Cast and Crew: Tobe Hooper (Director, Writer); Howard Goldberg (Writer); Brad Dourif, Cynthia Bain, Jon Cypher, William Prince, Dick Butkus

What It’s About: A child of governmental test subjects turns out to be able to produce fire. No, this isn’t Stephen King’s Firestarter; it’s the even more pessimistic film Spontaneous Combustion.

Brad Dourif (best known as the voice of Chucky, the homicidal doll) turns in a rare lead character performance as the child with a burning need to know about his parents.

Why Watch It Today?: Tobe Hooper was born on this day in 1943. Better known for genre-defining films like Poltergeist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he wrote and directed a number of interesting but lesser-known movies — such as Spontaneous Combustion!

Other Options: Battleground, Rob Roy, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Funhouse