It seems as if somebody ought to be able to make a decent horror movie based on Stephen King’s Firestarter. But this second attempt, produced by Blumhouse and currently playing in theaters, is even worse than the 1984 Drew Barrymore–starring version.

Written by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills) and directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil), the new Firestarter starts off with a promising bit of energy. There’s an apparently idyllic family scene featuring young parents Andy and Victoria McGee (Zac Efron and Sydney Lemmon) doting over their baby Charlene, nicknamed Charlie, that ends abruptly with the entire nursery going up in flames.

Baby-terror in this case makes particular sense, because Charlie has developed pyrokinesis as a result of being born to parents who have psychic and telekinetic abilities. Rather than being innate, their abilities were induced when, as college students, Andy and Victoria took part in what they assumed were harmless scientific studies involving drug testing. These experiments were actually overseen by the Shop, a covert government agency running a program inducing, and attempting to weaponize, supernatural powers.