Firestarter

LOT-6 was created by scientists, tested on human guinea pigs, and as a result, some of their test subjects gain mental powers. The Shop is a defense department behind the project. The Shop has assassins on their payroll. One couple, both successful test subjects, have a daughter born with "pyrokinesis", an ability to mentally set whatever she desires (including cinder block) on fire. The Shop want to test how far she can go with her ability...her parents, however, are considered a liability. It is believed by some in The Shop that this girl could be a danger if her father-protector is disposed of. One of The Shop's assassins, John Rainbird, has plans for the girl once the department's testing is done. Can the girl and her father escape Rainbird and The Shop?
***½

You know, I realize a lot of critics weren’t exactly fond of Firestarter and from what I can recall, author Stephen King considered it one of his worst adaptations, but I have always been a fan even if the idea/image of giant flaming fireballs destroying people, objects, and buildings created from the mind of a child can be a bit silly visually. I think the love of a daughter and father is what really comes out best besides the badass pyrotechnics in this movie.

Look, Drew Barrymore has her beloved fans that have followed her since she was a child. I’m one of them. We are about the same age and there are a bunch of us 30-somethings who just adore her. That’s just the way it is. Firestarter was right there in the midst of her ET success and slightly before she would become a party girl. She’s an adorable child, here, with some warm moments with David Keith, her character thrust in the middle of a dangerous governmental operation where the powers-that-be consider her a viable resource considering her phenomenal gift of starting fires through mere thought.

With a wind machine blowing Barrymore's hair as the little tyke mentally builds her fireballs from scratch, buildings behind her (...eventually aflame or exploding), lots of agents and security police surrounding or ahead of her(..fodder for the impending inferno), I guess I can see why it is considered a bit hard to swallow or laughable. When bullets bounce off some sort of "mental force-field" that protects her, soon pissing her off enough to return in retaliation, I can imagine a few would find this a bit too much. There are flame lines driving on the ground towards running agents, with one particular agent hit by a powerful fireball, sending him straight into a nearby tree. The pyro stuntmen earned their paycheck for this movie. You like lots of stuntmen on fire and buildings engulfed in flames? Pop this baby in and enjoy.

Some consider George C Scott’s “problem solver” (basically a governmental psychopath), with one eye albino-colored, a bit of an over-the-top villain, but I think the film feels the need  to establish an entity—operating on the fringes of the American government in experimental weaponry and dealing with matters that concern our country’s staying one step ahead of everyone else in regards to national security and weapons defense systems—and suits operating under orders by said entity as threats to a father and his daughter. With the mother's murder, we know what The Shop's agents are capable of. It says that to stop—father and daughter on the run because both have powers that are desirable by The Shop (or to kill them if so inclined)—would be capture or possible death.

 Mark Lester’s film takes us right into a chase as father Andy (David Keith), and daughter, Charlie (Barrymore), are trying to get away from suits, eventually grabbing a taxi, heading to the airport, mind-controlling a phone to spit out quarters, and getting a room at a cheap hotel. Eventually the duo find a kindly farming couple (Art Carney & Louise Fletcher; this film is just chock full of great actors!), the kind of couple who were never able to have children, and it is a momentary refuge from those out to get them. It doesn’t last long as suits eventually find them, resulting in some burnt bodies, the father almost killed while Charlie assumes control sending agents of The Shop into flames. Department of Scientific Intelligence is the official name for The Shop.

What I find myself conflicted about is the angle with George C Scott’s assassin. You know his plans—how horrifying they are, considering he plans to kill her once she provides Martin Sheen’s leader of the The Shop the goods on her pyrokinetic power—yet his scenes with Barrymore are rather warm and even touching, almost damn near poignant. That might say something about Scott’s performance of the role—his approach to the character, that on-off switch like changing personalities as if putting on different masks—the way he can manipulate people, then kill them without a moment’s hesitation. We see Scott’s ugly handiwork when he strangles an innocent postal worker just to get his hands on letters meant by Andy to reach newspapers on the LOT-6 project (the college experimental chemical project which has volunteering students agreeing to take a drug that can lend those whose physiology is acceptable to it mental powers), or especially one singular strike to the face of the LOT-6’s lead doc (played by Freddie Jones, in a throwaway part that gives him maybe ten or so minutes as a scientist whose alliance with The Shop would be his own undoing) killing him instantly. We know what he was capable of; when he tells Sheen what he plans to do, there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t.

You see how he uses a disguise as a clean up janitor to gain access to her room, then a thunderstorm, power outage, Vietnam jungle story pretending to fear the dark to earn her sympathy, eventually the little girl putty, with him actually tucking her in bed. It is all there, and his confidence in developing a bond and trust just to later strike her with a death blow, it really is a chilling character Scott portrays. He speaks about “the gods”, having some sort of belief Barrymore has a gift from them.

There’s a chilling scene that really proves how much of a lunatic John Rainbird is. It is the way Scott delivers it in a rather matter-of-fact fashion. He describes how his “John the Orderly” will make Charlie smile, and when she’s at her happiest he’ll strike her in the bridge of her nose sending bone fragments into her brain. He believes he’ll perhaps receive her power and take it with him to the other side. I don’t know where this spiritual belief comes from, but when Scott’s psychopath casually and calmly talks about how he’ll take from Charlie her gift so he can benefit from it, you can believe he has no gumption doing exactly as he says. Before the film is over, you can imagine lives will be lost and Charlie’s, in particular, will be changed forever. Rainbird knows Captain Hollister (Sheen) won’t interfere because if he’s dead the truth will come out about The Shop’s nefarious activities beyond the law, ramifications that would specifically identify LOT-6. There’s that scene where Scott had tucked her in bed, kissing her forehead, even smiling this wicked grin. I guess, out of the characters, Scott is really the stand out because he’s so evil. His fate, I can’t possibly imagine, will be frowned upon. Damned killer even shouts he loves her as she sends him flaming to whatever other side he believes in.

Scanners and Carrie both come to mind when I watch and think about Firestarter. A little girl with an extraordinary power than can cause wreckage and mayhem if her anger is spurned. Mind power can wreak havoc thanks to a “birth defect”. In the case of Charlie, her parents were “given” their mental powers (mom, Heather Locklear (in a mere cameo really), her ability to read thoughts, and David Keith’s Andy, his ability to control others to do his bidding if he makes eye contact) by the LOT-6 experimental drug, and with their collective powers, Charlie would be born with the ability to cause fire. Sure, no one’s head explodes (much to my chagrin) but Charlie can light you up, literally.

Let's face it, Firestarter's bread and butter is the pyrotechnics. Drew Barrymore is also an obvious draw. Her face as the character seems as identifiable as Sissy Spacek's is for Carrie. She's the little daughter you want to see make it all the way. She goes through a hell of a lot. Her parents, this ability that is more of a curse than blessing, unable to just go to school and live a normal life, trapped in a closed room by The Shop, having to use her powers to bring death and destruction to those who ruined her life, and the eventual new family, the Manders (Carney and Fletcher really, if I'm honest, have minor but lovable parts; they certainly add a level of credibility to the cast full of names) that will adopt her as their own.

Martin Sheen is basically playing the evil representative of a covert department the government  keeps under wraps, operating with dangerous motives. He's barely different from his politician in The Dead Zone. Scott and Sheen share plenty of moments where they're strange bedfellows, partners only because of their affiliation with The Shop. Their alliance is by circumstance, necessity, not through choice necessarily. Charlie is of interest to both of them for different reasons.

Seeing Sheen go apeshit when Charlie burns right through a brick wall, forcing it to blow apart, it truly defines his purpose in The Shop, while Scott licks his chops at the idea that with such power he can reap what she harvests inside. Neither, of course, will ultimately accomplish what they set out to do. This little girl is a force to be reckoned with. Such a sweetheart could leave this location in Virginia burning, a lesson is learned here: her wrath should not be provoked. We see that at the end, especially.