Remaking a classic is tricky business, especially when the story is from an author as celebrated as Stephen King. It can be done, as 2017's It proved, but the 2022 remake of Firestarter misses the mark by a mile.
The new Firestarter looks promising on paper. It features a haunting score by horror legend John Carpenter, has Stephen King's stamp of approval, and stars Zac Efron as distraught psychic dad Andy McGee. McGee, his wife Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) and their daughter Charlie (Ryan Keira Armstrong) are hiding from a corrupt government agency called the Shop, which is interested in using Charlie for her pyrokinetic powers. When Charlie accidentally uses her powers at school, it alerts the Shop, which send its one-man killing machine, John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), to capture Charlie.
The film holds up until about halfway through, where it begins blowing past crucial plot points in a sloppy race to reach the ending with as few action sequences as possible. The end result is a hollow film that lacks any of the structure or tension that made Firestarter a classic in the first place.
The issue with Firestarter 2022, when you compare it to the novel and the faithful 1984 remake starring a 9-year-old Drew Barrymore, is that most of the confrontations between Andy, Charlie and armed agents from the Shop have been gutted. Scenes where Charlie originally used her fire powers to attack agents from the Shop are replaced with shootouts, in what feels like an effort to save special effects money.
At the heart of it, the novel Firestarter is about the moral shortcomings of secret government testing during the Cold War and the omnipotence of government surveillance. For a movie set in 2022, the government barely uses any technology to find Andy and Charlie, which feels like a missed opportunity. The only real use of tech was the introduction of eye contacts that seemingly stop telekinetic mind control, because apparently in this retelling, telekinesis only works if you can look someone in the eyes — an addition that the film itself seems to forget half the time. This film could have been set in the 1980s and been almost virtually the same, and most likely better.
Overall, Firestarter 2022 feels cheap and empty. It was filmed mostly in Toronto and Hamilton in June 2021, so perhaps COVID restrictions played a hand in the sparsity of extras. There is even a scene where two children in Charlie's class high five one another with elbows in that sad, COVID way we all know. It seems like many important plot points from the original were removed, not out of creative license, but rather to save time and money — and, considering the fact that this film still cost $12 million dollars to make, you would think there would be more bang (pun intended) for your buck.
(Universal)The new Firestarter looks promising on paper. It features a haunting score by horror legend John Carpenter, has Stephen King's stamp of approval, and stars Zac Efron as distraught psychic dad Andy McGee. McGee, his wife Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) and their daughter Charlie (Ryan Keira Armstrong) are hiding from a corrupt government agency called the Shop, which is interested in using Charlie for her pyrokinetic powers. When Charlie accidentally uses her powers at school, it alerts the Shop, which send its one-man killing machine, John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), to capture Charlie.
The film holds up until about halfway through, where it begins blowing past crucial plot points in a sloppy race to reach the ending with as few action sequences as possible. The end result is a hollow film that lacks any of the structure or tension that made Firestarter a classic in the first place.
The issue with Firestarter 2022, when you compare it to the novel and the faithful 1984 remake starring a 9-year-old Drew Barrymore, is that most of the confrontations between Andy, Charlie and armed agents from the Shop have been gutted. Scenes where Charlie originally used her fire powers to attack agents from the Shop are replaced with shootouts, in what feels like an effort to save special effects money.
At the heart of it, the novel Firestarter is about the moral shortcomings of secret government testing during the Cold War and the omnipotence of government surveillance. For a movie set in 2022, the government barely uses any technology to find Andy and Charlie, which feels like a missed opportunity. The only real use of tech was the introduction of eye contacts that seemingly stop telekinetic mind control, because apparently in this retelling, telekinesis only works if you can look someone in the eyes — an addition that the film itself seems to forget half the time. This film could have been set in the 1980s and been almost virtually the same, and most likely better.
Overall, Firestarter 2022 feels cheap and empty. It was filmed mostly in Toronto and Hamilton in June 2021, so perhaps COVID restrictions played a hand in the sparsity of extras. There is even a scene where two children in Charlie's class high five one another with elbows in that sad, COVID way we all know. It seems like many important plot points from the original were removed, not out of creative license, but rather to save time and money — and, considering the fact that this film still cost $12 million dollars to make, you would think there would be more bang (pun intended) for your buck.