Firestarter

1984

I’m assuming since I have to watch at least 3 to 7 Stephen King movies for this writing experiment, I might as well start with a light one (I didn’t intend that pun). Firestarter is one of those films from the 80s that you watch and wonder how many drugs Drew Barrymore has tried yet. Also, the music reminds me of an episode of “MacGuyver.” I keep expecting Richard Dean Anderson to jump out of a hay bale to take down the little girl who lights bathtubs on fire with her mind. But I’m getting ahead of myself, and that’s just wishful thinking.

This film hinges on just one element of the horror genre: telekinesis. A man and woman are given a hallucinogenic drug under a test by a “secret” department of the government. This causes them to have telepathy and they fall in love together. They have kid (Drew Barrymore) who also somehow has mind control powers. Except instead of controlling people’s mind, she can start fires with hers. When we first meet her, the father is on the run and her mother is a dead. We find out they are trying to escape the very secret government agency. They want Drew’s freaky arsonist skills to build a bomb or something for them.

The “feds,” headed up by a skinny Martin Sheen, but really controlled by Native-American looking George C. Scott, finally catch up with the father-daughter freak show. They bring them in for testing to see what their mind-powers can do in a controlled environment. The father fails to really do much because he’s old and doped up. However, Drew is getting stronger with her laser mind. She can start pretty much anything on fire (cars, ice, hot cocoa, people, cinder blocks, etc).

In the end, Martin Sheen tries to send the father off to a remote island so he doesn’t interact with his daughter anymore. Fortunately, Dad and Daughter are reunited just in time for him to die and to tell her, “Just burn this mutha-fucker to the ground!” (in so many words). She obliges and burns down everything, included Indian George C. Scott, the entire secret government compound, Martin Sheen, a helicopter. But NOT the horses-she lets them go because she is a compassionate pyrokinetic.

Creepy children seem to be the stuff horror movies are made of. Especially Stephen King ones. I don’t know what it is, but a sociopath child is way more frightening then any monster or alien. In the end of this movie, Drew hitchhikes her way back to a farm, where a couple first helped her and her dad while they were on the run. Although the movie seems to end with a happy ending, something about Drew’s smile makes me think she is the going to light this nice couple on fire in a few months. Some people just want to watch the world burn. Or that smile was all the drugs she was on. Either way, typical 80s.