In 1955, young Brian and Peggy Bell volunteer to be guinea pigs for an experiment that has them vaccinated against radiation and riding out a hydrogen bomb in a shelter for a few weeks. They manage to come through the experience just fine, and discover soon enough that Peggy is pregnant.
When little David is born, he's perfectly healthy, other than an elevated temperature and a weird birthmark on his hand. But when the nurses take him away from his parents for the night, they burst into flame and burn down to ashy bones. The military doctors label their deaths an occurrence of "SHC" (and prepare to hear that term a million times)... Spontaneous Human Combustion.
Years later, little David has been raised under the name Sam by a billionaire nuclear power magnate and kept unaware of the circumstances of his past.
David/Sam starts to experience weird fire-related occurrences and people he has contact with start burning to death mysteriously. Before long, he realizes that he can cause fires when his emotions run hot (see what I did there?) and control them to a certain extent.
As David's SHC really starts flaring up (see what I did there? Hello? Is this thing on?) he manages to track down information about his parents and the experiment in which they were involved. It's this whole X-Files-ian mishmash of government secrets, conspiracy, shadowy figures, and what-not that is hard to follow and leads to the confusing conclusion of our movie.
What really works in Spontaneous Combustion is the fire. It is amazing to see that every so often there is just an inferno in front of Brad Dourif's face. I betcha he didn't have a single eyebrow hair left after shooting this movie. It had to be very difficult for the actors to shoot these scenes knowing that at some point giant jets of flame would be leaping out at them. And there are so many head and body burns throughout. The stunt work and special effects work are commendable for those scenes.
Fire aside, the movie rests entirely on Brad Dourif's shoulders. He is such a fantastic actor. His teeth-gritted rage is exactly the kind of performance required to play a person whose temper causes sudden bursts of flame. As is often the case, such as in the Child's Play movies or Exorcist 3, Dourif's performance elevates the material in an otherwise bad movie into a fascinating cult experience.
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