A 2022 Stephen King Flop Deserves A Second Look On Netflix

Stephen King is responsible for some of the most iconic stories in horror. Part of what makes his prolific work memorable is how many times Hollywood has adapted his stories into movies and TV shows over the decades, with many becoming all-time classics. While King himself has mixed feelings about these projects — loving some and hating others — there's one notorious flop that's worth checking out on Netflix. There, the 2022 remake of "Firestarter" has recently found an audience, shooting into the top 10 on the streamer's most-watched movies list.

The original "Firestarter" film, for those unfamiliar, was released in 1984 and starred a young Drew Barrymore as Charlie, a little girl who has pyrokinetic powers, thanks to sketchy medical experiments on her parents. The 2022 remake stars Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Charlie and was produced by Blumhouse, the horror studio responsible for modern classics like "Get Out," "Insidious," and "The Black Phone." This version of "Firestarter" was lambasted by critics to the tune of a 10% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and our own critic found smoke where there should be fire, too. But audiences were more kind to it, and that's held true as the flick landed on Netflix, where it quickly took itself to the top of the charts.

With Stephen King adaptations hotter than ever — the HBO Max series "It: Welcome to Derry" has met with rave reviews – now is the perfect time to hit Netflix and check out this underappreciated film. 

When "Firestarter" was released in 2022, it met with harsh criticism. Sure enough, when it came time for awards season, it wasn't given any recognition — at least not from the Academy Awards. It was, however, nominated at the Golden Raspberry Awards — AKA the 'Razzies' — which celebrate bad directors, awful performances, and cringeworthy movies in general. But when the film's star, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, was nominated for her own performance, her predecessor Drew Barrymore — star of the 1984 version — leaped to her defense.

Barrymore called out the nomination as a form of bullying because it targeted such a young actress. Armstrong was barely 12 years old at the time. "This makes my blood boil," Barrymore said during an episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show," the daytime talk show she regularly hosts (via The Wrap). "Please don't do this to people who are younger. That's not nice. And I really like Ryan, and as [the original] 'Firestarter,' don't do this again."

The nomination was withdrawn in response. "Sometimes, you do things without thinking," said Razzies co-founder John B. Wilson in a statement published by CNN. "The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11-year-old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we've been in this instance." Wilson went on to declare that, from then on, only actors over the age of 18 would be eligible for a nomination.