‘Firestarter’ and the evolution of the psychic teen girl
nypost.com“Firestarter,” based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King, starred Drew Barrymore as Charlie, an 8-year-old girl who can set things on fire with her mind.
Barrymore was fresh from stealing the show in 1982’s “E.T.”, but this 1984 thriller was a critical flop, with Roger Ebert observing that for a film about lethal telekinesis, “the most astonishing thing in the movie … is how boring it is.” Since then, pop culture has fully embraced the trope of the young girl with psychic powers, with many characters inspiring devoted cult followings.
The metaphor of the unknowable mystery, power and instability of a girl on the cusp of womanhood — 16th birthdays and proms have both figured prominently — has been through many iterations.
And the genre has come a long way from the original “Carrie” shower scene, in which Sissy Spacek’s terrified powderkeg of a teen is pelted with tampons by mean girls chanting “Plug it up!” On the occasion of a “Firestarter” reboot, starring Ryan Kiera Armstrong (“American Horror Story”) in the Barrymore role and Zac Efron as her dad, we present a watch list for the evolution of the psychic-girl universe.
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