IMDb RATING
4.9/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
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.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.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.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn a promotional Fangoria interview for Exorcist 3 (1990), Brad Douriff mentioned how disappointed he was with final version of Spontaneous Combustion and how what was originally very interesting and promising movie was ruined by studio interference and producers during production;
"You see me playing my heart out in scenes that are not working, and the reason they're not working is that movie doesn't make sense. It's almost funny. As a matter of fact, the better my acting was in some of the later scenes, the funnier film was. I found myself at the mercy of people who didn't know what they were doing. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but my feeling is, the producers destroyed it. Tobe could have made three different movies with material he had, and each one would have worked. But by the time he got it, it had changed from a love story to a suspense thriller about my character's paranoid fantasy, to a "guy goes crazy" film about this insane killer who becomes a destructive force that's going to wipe out mankind. We went back and kind of restructured it as a love story, but it didn't really help. The beginning of the film was great, and a certain portion of my stuff was fine, but then it became stupid when all the flame stuff started happening."
- GoofsThe position of the syringe stuck in Lisa, changes.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: Spontaneous Combustion (2009)
- SoundtracksI Don't Want to Set the World on Fire
Written by Eddie Durham (uncredited), Eddie Seiler (uncredited), Sol Marcus (uncredited) and Bennie Benjamin (uncredited)
Performed by The Ink Spots
Courtesy of MCA Records
Featured review
Eccentric but interesting thriller. Brad Dourif puts a lot into his portrayal of the lead character, a school teacher who discovers he can start fires, and the performance is one of the main things thats lifts the film out of the rut.
With its evocation of a strange little town dominated a large nuclear plant the film recalled for me "Strange Behavior" (1981) (AKA "Dead Kids"). The films show an odd mix of architecture, clothing fashion and interior decoration from different eras that makes placing and dating the film difficult. Overall its look and generally offbeat characters gives the film an effective unreal sort of quality. Also similar to "Strange Behavior" is the murky, complex, slowly unfolding story and the sinister scientist who is controlling everything. Also Dey Young is a cast member of both films, sadly underused here.
With its evocation of a strange little town dominated a large nuclear plant the film recalled for me "Strange Behavior" (1981) (AKA "Dead Kids"). The films show an odd mix of architecture, clothing fashion and interior decoration from different eras that makes placing and dating the film difficult. Overall its look and generally offbeat characters gives the film an effective unreal sort of quality. Also similar to "Strange Behavior" is the murky, complex, slowly unfolding story and the sinister scientist who is controlling everything. Also Dey Young is a cast member of both films, sadly underused here.
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $5,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $50,367
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $50,367
- Feb 25, 1990
- Gross worldwide
- $50,367
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