Netflix Is Now Streaming A Stephen King Adaptation He Hates

Bangor's most famous resident is no fan of this flick!

When Netflix added a new lineup of movies to their library at the beginning of the month, one title in particular, raised the ire of one, Stephen King.

King is not afraid of voicing his opinions on just about any topic, one look at his social media feeds, and you will find that out pretty quickly. For instance, he was very vocal about his love for the surprise hit, "Baby Reindeer", but when it came to one of his early screen adaptations of his work, he wasn't quite as enthusiastic.

In a recent American Film interview, he had plenty to say about this now-streaming Netflix title.

“Firestarter is one of the worst of the bunch, even though in terms of story it’s very close to the original. But it’s flavorless; it’s like cafeteria mashed potatoes.

There are things that happen in terms of special effects in that movie that make no sense to me whatsoever. Why this kid’s hair blows every time she starts fires is totally beyond my understanding.

I never got a satisfactory answer when I saw the rough cut. By that time, Dino De Laurentis was regularly asking me for input. Sometimes he’d take it.”

Firestarter is a 1984 horror film, King's 1980 novel of the same name. A very young, Drew Barrymore, plays a girl who develops pyrokinesis and the secret government agency known as The Shop, which seeks to control her.

Back in 1984, the film received lukewarm reviews and was a box-office disappointment.

A miniseries follow-up to the film, Firestarter: Rekindled, was released in 2002 on the Sci-Fi Channel, and the film was remade in 2022.

There have been over 60 of his published works that have been turned into either feature films, or mini-series, and there are several in development to come to a screen near you. When you are that prolific, it is hard to narrow it down to just one choice, but some of his film adaptations are so iconic that it seems like a perfect subject to explore.

The website IGN ranked their picks for "The 12 Best Stephen King Movies Of All-Time"

Here is how the list breaks down:

#12 The Dead Zone
#11 Gerald's Game
#10 The Mist
#9 Creepshow
#8 The Green Mile
#7 Stand By Me
#6 IT-Chapter One
#5 Doctor Sleep
#4 Carrie
#3 Misery
#2 The Shining
#1 The Shawshank Redemption

As for "Firestarter", you can judge for yourself, if you have a subscription