Christine, o Carro Assassino

Put upon high school student Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon, in his first feature film lead role) is dominated by his parents, and has basically one friend in the world, level headed jock Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell). Then one day he spies an incredible wreck of a car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury that was named Christine by her foul tempered former owner. Believing he can restore her to prime condition, he now has something to live for. But soon his feelings towards the automobile turn to outright obsession, and he changes for the worse. Meanwhile, the car goes out systematically eliminating anybody who's rubbed Arnie the wrong way.

Horror master John Carpenter was, at the time, still smarting from the lack of commercial and critical success suffered by "The Thing", which this viewer believes to be his true masterpiece. He agreed to take the helm of this Stephen King adaptation. King, at the time, was such a phenomenon as an author that this story got optioned as a feature before it was even published. King had been impressed enough with producer Richard Kobritzs' TV miniseries of his novel "Salems' Lot" to give the man his choice of adaptations, and Kobritz chose this one over "Cujo".

"Christine" is very well made, and lots of fun. Carpenter and screenwriter Bill Phillips understand completely the love lavished by many on their rolling iron, so this is a pretty decent look at a boy and the car he loves. Carpenter & Phillips drop the more outré elements of the novel, almost completely getting rid of the character of the malevolent spirit Roland D. LeBay, and focusing on the car herself. In this movie version, Christine is born so evil that she's maimed one man and killed another before she's even off the assembly line!

Carpenters' moody score is one of his absolute best, and he also gets great use out of "Harlem Nocturne" by The Viscounts. The dialogue is often quite profane, but quotable as well. The special effects by Roy Arbogast are most impressive. The scenes of the ruined Christine repairing herself are the definite highlights of the movie.

The roles are impeccably cast. Gordon is entertaining to watch as he makes the transition from pathetic dweeb to swaggering '50s style punk. Stockwell and the lovely Alexandra Paul are good as their characters react to the changes in their friend. Robert Prosky, as miserly garage owner Will Darnell, Harry Dean Stanton, as persistent State Police detective Junkins, and Roberts Blossom, as LeBays' crotchety brother George, are all excellent. William Ostrander is spot on as the Travolta-esque creep Buddy Repperton. Stu Charno ("Friday the 13th Part II"), Steven Tash ("Ghost Busters"), and Malcolm Danare ("The Curse") are a hilariously unlikely bunch of bullies. It's also worth noting that Arnies' unlikable parents are played by CHRISTINE Belford and Robert DARNELL. Just a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Most importantly, the car herself really does become a character with a real presence.

Building to an exciting finale where Christine meets her match inside Darnells' garage, this is guaranteed to put a smile on some faces.

This was the very first feature to use the George Thorogood classic "Bad to the Bone" to denote a character that is, well, bad to the bone.

Seven out of 10.

For my Smart Money, "Christine" is one of John Carpenter's most underrated efforts (up there with "Assault on Precinct 13"), and also one of his most effective. Even though its modest look and relative restraint in gore came as a result of "The Thing"'s box-office failure the previous year, and Carpenter has all but admitted his heart wasn't in the project, it ultimately turned out VERY well (if this is an effort from a sleepwalking Carpenter, he's better than most directors when they're awake). As someone who was knocked out by Rob Bottin's intricately gruesome FX work in "The Thing," but left cold by the shallow characters, "Christine" fills in the gaps of suspense and human story with ease. In retrospect, some of the absurd plot elements ("a haunted car," as Carpenter constantly reiterates) lends the film an odd humor that doesn't detract from things (and indeed, it was Stephen King's own infatuation with cars and rock music that inspired this story of obsession). Scenes are composed with great skill by Carpenter (making wonderful use of the widescreen image), and there are many striking images sprinkled throughout (the most incredible being the flaming Christine speeding after a villain). The excellent cast gives their all in making a potential B-movie premise glow with A-list polish: Keith Gordon's Arnie (the painfully square high-school senior who buys the titular vehicle), John Stockwell's Dennis (the resourceful jock and best friend), Alexandra Paul's Leigh (the earthy girlfriend who sparks Christine's jealousy), and Harry Dean Stanton's Junkins (the snooping P.I.) provide this tale with a lot of propulsive force. In a sense, "Christine" is a nice even ground between the zaniness of "Escape from New York" and the FX extremes of "The Thing," and exemplifies Carpenter's range as a director. A very underrated effort that is very much worth your time.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before, but the 50s music was interesting in that most of it came from artists who suffered untimely, tragic deaths....Buddy Holly and Richie Valens of course were killed in a plane crash at the height of their careers...Johnny Ace ("Pledging My Love") died playing Russian Roulette with a pistol....Larry Williams ("Bony Maronie") was killed in 1980 by a gunshot wound to the head; he had been involved with drug dealing for years and it was thought to be a gang execution....I think Dion was still alive at the time this movie was made("I Wonder Why"); I'm not sure about the rest of the Belmonts....

Ah, do I remember the day that I saw Christine, which is disturbing since I was only 6 years old, but my sister said "Do you wanna watch Christine?" and I was confused, my name is Kristine, but she told me about this little horror movie and thanks to her I couldn't go near our family car for a few months. This is a movie that has always stayed with me and still scares the heck out of me when I watch it in the dark. Who knew that even before taking a driver's ed class that cars could scare me? But this isn't just any ordinary car, this is a killer car! This is a car with ghosts in it and you wouldn't like them if you make them angry or try to take their owner away. Christine is the car that you definitely don't wanna mess with, otherwise you may have to face those bright lights and loud rock and roll music, what happens next, you may not wanna know.

Arnie Cunningham, a typical high school nerd with only one friend, a childhood companion named Dennis Guilder, a popular jock. Arnie's life begins to change when he discovers Christine, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury in serious need of repair. Arnie begins to restore Christine to her original beauty, but as he spends more and more of his time repairing her, those in his life notice that he is changing as well. Formerly shy, Arnie develops a cocky arrogance. Dennis, as well as Arnie's new girlfriend Leigh, discover that the car has a deadly past. The previous owner, Roland LeBay, became consumed with Christine and he paid for it with his life. Leigh and Dennis try to save Arnie from a similar fate. They realize that the only way to save Arnie is by destroying Christine. Christine, however, isn't ready to give up Arnie without a fight.

Christine is a classic horror movie that for me will always deliver on the good scares. I still have a hard time watching it. I think the scariest scene for me will always be the last scene where Leigh and Dennis face off with Christine and you see that Arnie just completely gone. I'm honestly shocked that Keith Gordon didn't continue on with his acting career, he just blew me away as Arnie, reading the book I couldn't picture anybody else. He's absolutely incredible. John Stockwell also pulls in a good solid performance as well. This is one of the rare horror movies that is over all very enjoyable and if it doesn't scare you, I still think you will like it, it has a great story and a very good cast and crew. I highly recommend that you see this movie if you get the chance, it's a classic.

8/10

I'm not particularly a fan of horror movies and I couldn't fix an ailing automobile if my life depended on it so the workings of cars don't fascinate me.....but this movie fascinated me. The '58 Plymouth Fury, alias "Christine," is absolutely gorgeous. What a piece of machinery!

This is a horror story but there are no ghosts or monsters nor is there any gore. A car is the star of the film, a very jealous and vengeful one at that. Man, that sounds silly but, if you're reading this you have probably watched the movie so no sense going into details. It's hard to describe the story in a paragraph without it sounding stupid....but it's not. Maybe the quickest way to explain it is that it is about a car that is alive, like a human, and you mess with it, you pay!

It is definitely one creepy, well-made, unique and always-entertaining film.

The car is a lot better than any of the people, sad to say. No, I didn't like any of the kids in this film (high schoolers who all look 30 years old!) and the language is a little too rough in spots, but that can be filtered out.

The car, the '50s music, the unique story, the satisfying revenge angle all make this very watchable.