Promotional materials for the film “Arsonist” from Galapagos Films
Thanks to the efforts of her parents, Charlie’s childhood is marked by escaping and keeping her extraordinary pyrokinetic abilities in check. However, now that she turns 11, the flames are harder to control and Charlie becomes the target of those who wish to use her supernatural powers. He must learn to control his inner fire and fight to protect his family and freedom.
Promotional materials for the film “Arsonist” from Galapagos Films
In the lead role – a caring father who is ready to do anything to ensure his daughter’s safety – we can see the excellent Zac Efron, for whom it was a debut in the genre of horror.
As a huge horror fan, I was very excited about this opportunity, Efron admits. – I remember seeing “Firestarter” as a child and absolutely loved it! It was so much fun working with the cast and crew to bring this Stephen King classic to a younger generation.
Promotional materials for the film “Arsonist” from Galapagos Films
The movie Arsonist is actually the second adaptation of the famous novel by Stephen King . The previous one was shot shortly after the book’s publication – in 1984, and now, almost 40 years after its premiere, producers Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman (who previously worked on the Paranormal Activity series ) have decided it is time to revisit the story. As Blum says:
A new generation of horror fans has emerged, viewers who may have heard of that movie but never seen it. We thought it was a great opportunity to modernize this story a bit and let us discover new faces.
The natural choice to write the script was Scott Teems, who recently worked with Blumhouse on Halloween Kills and has been working with the production company for many years. In Kinga’s novel, he saw an opportunity to emphasize in this new adaptation the danger that awaits the girl, as well as her parents’ anxiety and determination to protect her at all costs.
We were glad that there is already a fairly faithful film adaptation of this story – said Teems. – It gave us a lot of freedom to try out a new approach. For me, that meant making this movie personal. This is a story about the dangers of being a parent. I have two daughters, so I became deeply involved in this aspect of the book and used a lot of my own experiences in shaping the story.
After drafting the script, the producers set out to find a director who could capture both the mystery and horror of the story as well as its emotional, character-driven core. Blum watched Keith Thomas’ movie Night Vigil and knew he would like to collaborate on his next project, and Goldsman was convinced that he was the perfect director for this movie. As he himself recalls:
He has a remarkable ability to combine naturalism and a sense of genre, and it is difficult to combine the two. Something that Jason Blum and the team at Blumhouse do beautifully is to create these environments where naturalism and genre must go hand in hand. You need the ability to see the real world in order to be able to insert something unreal into it. Keith sees the world this way and can convey her vision in a very convincing way.
As it turns out, a story in which a girl inherits her powers from her parents who participated in top-secret medical experiments could not find a better director.
Before I started making movies, I had a career in drug research and ran clinical research programs like the one in the novel, admits Thomas. – So I know this world and it was fun to transfer the knowledge I learned from it to the film.
The filmmakers did everything to ensure that the story, like King’s books, was able to go beyond its genre. Much of the tension felt by the viewer is therefore based on his ability to identify with the characters in the film. So it became very important to reflect family relationships realistically, and the creators focused on this aspect. Basically , the Arsonist is about a family trying to survive by sticking together. It is very easy for us to find our own experiences in this story, and the film has a chance to reach even viewers who are not fans of classic horror movies.
Promotional materials for the film “Arsonist” from Galapagos Films
The whole film is complemented by a sensational soundtrack composed by the trio John Carpenter (composer and director responsible for such classics as the first Halloween ), Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davis. The synthesized sounds bring to mind the atmosphere of the 80s and in a great way take us to the times when the novel and its first film adaptation were released.
Arsonist movie will be released on Blu-ray ™ and DVD on September 14th.