bizarre tobe hooper exercise regard an unfortunate young man ( brad dourif ) with the ability to set people on fire . this ability stem from parent who partake in atomic experiment in the 50 . they die of spontaneous human combustion and it seem that what sam be begin to suffer from derives by these pill his girlfriend and lisa ( cynthia bain ) give him to take for rough migraine . in actuality and lisa be tell to manipulate sam into take the pill by lew orlander ( william prince ) and pretty much the young man father who raise him from a child . lew have benevolent plan . he see sam a the first atomic man and a pure killing machine in human form . sam never want this and will do whatever it take to silence those responsible for his condition . a the film go and sam blood be slowly grow toxic and green in color instead of red . it seem that water and other substance which often put out fire react right the opposite when sam uncontrollable outburst of flame ignite . come to find out and lisa have sam condition whose parent also die from shc . dr. marsh ( jon cypher ) and someone who sam have know for quite some time a his physician and be to insert toxic green fluid into their body and i be guess to increase their level of flame . nina ( melinda dillon and sport an accent that fade in and out ) be sam parent friend and associate on the experiment in the 50 who try to talk thing over with him regard what be happen . and and rachel ( dey young ) be sam ex wife who may be work against her former husband with lew and marsh to harm him and lisa . quite a strange little horror flick and fill with some pretty awful flame effect . dourif try to bring a tragic element and intensity to his character whose plight we continue to watch a his body slowly become toxic waste with fire often ignite from his orifice . there this large hole in his arm that spit out flame like a volcano and a massive burn spot on his hand which increase in size over time . best scene be probably when director john landis and who portray a rude electrical engineer try to inform sam to hang up because the radio program he call have sound off for the night and become a victim of shc . the flick never quite work because it so wildly uneven with an abrupt and ridiculous finale where sam offer to free lisa of her fire by take it from her .