Firestarter

Andy and Vicky McGee have spent roughly a decade moving from place to place, hiding their daughter Charlie from a secret government agency that regards her as a potential weapon. Ten-year-old Charlie can start fires with her mind, a power that surfaces when she is angry or frightened. Her father has spent years teaching her ways to hold it back, but as she approaches her eleventh birthday the ability grows stronger and her control over it weaker. When an outburst exposes where the family is living, the agency sends an operative after Charlie, and she does not intend to be taken.

The film adapts Stephen King's novel of the same name, previously brought to the screen in 1984. Keith Thomas directed it, following his 2020 feature The Vigil, from a screenplay by Scott Teems. Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Charlie, with Zac Efron as Andy, Sydney Lemmon as Vicky, Michael Greyeyes as Rainbird, Kurtwood Smith as Dr. Joseph Wanless and Gloria Reuben as Captain Hollister, among a credited cast of thirty-one. Akiva Goldsman and Jason Blum produced for Blumhouse, with Universal and dentsu among the backers.

Made for about 12 million dollars, the film took roughly 15 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 4.6 out of 10 from around 25,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 from 835. A critics' rating of 3.7 from 163 reviews places it below the audience scores.