During filming of The Thing, Universal offered John Carpenter to direct the original Firestarter film, who hired Bill Lancaster to adapt the novel into a screenplay, which Stephen King approved of.

[2] Months later, Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to write another version with Richard Dreyfuss as Andy, but when The Thing underperformed financially, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester, who brought Stanley Mann to write a screenplay that stayed closer to the novel than the abandoned screenplays that Carpenter had commissioned.

[4] The score was digitally released on May 13, 2022, by Back Lot Music and on LP/CD and Cassette on October 14, 2022, by Sacred Bones Records.

"[7] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian also wrote "Scott Teems's drearily perfunctory script is at least not as howlingly bad as his script for Halloween Kills, a small mercy, although both films bizarrely share John Carpenter in charge of the music, his throwback synth score working at odds with Thomas's pedestrian aesthetic".

[8] The soundtrack was nominated at the 2023 Golden Scythe Horror Awards for "Best Original Score".