Firestarter movie review - Aussieboyreviews

IS FIRESTARTER’S HORROR MATERIAL AS FIERY AS IT APPEARS?

There’s lots of fire, but let the fire burn your ticket before you see this movie. Firestarter is a terrible horror movie adapted by the Stephen King novel with horrible acting, terrible writing and nothing interesting.

Storyline

A mother and father attempt to keep their young daughter, who has the ability to set things on fire using her mind, hidden from a federal agency that wants to harness her gift into a weapon of mass destruction.

Movie Images

Movie details

Director: Keith Thomas
Cast: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley
Writer: Scott Teems
Release Date (Australia): 12 May 2022
Runtime: 94 minutes/1h 34m
Genre: Horror, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Language: English

CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)

Themes (MA15+)

Several characters use supernatural abilities to set people, objects and animals on fire and severe burning injuries are depicted.

Violence (MA15+)

The film includes multiple scenes in which people are shot and characters use supernatural abilities to set people on fire. These scenes are often accompanied by bloody spurting detail and severe burning injuries.

Coarse Language (M)

The film includes several uses of “f**k”, “s**t”, “bastard”, “hell” and “damn”.

Drug Use (G)

There is a brief verbal drug reference.

Nudity (G)

There is partial nipple nudity as a woman breastfeeds her baby.

Sex (None)

None.

mpaa rating

R (for violent content)

Aussie boy's thoughts

Rather than seeing this movie, just let this screaming little fire-powers girl set your ticket on fire and forget about it. There are already plenty of unoriginal horror movies these days that use the average techniques such as typical stories, tired ideas and predictable scares, all being overused. Usually, their failed attempts at being scary provide audiences with a good chuckle they can watch and forget, but there’s nothing fun about this movie.

Yes, this remake of a Stephen King-adapted original takes a shot at being a serious film, but the failure still gives us nothing to laugh at. There’s absolutely nothing decent and any little positive sparks aren’t present anywhere. Firstly, the writing for the film is completely terrible. Scott Teems, who also did quite poorly with the previous Halloween Kills sequel, simply doesn’t allow his script to kick in with a hook or properly get to know the characters, like he just expects us to feel like we’ve known them their entire lives. Poor character development and lack of personality equals to people you can’t care or root for, and it’s hard to care for dumb idiots who abuse their superpowers and take advantage of them in negative ways.

The performances are also horrid, with Zac Efron being the most unconvincing father figure of all time and child actor Ryan Kiera Armstrong making our ears bleed when she screams as she releases her powers. The fiery sequences are also pretty cheesy and since they take up a small minority of the film, Firestarter is a complete mess of a borefest. Plus, it’s painful to see animals being tortured and burned to death and everything going on behind the camera doesn’t involve enough talent. Do not sit through this fiery borefest of a horror movie, just let Charlie burn it down with her mind.

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