The original novel of Firestarter (1980) is one of Stephen King’s most affecting, in particular due to the child’s point-of-view story told throughout. Stanley Mann’s script for the film in fact conducts a faithful adaptation of the book. Mann touches bases with all the main aspects of the story without seeing the need to add anything – indeed, up to that point, Firestarter was the one Stephen King screen adaptation that followed the original text the most faithfully. Yet, while accurately conveying all elements of the story, the film suffers from a blandness. Director Mark L. Lester, previously known for exploitation films like Truck Stop Women (1974), Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976), Roller Boogie (1979) and the notoriously violent revenge drama The Class of 1984 (1982), has an insipid approach. He is not helped by the cinematographer’s reliance on a fish-eye lens and a robotic Tangerine Dream score.

Nevertheless, the very faithfulness to the Stephen King story gives the film life. What saves the film is Drew Barrymore in the central role. Barrymore had just come from her scene-stealing part as the younger sister in the mega-success of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). At only age nine here, she gives a phenomenal performance. Indeed, Drew Barrymore is oddly an actress who is far better as a child performer – E.T. and especially here – than she is in the unchallenging romantic fluff she has been cast in as an adult. The performance she gives is remarkably adult in the conviction and emotional centre she manages to draw to the film.

However, there is not much conviction to the pyrokinetic effects surrounding her. While the effects team have fun, there is never the sense that it is her doing it rather than the effects team putting on a show. The effect of wind flying through her hair every time she uses her powers or her urgently trying to command the fires to “Back off” is rather silly. The Japanese Cross Fire/Pyrokinesis (2000) did a far more amazing job in making the pyrotechnics looks exciting – indeed, Firestarter is a film that would benefit a great deal from a modern remake, using CGI to create the fires.

George C. Scott seems out of place as Rainbird. Somebody like James Woods would have been far more physically suited both to the psychotic intensity and to the physical look of the character that Stephen King wrote. Nevertheless, George C. Scott does bring some sinister effect in an otherwise entirely bloodless film – there is one nasty scene where he describes killing Charlie that gives the film some much needed bite. Martin Sheen seems uncustomarily absent-minded as Cap Hollister.

Firestarter Rekindled (2002) was a disappointing made-for-cable mini-series sequel that followed Charlie through into her twenties (where she was played by Margeurite Moreau) and brought Rainbird back from the dead (where he was played by Malcolm McDowall).

Firestarter was the first film to use of the theme of pyrokinesis, something that has proven surprisingly prevalent since. Other films taking up the subject have been Spontaneous Combustion (1990) and the excellent Japanese Cross Fire/Pyrokinesis (2000), as well as a number of tv episodes such as The X Files episode Fire (1993), the Smallville episode Plastique (2008) and the Fringe episode The Road Not Taken (2009). Surprisingly, even more prevalent have been efforts that have played the idea for comedy – Nice Girls Don’t Explode (1987), Pyrates (1991), the Hong Kong effort She Stars the Fire (1992) and Wilder Napalm (1993).

Director Mark L. Lester went onto become an action director with the likes of Commando (1985), Armed and Dangerous (1986) and Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). Lester returned to genre material with the silly android schoolteachers action film Class of 1999 (1990), the female stalker film The Ex (1996), the hilarious psycho sperm donor film Misbegotten (1997), which is Lester’s single best film, the serial killer thriller Sacrifice (2000), the monster movie Pterodactyl (2005) and Groupie (2010) about murders on a band’s comeback tour. Lester has also produced Devil’s Prey (2001), Instinct to Kill/The Perfect Husband (2001), Bad Karma/Hell’s Gate (2002), The Wisher (2002), Wraiths of Ronoake (2007), Yeti: Curse of the Demon (2008), Beauty and the Beast (2009), Jabberwocky (2011), Sand Sharks (2011), Sinbad and the Minotaur (2011) and Mentryville (2012).

Other Stephen King genre adaptations include:- Carrie (1976), Salem’s Lot (1979), The Shining (1980), Christine (1983), Cujo (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), Children of the Corn (1984), Cat’s Eye (1985), Silver Bullet (1985), The Running Man (1987), Pet Semetary (1989), Graveyard Shift (1990), It (tv mini-series, 1990), Misery (1990), a segment of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Sometimes They Come Back (1991), The Lawnmower Man (1992), The Dark Half (1993), Needful Things (1993), The Tommyknockers (tv mini-series, 1993), The Stand (tv mini-series, 1994), The Langoliers (tv mini-series, 1995), The Mangler (1995), Thinner (1996), The Night Flier (1997), Quicksilver Highway (1997), The Shining (tv mini-series, 1997), Trucks (1997), Apt Pupil (1998), The Green Mile (1999), The Dead Zone (tv series, 2001-2), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Carrie (tv mini-series, 2002), Dreamcatcher (2003), Riding the Bullet (2004), ‘Salem’s Lot (tv mini-series, 2004), Secret Window (2004), Desperation (tv mini-series, 2006), Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (tv mini-series, 2006), 1408 (2007), The Mist (2007), Children of the Corn (2009), Everything’s Eventual (2009), the tv series Haven (2010– ) and Bag of Bones (tv mini-series, 2011). Stephen King had also written a number of original screen works with Creepshow (1982), Golden Years (tv mini-series, 1991), Sleepwalkers (1992), Storm of the Century (tv mini-series, 1999), Rose Red (tv mini-series, 2002) and the tv series Kingdom Hospital (2004), as well as adapted his own works with the screenplays for Cat’s Eye, Silver Bullet, Pet Semetary, The Stand, The Shining, Desperation and Children of the Corn (2009). King also directed one film with Maximum Overdrive (1986).