the film got somewhat interesting was when they did something about it.

From there, Firestarter was a battle between the flawed but thin good guys versus even thinner bad guys and that’s being generous. The major grounding force of this was the relationship between Andy and Charlie. The script may be thin and the story was predictable but this part still sort of worked as their relationship evolved through their shared adversity. Otherwise, the film was on the dull side more often than not, giving the two very little to do while giving audiences little reason to connect with them on any kind of emotional level whatsoever. At the root of the story, the film lives or dies on that connection because without it, there’s no point regardless of everything else. Meanwhile, those looking for some damage and/or a body count may be disappointed, opting for quality over quantity. Nevertheless, the film definitely makes the most out of its budget by delivering enough moments though everything else about it is essentially bare bones which makes it feel lifeless at times.

In the end, the best part of Firestarter was the performances with the dynamic of Efron and Armstrong as Andy and Charlie leading the way. They are not required to go particularly deep with their characters but their chemistry at least keeps it watchable. Armstrong particularly shoulders the load nicely with her youthful energy as the overall film feels like a prologue for her and Charlie and perhaps works the best when viewed that way. In terms of villains, Gloria Reuben is miscast as Captain Hollister, the leader of the mysterious organization hunting the McGees. Though there was more there, that organization went no further than the precipice at least for now.

Firestarter does nothing to justify its existence but those looking for a nostalgia fix may find enough here.

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.