36 Years Ago Today, A Cult Sci-Fi Became the 1990s Wildest Stephen King Rip-Off

The works of Stephen King have inspired an entire line of famous TV and film adaptations; they’ve also inspired plenty of rip-offs, as well. There are so many B-movie (or lesser) horror films that have been made by “borrowing” some of the dark concepts King explored in his novels, that it’s a miracle the acclaimed author hasn’t sued more. One of the concepts that Stephen King popularized has become such a regular part of the pop-culture zeitgeist that it often gets forgotten that it was fictional.

Stephen King’s Firestarter was a 1980 novel about a couple (Andy and Charlie McGee) who were given an experimental drug. The mother and father get low-level telepathy and telekinesis (respectively); however, the daughter they produce manifests a much more destructive power: pyrokinesis, the ability to start fires with the mind. Father and daughter have to go on the run from a government agency (The Shop) that wants to harness and weaponize the girl’s power. Firestarter was such a cult hit that the concept of pyrokinesis became deeply embedded in the modern cultural consciousness. It also inspired a wild 1990 knock-off movie, Spontaneous Combustion.

Stephen King’s Firestarter vs. Tobe Hooper’s Spontaneous Combustion

Spontaneous Combustion is a 1990 film by Tobe Hooper, the filmmaker behind the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. The film follows a couple named Brian (Brian Bremer) and Peggy Bell (Stacy Edwards) who volunteer for a secret government experiment called “Operation Samson.” They gain the unnatural ability to withstand even nuclear detonations, but eventually die from a mysterious condition that makes their bodies suddenly combust into flames. Their child, David (Brad Douriff), grows up and is given a new identity and life, but finds the past still holding him, as David bursts into flames whenever his emotions spiral out of control. David partners with a woman named Lisa (Cynthia Bain) whose parents were also part of the experiments, and tries to uncover the truth of his past before his powers destroy him and so many others.

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It’s hard to read the synopses of both Firestarter and Spontaneous Combustion and not acknowledge that the latter is a clear rip-off of the former. Tobe Hooper is credited with writing the story the film is based on, which only helps the argument that it is pulling from King’s work. Texas Chainsaw Massacre has gotten renewed infamy now that new generations of fans are learning how Hooper pulled from the crimes and profile of serial killer Ed Gein to create Leatherface and the Texas Chainsaw story. Hooper (a renowned horror genre fanboy), being enamored with King’s work and fashioning his own pulpy sci-fi/horror film based on it, totally tracks.

Spontaneous Combustion Is Still Worth A Watch (At Least Once)

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As stated, Spontaneous Combustion is one of the more obscure works of Tobe Hooper, but it is still a Hooper film, nonetheless. Horror fans recognize the filmmaker as one of the best of his generation when it came to making horror flicks that bucked the trends of Hollywood or completely flew in the face of them. Hooper’s signature, of course, was pushing the boundaries of horror, with often sadistic levels of violence and gore, thrown in between the downright macabre and twisted visions he created.

Spontaneous Combustion plays like Firestarter if it were made by a more pulpy horror comic writer, rather than the godfather of modern literary horror (King). The film also stars horror icon Brad Dourif (the Chucky franchise) in one of his lesser-known roles as David Bell; the role is one of Dourif’s more unhinged and over-the-top performances (and that’s really saying something), which has often been cited as the biggest redeeming factor of the film. Writing about Tom Hooper’s body of work as a whole, Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com cited Spontaneous Combustion as proof of both Hooper and Dourif’s talents: “You could even see Hooper’s personality in lesser efforts like Spontaneous Combustion, with a lead performance from Brad Dourif that is unhinged in a way that makes this otherwise stillborn 1990 post-atomic-age creature feature fitfully compelling.”

The other major selling point of this film is the low-budget visuals, which fall into that “so bad it’s good” lane. David disintegrating or burning his victims, or (even better!) manipulating electricity, or creating phantom fire hands, looks utterly ludicrous today. That said, the film is so cheesy in its low-budget ’80s movie kind of way that it’s hard not to laugh at it, if not with it.

Spontaneous Combustion is streaming (free) on Tubi. Discuss your favorite cult-hit horror film with us on the ComicBook Forum!