I am an original girl all day long. I grew up with the originals, I get attached to the originals, and generally speaking, I like remakes about as much as I like peanut butter on carpet.

So when I tell you I actually liked the 2022 Firestarter, understand what that means coming from me.

Because the 1984 movie has Drew Barrymore, and Drew Barrymore is probably my favorite actor ever. I have loved her forever. I will probably love her forever. There was just something about Drew as a kid that you really do not see very often.

And that is absolutely not a knock on child actors now because some of them are SO good. But Drew had this strange combination of being a little girl and somehow seeming like a grown person at the same time. We know now, because Drew herself has talked openly about her childhood, that some of that came from things no kid should have had to navigate. On screen, though? It made her impossible to look away from.

Then you put her with David Keith, who I also love watching, and the two of them just worked. They genuinely felt protective of each other. Not David Keith taking care of the child actor on set. Andy and Charlie taking care of each other.

And George C. Scott? Terrifying when I was a kid. Absolutely terrifying. But then he would be with Charlie and somehow he was not quite as scary. Still Rainbird. Still somebody you knew you should not trust. But different with her.

It all just worked.

So Yes, I Expected to Hate the Remake

Again: peanut butter. Carpet.

Remakes and I do not have the healthiest relationship.

But I gave the 2022 Firestarter a real chance and I actually thought it was good. Not “good for a remake.” Not “well, I made it through the whole thing.” I genuinely liked it, and I think people made it out to be way worse than it actually was.

Zac Efron is not even a father, but watching him as Andy, I completely believed he had been Charlie’s dad her entire life. There was never a point where I had to convince myself of that relationship.

Ryan Kiera Armstrong played right into it too. The two of them had this beautiful connection that felt natural, and I think that is one of the biggest things the remake got right.

The remake also gave me more of Andy, Charlie and Vicky as a family, and more of Charlie actively learning what she could do. I liked getting a better sense of Charlie’s powers, where she was with them, what she understood, and how dangerous all of that could become.

I also liked having Vicky feel more present in the family. It made everything hit a little differently once that family started falling apart.

And Somehow I Even Liked the Ending

This might be the part that surprised me most.

I liked the ending.

Stephen King adaptations and endings do not always have the greatest relationship for me. There have been plenty where I am completely invested and then we get to the ending and I am sitting there like, “Oh. Okay. So that is what we decided to do.”

But Firestarter worked for me.

The remake changes quite a bit from King’s novel even though it keeps the basic bones of the story, while the 1984 version actually follows the book pretty closely overall.

One change King himself liked involved Andy. In the remake, Andy uses his ability to “push” people through his work as a counselor, helping them break bad habits, and King has said that was an idea he wished he had thought of himself.

And honestly? I get why.

It makes sense for that version of Andy. He is trying to use something dangerous inside himself for something good while also raising a daughter with something even more powerful inside her.

That gives Zac Efron’s Andy another layer, and I liked it.

There Will Never Be Another Drew Barrymore

None of this changes how I feel about Drew in the original.

There will never be another Drew Barrymore.

Ryan Kiera Armstrong did not need to be another Drew Barrymore either, and I am glad she was not trying to be.

Drew had something completely her own. She had that strange child/grown-person quality that made Charlie feel vulnerable and tough at exactly the same time. Knowing what Drew has shared about her childhood makes some of that harder to look at now because you understand where some of that maturity may have come from, but it also makes you realize just how incredible she was on screen.

Ryan gave us her own Charlie.

That is what a remake should do.

If you are just going to give me the exact same performances, the exact same relationships and the exact same movie with newer cameras, why am I watching it?

The Original Is Still Mine

People have different tastes. I cannot make somebody like the 2022 Firestarter if they genuinely watched it and hated it.

But sometimes I think people cannot see past their own bias long enough to give a remake an actual chance.

And believe me, I understand bias.

Did I mention peanut butter on carpet?

I went into this movie as somebody who loves Drew Barrymore, loves David Keith and grew up with the original. There was absolutely no universe where this remake was going to replace that movie for me.

It did not have to.

That is the part I think gets lost sometimes.

You can love an original and still find something worthwhile in a remake. The new one existing does not erase the movie you grew up with. Zac Efron being Andy does not take David Keith’s Andy away from me. Ryan Kiera Armstrong playing Charlie does not change what Drew Barrymore’s Charlie means to me.

The original is still my Firestarter. It probably always will be.

But if you can get past the fact that it is not the version you already love and actually give the remake a real chance, you might see what I saw.

And trust me, if a woman who likes remakes about as much as peanut butter on carpet can admit that, this one at least deserves a fair shot.