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Austin has gained an unprecedented number of residents in the past few years and it’s now a home to a record number of Californians. So, it seemed inevitable that I Central Texas would pass for the Golden State in a movie. In new feature film On Fire directed by Nick Lyon and Peter Facinelli (Twilight), we watch as a family tries to escape from the fires sweeping California, and their desperate dash down the western coastline. Considering how these regions are known for their destructive forest fires, maybe it is a more poignant homage than we want to acknowledge.
Dave Laughlin (Facinelli), a self-employed contractor, is just about broke. His wife, Sarah (Dourif), is eight months pregnant, and when combined with a parent who seems to have completely given up on life (Henriksen), worst case scenario becomes a reality. Centering his life around a barely functioning family of three, Dave is forced to do his best to make ends meet. Unfortunately, when embers from a neighboring forest fire set their house on fire, he and his son (Angel) have to navigate through burning Californian hills in order to escape from the merciless flames. \n\nTo be fair, On Fire feels like an unusual study in stock footage, since it does, at least partially, live up to its name. Fire is a tough effect to achieve digitally. Even the simplest flame has a knack for behaving unpredictably and sits between transparent and opaque. Through much of the film’s largest sequences, the effects are composite in nature and for the entire duration, it just doesn’t work. When On Fire has an opportunity to use stock and second-unit photography allowing the fire to remain offscreen behind newsreel and social media footage it takes that opportunity. And the film is able to do what it needs to do.
They tried too hard to pay attention to the mess instead of focusing streamlining it. Every actor played their part well, for a middle class family, Fiona Dourif must be the only actress to give birth and become her father within a year’s timeframe. Nonetheless, the Laughlins are just decoration for a catastrophe. As the fire comes pouring down, the majority of the dialogues boil down to reactionary screams which include some terrible pieces of writing such as Angel’s teenage son being angry at a forest fire and screaming for it to, well, you can figure the rest out yourself.
The movie has some references of a religious nature, it is not explicitly faith-based, but they are not shy of slipping in a prayer every once in a while. Rather, the film by Lyon and Facinelli, has scope for undeniably the largest portion of SVOD audience. They have done far worse with much better means in their possession, but these sort of disaster films which get made so seriously without quality control don’t have an inch of leeway. On Fire makes best use it’s resources but somehow manages to miss the point completely.
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