Firestarter *** (1984, Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Heather Locklear, George C Scott, Martin Sheen, Art Carney, Freddie Jones, Louise Fletcher) – Classic Movie Review 6,012

Drew Barrymore stars in a career-starter early horror role in the 1984 film Firestarter, as a precocious eight-year-old little girl called ‘Charlie’ McGee, who can ignite objects with just a glance.

Drew Barrymore stars in a career-starter early horror role in the 1984 American science fiction thriller film Firestarter, as a precocious eight-year-old little girl called ‘Charlie’ McGee, who can ignite objects with just a glance. David Keith also stars as her dad ‘Andy’ McGee, who is trying to protect her from the US government agent bad guys out to find or destroy her.

The idea is that Charlie’s dad and mom ‘Vicky’ (Heather Locklear) first met when they took part as guinea pigs in some mysterious college medical experiment to get telekinetic abilities. Later they marry and find their daughter Charlie is pyrokinetic.

Now the secret government agency known as The Shop seeks to control her.

Director Mark L Lester and producer Frank Capra Jr’s 1984 creepy child/ telekinesis film is a commendably eerie, scary and suspenseful horror movie, well adapted in a strong screenplay by Stanley Mann from a Stephen King novel.

There is a bunch of good stars and excellent handling by Lester to recommend it, and even better cinematography (Giuseppe Ruzzolini), score (Tangerine Dream), stunts and trick work as well.

The star cast also include: George C Scott, Martin Sheen, Art Carney, Freddie Jones, Louise Fletcher, Moses Gunn, Antonio Fargas, Drew Synder, Jeff Ramsey and Richard [Dick] Worlock.

It runs 114 minutes.

It was fairly popular but not a big hit: costing an estimated $12 million – $15 million, it took back $17.1 million at the US/Canada box office for a total of $18.9 million worldwide.

It is made by the Dino De Laurentiis Company and released by Universal Pictures. The film was the first to be shot at Dino De Laurentiis’s then new studio complex in North Carolina. It was shot in and around the city of Wilmington, Chimney Rock, and Lake Lure, in North Carolina from September 12 to November 26, 1983.

it had the usual tangled web of development. While John Carpenter was filming The Thing in 1982, Universal asked him to direct Firestarter, and he hired his The Thing screenwriter Bill Lancaster to write a screenplay, which Stephen King approved. But months later, Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to work on a rewrite of Lancaster’s draft, with Richard Dreyfuss starring.

But when The Thing underperformed, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L Lester, who brought Stanley Mann to write a screenplay closer to the novel. Bill Lancaster’s father Burt Lancaster was cast as Captain Hollister, but had to quit through heart surgery and was replaced by Martin Sheen.

Stephen King called it ‘one of the worst of the bunch’ of the adaptations of his work he had seen, saying it was ‘flavourless’.

Mark Lester recalled: ‘The underlining tone is the CIA and corruption. I got a book about experiments the CIA did with college kids and LSD and hallucinogenic drugs, so that part was true. Dino De Laurentiis wanted to make an anti-CIA movie and Firestarter has a lot of that political paranoia about secret agents killing people and stuff.’

A miniseries follow-up Firestarter 2: Rekindled followed belatedly in 2002.

A remake, also titled Firestarter, starring Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, and produced by Blumhouse Productions, was released on May 13, 2022.

Other films of this era along these lines include Carrie (1976), Patrick (1978), Zapped! (1982), Scanners (1981), Modern Problems (1981) The Fury (1978), and The Medusa Touch (1978).

The cast

The cast are David Keith as Andrew ‘Andy’ McGee, Drew Barrymore as Charlie McGee, Freddie Jones as Dr Joseph Wanless, Heather Locklear as Vicky Tomlinson McGee, Martin Sheen as Captain James Hollister, George C Scott as John Rainbird, Art Carney as Irv Manders, Louise Fletcher as Norma Manders, Moses Gunn as Dr Pynchot, George P Wilbur as DSI Orderly, Antonio Fargas, Drew Synder, Jeff Ramsey and Richard [Dick] Worlock.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,012

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