Starring: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben

Directed by Keith Thomas

Universal, out now

A young girl tries to understand how she mysteriously gained the power to set things on fire with her mind. 

Keith Thomas’ new adaptation of the Stephen King novel didn’t have to be that good to be an improvement on Mark L Lester’s 1984 version starring Drew Barrymore, but even with such a low bar, he fails to light up the screen.

The trailer grandly exclaims ‘Based on Stephen King’s masterpiece’, which immediately raises a red flag. For me, the 1980 novel sits somewhere in the middle of King’s pantheon, and I certainly don’t consider it top tier. If anything, it’s a variation on his superior Carrie – young girl discovers super powers and uses them to effect revenge. And that was part of the problem of the first movie version: Drew looked too cute, even in her rage.

This time round, Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) has more of a scowl, but she’s no more terrifying. Zac Efron and Sydney Lemmon are her parents, Andy and Vicky McGee, trying to keep daughter Charlie off the radar. But when she’s bullied at school, she destroys a toilet, which is then picked up by the mysterious organisation The Shop, who send an assassin to capture her.

Scott Teems is one of the writers of Halloween Kills and his adaptation here of King follows the main beats of the novel, but it’s all very dry and slow. It’s only in the last 15 minutes that Charlie comes into her own, but even then it’s familiar CGI blasts and no sense of a real fire. At least the 2002 sequel mini-series Rekindled with Malcolm McDowell and Dennis Hopper took the story further along, this just being a dull retread.

One positive is the score by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, the horror director actually being attached to the original movie at one point. But the synth score alone can’t prevent Firestarter being consigned to the ‘Unnecessary King Remakes’ bin, alongside Carrie, The Stand and Pet Sematary.

Verdict: A remake that nobody really wanted and really wasn’t worth the effort. 5/10

Nick Joy