Firestarter evokes no strong feelings. It's not a film that has a point of view or an urge to get you to understand something about human nature.

| Original Score: D | Jul 3, 2024

Firestarter should either be a campy romp or a semi-serious look at the way people try to quell the rage of young women.

| May 22, 2024

Keith Thomas sets the original script on fire and with that, the possibility of making a better movie. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/10 | Apr 24, 2024

When the lit match hits the tinder, the powered prodigy pulls no punches, making for a high body count as she turns the tables on the government’s goons, who devise an impressive gauntlet to capture her.

| Aug 16, 2023

Besides its competent musical score from Carpenter and actors that appear to try, Firestarter is a lacklustre remake. It lacks both horror and heart, features shoddy effects and suffers from a complete identity crisis.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 24, 2023

The '80s adaptation of Stephen King's sci-fi horror didn't draw rave reviews, so this 2022 reboot from horror movie factory Blumhouse took another stab. Results? Not good...it does offer the intrigue of seeing Zac Efron take the lead in a horror flick.

| Mar 21, 2023

Seemingly less interested with fire, Thomas’s story taps into the heart of King’s novel, a little girl making peace with who she truly is.

| Original Score: C | Feb 18, 2023

This was Firestarter, turgid Firestarter Unwanted Firestarter, dire Firestarter Pointless Firestarter, one star Firestarter

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 13, 2022

A talkative horror-tinged superhero origin story that, sadly, never manages to turn up the heat.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Nov 2, 2022

No knowledge of the original is needed for this pointless and lifeless update. It stands and stinks on its own.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 16, 2022

An overly serious take on some pretty silly subject matter.

| Original Score: C | Jul 28, 2022

(Sung to the tune of that Prodigy song) I hate the Firestarter...it's stupid, Firestarter...hey, hey, hey!

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 12, 2022

"...featuring none of the things that made the first one appealing, this one is barely a spark, much less a fire."

| Original Score: 3/10 | Jul 9, 2022

It's almost unbelievable that this new version could turn out so unwatchable.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 3, 2022

Director Keith Thomas uses ominous music and moody lighting in an attempt to crank up the tension, but that fails entirely in the face of uniformly wooden performances, unconvincing special effects and a plot that fails to engage.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 30, 2022

A premise with a lot of potential but like the original movie this one's pretty inept, thematically empty and dumbed down from the original source material.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 27, 2022

Zac Efron looking so bored that blood drips from his eyes, dressing up King's 1980 story as a superhero tale and having its pyrokinetic protagonist say "liar liar, pants on fire" when she's torching someone aren't a recipe for igniting movie magic.

| Jun 24, 2022

Some solid performances and a few good scenes raise some expectations that this remake can exceed the original, but ultimately the film throws everything away in favor of a ridiculous ending added to set up a sequel no one wants.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 22, 2022

Not even bad enough to be funny, this is just plain boring.

| Jun 15, 2022

In the history of bad adaptations and remakes this is almost impressive in how ill-advised the entire project is. Bad with every possible critical checkmark, this is an embarrassment that left me angry.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Jun 13, 2022