10 Worst Horror Movies Of 2022

2. Firestarter

Firestarter 2022 Zac Efron
Universal

There have been plenty of Stephen King adaptations over the past five years or so, but with Firestarter we may have once again reached saturation point. It's the first movie of the modern King crop to truly fall flat on its face, failing to live up to the source material or any of its contemporaries.

Despite boasting an up-and coming director in Keith Thomas (whose previous movie, The Vigil, was one of the finest horrors of 2019), star Zac Efron and a score from none other than John Carpenter, Firestarter is one of the dullest, most frustrating horrors of the year.

With a script that barely makes a lick of sense, it tells the story of a young girl who possesses devastating powers being pursued by authorities who know of her dangerous gifts. Admittedly, that's the kind of premise that might be difficult to translate to film, but the filmmakers seemingly didn't even try here, resulting in a total mess of a production that's too impenetrable for newcomers, and too shoddy for King aficionados.

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.