SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION

United States of America, 1955, full-blown Cold War. The Bell couple decide, partly out of patriotism and partly for money, to test a new anti-radiation serum in an antiatomic shelter. After filming some propaganda footage and reaching the shelter, the two find themselves in the middle of the Nevada desert, or rather beneath it, because the shelter is located a few meters deep underground, and are hit by the explosion of a nuclear device that strikes the entire surrounding area, shelter included, leaving the two, fear aside, apparently unharmed. Unfortunately, some time after the birth of their little boy Sam, the couple is found burned alive, seemingly by a kind of spontaneous combustion event, and no one can explain the incident. 35 years later, Sam, now an adult, discovers he is capable of generating fires and burning people, all in an escalating power that is increasingly uncontrollable. Discovering the mystery surrounding his past will make him, if possible, even more dangerous. Tobe Hooper has demonstrated more than once that he is a great director, not only for having created the cult film "Don't Open That Door," but for many films, debatable or not, that have given life to our genre, spanning genres as any good independent filmmaker must do. "Spontaneous Combustion" unfortunately is what is called the latest misstep in a career filled with highs and lows. Hooper presents us with a world, that of the 1950s, filled with comic book characters and settings; all the characters seem to come straight out of the drawn pages of Marvel comics: it begins with some black-and-white films that describe the preparation of the two spouses for the nuclear test, not bad the beginning of the shelter, then the tragedy. Based on what is effectively an urban legend, spontaneous combustion, the director pulls out the usual evil army, illegal experiments, and this infamous serum. The plot is quite laughable and reminds us with tenderness of the young director Ed Wood, who in Burton's film proposes outrageous titles to incredulous producers, titles like "The Son of the Atom," yes because this mess seems like a nightmare of Ed Wood, without however having his winning naivety, and it does not improve at all by moving the story forward in the years. Sam, now an adult, played by a more deranged than usual Brad Dourif, wanders through the film burning everyone, including himself, and offers an exaggerated performance represented by hysterical screams and a continuous bulging of the eyes. The cast wanders through psychedelic nightmare sets without having the slightest idea of what they are saying or doing; the special effects, decent, are limited to small and large fires; horror is absent, science fiction is a mirage, humor is totally unintentional. Let's pretend this film was never made, so insipid that it cannot even boast the title of a trash movie. Forgettable, as there are surely many more appealing titles in the director's production.