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
God i love those transparent, glowing phones and radios that chick has.
Anyway, not as bad as many people say it is. I'm actually a fan of Tobe Hooper's later work (well, some of it). I think people expect far too much of him based on the cultural impact of TCM and its just not fair. Tobe Hooper's films have always been rather fun and campy, while simultaneously making (sometimes rather heavy handed) sociocultural critiques. As others have noted, Spontaneous Combustion has underlying themes relating to the way that the 50's atomic bomb influenced and informed the culture of the 80's. A lot of biting references to the 'nuclear family' and its place in society as well as how both the presence and absence can affect us as we grow up and become adults. I honestly have no idea why most people say this started his downward slide cause its actually pretty good- a lot better than his remake of Invaders, that's for sure.
Anyway, not as bad as many people say it is. I'm actually a fan of Tobe Hooper's later work (well, some of it). I think people expect far too much of him based on the cultural impact of TCM and its just not fair. Tobe Hooper's films have always been rather fun and campy, while simultaneously making (sometimes rather heavy handed) sociocultural critiques. As others have noted, Spontaneous Combustion has underlying themes relating to the way that the 50's atomic bomb influenced and informed the culture of the 80's. A lot of biting references to the 'nuclear family' and its place in society as well as how both the presence and absence can affect us as we grow up and become adults. I honestly have no idea why most people say this started his downward slide cause its actually pretty good- a lot better than his remake of Invaders, that's for sure.
- nick121235
- Apr 27, 2018
- Permalink
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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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