Firestarter

When this remake was first announced, I was very intrigued by the concept and the potential the story could have but my main worry was that it was under the studio Blumhouse and they have one of the most inconsistent quality controls of any studio out there. They have made films that are regarded some of the best of all time but they also have films that are some of the worst of all time so this was a nervous factor. And the fact that all the reviews claimed how bad this film was, my expectations were very low

But I was optimistic, I never watched a trailer and I will openly admit I have not seen the original so whatever I think of this film, Its purely based on what I watched but to my surprise and I may be in the minority here but I really liked this film.

So starting off with the positives, I really loved the main two stars of the film. Ryan Keira Armstrong is proving to become one hell of a rising star. I have only seen her in little parts but this is the first time I've seen her in a lead role and she completely holds her own in this film. Zac Efron actually surprised me a bit. He seems to be an actor who everyone, even me, forgets just how talented his really is. I never once saw him as a horror actor and was intrigued how'd he do in this film and he did really well. I would interested to see him do more horror work in the future.

Now the story was my main intrigued to this film and that did not disappoint. Now this is a similar concept to the film Carrie. A young girl with powers who gets made fun of and has no control over them. But this film does a good job at going in its own direction and not become a carbon copy of Carrie and in fact, ultimately this is a story about a man trying to protect his daughter and help her control her powers and as a fan of Sci-Fi, fantasy, superheroes etc, there are some scenes where I felt those moments. You get invested that this young girl could either use her powers for good or has the ability to cause global destruction unless she has proper guidance.

My biggest surprise with this film however is the world building. Without going into spoilers, as we get to learn the characters more, the world surrounding them starts to get more interesting and I'm unsure if this is  a change for this version or if it was in the original film but it was a pleasant surprise.

As a film that's just over 90 minutes, I think it's paced very well. There's never a moment where you feel the film is dragging and you're always engaged. Even when there's not a lot happening, you get some really nice heartfelt scenes.

As for the action, it's pretty well handled, there's a very good choreographed massacre scene at some point during the film, there's some decent kills and good injury detail and that is satisfying as a gore fan.

I also really liked the score to this film. It's composed by John Carpenter who can do some really iconic scores and whilst this isn't his best, it fits the film really well and sticks with you even when the film ends.

And finally this is a film that I can see at some point becoming a franchise. In an era where horror sequels feels more forced just for money, this film feels like its laying down the foundation for at least one sequel or a spinoff to explore more of the world that has been built up in this film.

Onto the mixed aspects, for me, its the ending. Without going into spoilers, I liked most of it but there are some choices made during the ending that had me a little frustrated and touching onto something I'll mention more in the negatives, one moment didn't feel fully earned.

Onto the negatives now and the first thing is besides the main two characters, the rest of the characters are pretty forgettable. They feel like they're there to fit the purpose of the story rather have their own arc. Even when it comes to the mother of the film, she's essentially a plot device to serve Armstrongs character development.

This is also a film where it felt very unfocused at what it wanted to be. First of all, this film never once felt like a horror film. It feels like a mix of drama, Sci-Fi, thriller but never once did I get any horror vibes which was disappointing.

And finally I think this film should have been close to 2 hours rather than 90 minutes as some story elements feel rushed especially when it comes to exploring the characters powers and abilities.

So overall this is nowhere near the inferno (excuse the pun) I expected it to be. This is not the best horror film I've seen this year, mainly because it never felt like one but it's certainly not the worst or even in my bottom 10 of this year and I would urge people to give it a shot.

⭐️⭐️⭐️