My Review of Christine (1983)

 

Written by Bill Phillips

Directed by John Carpenter 

Arnie: "You better watch what you say about my car. She's real sensitive."

Long before the Blumhouse crowd ever thought of the ides of having Corey Cunningham be corrupted by Michael Myers for Halloween Ends, there was a story about a teenage boy and his new car. It was quite the meeting of messy minds. Just like Corey and Michael, other people died in their wake.

The boy in question being nerdy teenager and something of an asshole, Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon), who despite having a popular friend in handsome former football jock Dennis (John Stockwell) found himself at the ire of a group of bullies. Their ringleader in particular, Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander) really couldn't make his hatred for Arnie any more known and was even close to getting a little stab happy at a garage during one particular altercation.

However things take something of a dramatic twist for Arnie when he purchased an old red and white 1958 Plymoth Fury, which he named Christine. Suddenly Arnie had a cool car, a slightly cooler (for the time period) look and even a girlfriend named Leigh (Alexandra Paul). Things were looking up for Arnie, until they weren't.

Christine might be a snazzy looking motor but it wasn't long before the car in question started causing all kinds of mayhem for everyone except Arnie. Christine almost killed Leigh and when Buddy and his pals wrecked the car in revenge against Arnie, the latter wasn't remotely freaked out when it started to do an extensive self repair on itself.

As well as Christine's growing influence on Arnie ending his relationship with Leigh, it also caused some serious problems between Arnie and his own parents, Michael (Robert Darnell) and Regina (Christine Belford) who wouldn't even let Arnie have the car in their garage. Not to mention his only friend in this movie with Dennis ended up becoming more alienated from Arnie as the latter slipped further and further down a dark path.

Because of this and the increasing body count, it was mainly up to Dennis and Leigh to try and stop both Arnie and Christine from doing any more damage. The final showdown in a junkyard definitely had it's moments with a bittersweet ending for Arnie but for the titular car in question. Let's just say, Dennis, Leigh and Detective Rudy Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton) shouldn't underestimated the possessed motor.

- This was based on a Stephen King novel of the same name, published in the same year as this movie's release.

- We learned in the movie from the seller, George LaBray (Robert Blossom) that his brother had also been corrupted by Christine. Dennis mostly figured it out.

- Standout music: Bad To The Bone by George Thorogood and the Destroyers as well as We Belong Together by Robert & Johnny and Runaway by Bonnie Raitt.

- Chronology: The movie is set in 1978, the same year as a certain John Carpenter movie was released. 

Christine definitely would fall in the category of an underrated movie for John Carpenter. It's probably not the movie that would make most fans Top 5 but maybe just maybe his Top 10. It's an interesting adaptation of the source material with solid performances all round and some decent scares to match.

Rating: 7 out of 10