Firestarter: Rekindled (2002)

Directed by Robert Iscove [Other horror films: N/A]

I didn’t have much in the way of positive expectations when it came to Firestarter: Rekindled. Not that I’d heard much about this one, but I knew it was a mini-series that got lukewarm reviews. Admittedly, I didn’t know it was a Sci-Fi mini-series, which gives it a bit more personal spice, but given I didn’t love the first Firestarter, I wasn’t sure how well a sequel would fare.

Well, as a sequel to the 1984 movie, Rekindled fails hard, and for a very specific reason: it’s impossible for this to be a sequel. See, this movie has flashbacks from events that happen in that movie, but they don’t use footage from the film (which is fine, as I sometimes find that type of thing stylistically off-putting), instead re-creating them with new performances.

The problem is, the scenes they recorded for the flashbacks don’t actually match up to what happened in the 1984 movie. For God’s sake, instead of Charlie’s father dying in a barn, he’s killed by Rainbird in a nondescript room with what seems to be a needle. The flashbacks don’t match up, and because of that, I don’t think this can even really be called a sequel. I choose to see it as a new adaptation of material used in the novel, because as a sequel, it doesn’t work.

Viewing it, though, the way I choose to, the mini-series isn’t that bad. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t come close to rivaling Storm of the Century or the 1997 The Shining, but it’s not that shabby. The biggest problems, discounting the idea that this is a sequel, would be that the performances are sometimes shaky, the special effects aren’t always that special, and there’s a handful of story elements I didn’t care for, but otherwise, it sort of has some charm to it.

Generally speaking, I liked the cast of this one. Marguerite Moreau (The Uninvited, Queen of the Damned) made a decent adult Charlie. To be honest, I found her budding relationship with Danny Nucci’s character sort of cute, especially that scene in which they’re talking about kryptonite. Nucci is an actor I know from pretty random places (Titanic and an episode of House M.D.), and while he wasn’t amazing here, I dug his character. Oh, and Malcolm McDowell (Silent Night, Class of 1999, Cat People, Halloween) is here too, playing Rainbird, and he’s always a pleasure.

We also have Dennis Hopper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, House of 9, Land of the Dead, Night Tide) playing a somewhat interesting character. Portraying the young Charlie in flashbacks was Skye McCole Bartusiak (who I know as Pippa from Storm of the Century); she doesn’t have the character of Drew Barrymore, but she was nice to see. Also appearing are John Dennis Johnston (Communion), Darnell Williams, Travis Charitan, Dan Byrd (Salem’s Lot, Easy A), Ron Perkins (Storm of the Century, the 2002 Spider-Man), and Jeremy Hoop.

Like some of the performances, the special effects can be a bit touch-and-go. Some of them are decent; I tend to think the finale was mostly okay, aside from a scene involving Rainbird. Other times, well, the fire doesn’t look the greatest. Still, I don’t think the effects are terrible, and it’s certainly not much a hindrance to the story.

Speaking of the story, I have to say I didn’t care for the kids. See, part of this mini-series deals with Rainbird’s continuing Dr. Wanless’ experiments, and so he has a bunch of super-powered kids. One can sort of control people’s actions, another can read minds, one’s an energy sink, another has a sonic shout (similar to Banshee from Marvel Comics). These kids weren’t a big focus, and toward the end, they weren’t quite as prominent as I feared they were going to be, but it was still an element that didn’t do a lot for me when they did pop up.

Generally speaking, though, despite this being a combined 2 hours and 42 minutes, I had an okay time with Rekindled. I don’t think it’s a great mini-series, and it’s probably still weaker than average, but considering that I wasn’t expecting much from this at all, I can admit that this mini-series surprised me. I can also say that if you’re a fan of the 1984 movie, this one may disappoint, but if you can look at this as something other than an intended sequel, you may be in for perfectly fine time.

6.5/10