Spontaneous Combustion (1990)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Tobe Hooper

Writers:

Tobe Hooper (story)
Tobe Hooper (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 February 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A young man finds out that his parents had been used in an atomic-weapons experiment shortly before he was born, and that the results have had some unexpected effects on him. |

Plot Keywords:

Pyrokinesis | Science | Spontaneous Combustion | Nuclear | Independent Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Brad Dourif	...	Sam
Cynthia Bain	...	Lisa Wilcox
Jon Cypher	...	Dr. Marsh
William Prince	...	Lew Orlander
Melinda Dillon	...	Nina
Dey Young	...	Rachel
Tegan West	...	Springer
Michael Keys Hall	...	Dr. Cagney
Dale Dye	...	General
Dick Butkus	...	Lt. General
Joe Mays	...	Dr. Persons
Stacy Edwards	...	Peggy Bell
Brian Bremer	...	Brian Bell
Frank Whiteman	...	Young Orlander
Judy Prescott	...	Student Director

Runtime:

97 min | Argentina:96 min | Finland:89 min (cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Black Owl Productions

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [Tobe Hooper]man with his back to the camera, lighting a cigar, when Sam enters the rest room at the restaurant.

Goofs:

Continuity: The position of the syringe stuck in Lisa, changes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Ring (2002)

Soundtrack:

I DON'T WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE

I kind of liked it.

Brad Dourif plays Sam, who is suffering the lingering effects of the atomic testing that his parents subjected themselves to in the 1950's. He is constantly emanating fire and electricity, especially when he's REALLY mad at someone, and the more it happens, the more of a toll that it takes on his body.

Mediocre horror movie / conspiracy thriller (with characters who you should automatically be able to figure out are the villains) is a fairly well made but uninspired picture by genre veteran Tobe Hooper. Dourif is just as intense as always, although for me the fact that his character is screwy from the start, even before the awful things start happening, detracts from whatever sympathy I had for him. Cynthia Bain is adequately appealing as his love interest. The screenplay itself, co-written by Hooper, is muddled at times; for example, what's with the character of Amy Whitaker and what's her relevance to anything? The movie itself gets intense and brutal at times, with decent pyrotechnics and effects, although what I liked best about it was the music score by New Zealand-born Graeme Revell; this was his first score for an American film. The supporting cast was fine; there is an especially great cameo appearance by John Landis.

Mildly entertaining but forgettable film; certainly not Hooper's best but might not be his worst (I should see more of his films from the last decade and a half or so before passing that judgment).

6/10