Review of Firestarter (1984) by Lilymanahan — 13 Nov 2018

I chose to analyze the adaptation between the book by Stephen King and the movie. King has many telltale elements that are prominent throughout his novels. King pays special attention to detail by focusing on establishing every scene and the specific attributes of every character.

King also relies on the use of flashbacks throughout to help build background for the plot line. While reading this novel, I was able to feel a deep empathy for the characters, and felt the scariness Stephen King was trying to achieve in this psychological thriller.

Sadly, I felt a lot of the defining elements and the true intent of King’s purpose was lost in the film adaptation. The movie focused too much on the action of the fire rather than the dangers of a human mind that King was showing.

There was constant non-diegetic sound almost through the entire movie, never really letting the audience immerse themselves into the story. I understand the director made the choice to keep the music to add suspense, it more or less covered up the real scariness.

It also felt as though the director completely disregarded King’s use of symbolism in the movie. The main antagonist, Rainbird, was supposed to have grotesque scares across his face, and missing an eye.

Yet, in the film adaptation, Rainbird, played by John C. Reilly, had nothing more than a light blue contact in to make him look blind. While the movie did have some high points, like keeping the flashbacks very prominent and filling the main climatic scene with low-key light, close shots, and both non-digetic and diegetic sound; I believe the movie still didn’t do justice to the book.

While I was sitting there watching the movie, I became bored. I never felt as though I was with the characters or could empathize with them like I had in the book. I think this had to be because the movie took no time to establish time or setting, so everything seemed to elapse in a span of days when in the book it was over 2 years long.

There was only one establishing scene throughout the whole movie to start the movie in Washington D.C. which wasn’t even the same setting as the book. King used pages upon pages to set up every chapter; every scene so the reader knew what was happening.

The movie never once showed a change in time or even having an actor say it in the movie. Stephen King has had some marvelous film adaptations of his books, including: Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Misery, and Stand by Me.

But as I have read many Stephen King novels and watched the movies too, I do not believe Firestarter should be included with the others. It turned a wonderful, puzzling thriller novel into a cheesy, action-centered film that has since been forgotten.