Combustion Spontanée

The picture based allegedly in a reality, concerns about a young man(Brad Dourif) aware his parents(Stacy Edwards and Brian Bremer)had been used in a nuclear experiment. Them, he inherits the power to inflict the title phenomenon on other people . He's recently separated his spouse(Blain)and again appear his ability -called pyrokinesis, though sometimes is incontrollable- to ignite objects and people around him. Then, blazing deaths occur, the result of another evil government experiment.

This is a suspenseful and frightening movie , though regularly paced. The movie contains some flaws and sometimes is silly and ludicrous, furthermore wasting the acting talent. Casting is quite well, Brad Dourif is nice, as usual, in one of his habitual roles as hapless. Magnificent plethora secondaries as Melinda Dillon, John Cypher , William Prince and Dale Dye. Special appearance of Hollywood directors as John Landis and Andre De Toth . The film is in the ink of¨ Firestarter¨(directed by Mark L Lester with Drew Barrymore and George C Scott) and ¨Firestarter 2¨(Robert Iscove with Marguerite Moreau and Malcolm McDowell). The motion picture is regularly directed by Tobe Hooper, who previously acquired success with ¨Texas chainsaw massacre, Salem's Lot,Funhouse,Invaders from Mars and Poltergeist¨, however with 'Spontaneous Combustion' got a failure. Rating : Mediocre though some moments is entertaining.

I really wanted to love Spontaneous Combustion: I like the basic idea, Brad Dourif is a cool actor, Tobe Hooper is the legendary director responsible for my favourite horror film, and some of the flame effects are pretty intense (I repeat: 'some'). Hell, there's even a fun cameo from John Landis. The problem is that the film just doesn't make a lot of sense.

Dourif plays Sam, a young man who discovers that the anti-radiation experiment which caused his parents to spontaneously combust in the 1950s is now responsible for some equally strange side effects in his own body. As Sam tries to prevent himself turning into a small pile of smouldering ash, he realises that his whole life has been a lie perpetrated by sinister industrialist Lew Orlander (William Prince).

With some incomprehensible cobblers about an evangelist who preaches to Sam over the radio, a puzzling sub-plot involving a nuclear power station, a killer who inexplicably uses glowing green goop in a syringe to bump people off, and the never-adequately explained presence of a continually growing birthmark on Sam's hand, I lost the plot about half-way through and had to content myself with the occasionally impressive body burn stunts and a modicum of manky make-up effects.

The first movie made by Hooper after his unsuccessful three film deal with Cannon, Spontaneous Combustion unsurprisingly didn't set the box-office on fire either, and the director's career has failed to reignite ever since.

Righty right. Here's a bit about SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION: the government is trying to engineer the perfect weapon for war. It fails, and the project is supposedly buried. Years later, however, a young college student by the name of David (Sam), is finding out slowly that he is something more than human. So, he intends to find out just what he is, and a path of destruction and fire is left in his wake. Now, I can see why this has been called Tobe Hooper's only failure at a movie, but it is a gem. But, the only reason why this is a good flick is because of the presence of Brad Dourif. As always, he's excellent. Rent this flick, that is if you can find it. The beginning is slow, but it is very entertaining.

Spontaneous Combustion is a very sad horror effort from legendary director Tobe Hooper. I was hoping this was before Hooper's downward spiral of Night Terrors, The Mangler, and Crocodile, but I think this is the film that started that spiral. I'm still finding it hard to believe it was as bad as it was. Tobe Hooper directing, Brad Dourif starring...that's horror royalty right there. I found Dourif to be disappointing in this one as well. That was hard to type because he's so good in everything else he does (if you want to challenge that statement check out One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). I think he should have just said no to this role. I was expecting a very dark film with a brooding anti-hero. What I got was a comical bore, and you can bet that's not on purpose. You reach a point in the film where you ask yourself "What in the f*ck is going on?" And the ending is pathetic at best. Not even a fiery John Landis cameo nor a radio voice-over by Buck Flower could save this one. Go watch Firestarter instead.

Eccentric but interesting thriller. Brad Dourif puts a lot into his portrayal of the lead character, a school teacher who discovers he can start fires, and the performance is one of the main things thats lifts the film out of the rut.

With its evocation of a strange little town dominated a large nuclear plant the film recalled for me "Strange Behavior" (1981) (AKA "Dead Kids"). The films show an odd mix of architecture, clothing fashion and interior decoration from different eras that makes placing and dating the film difficult. Overall its look and generally offbeat characters gives the film an effective unreal sort of quality. Also similar to "Strange Behavior" is the murky, complex, slowly unfolding story and the sinister scientist who is controlling everything. Also Dey Young is a cast member of both films, sadly underused here.