Happy Halloween month horror fans! Looking to rev your fear engines up a bit? Well, your old pal Slick Dungeon is here to help you out with a review of the film Christine. It’s the tale of a haunted car which becomes an obsession of one of the main characters. The car is a special order Autumn-red Plymouth fury and it stars in a film directed by horror legend John Carpenter. There will be spoilers in this review so buckle your seat belts, head to the drive-in movies with your girlfriend, be careful what you say about the car, watch the movie and then come back here to read the review!

Christine Background

Before I get into the background of how the film came to be, I’m just going to lay it out there. Christine is always going to be one of my absolute favorite Stephen King stories. Why? It’s the first one I read and I’ve been hooked on his writing ever since. Not everyone loves the book or movie as much as I do and that’s totally fine. But for my money, I will always want to read this book and watch this movie when I come across it.

This project was produced by Richard Korbitz who also produced the original TV adaptation of Salem’s Lot. John Carpenter directed and he would go on to also direct an adaptation of King’s Firestarter.

For casting, we almost had Scott Baio and Brooke Shields but the filmmakers wanted to go with younger actors who had less of a public profile at the time. We also nearly had Kevin Bacon star here but he was busy with a little film called Footloose.

The main cast stars Keith Gordon as Arnie, John Stockwell as Dennis, and Alexandra Paul as Leigh.

But the real star is without doubt, the car, Christine. And boy did it take a lot of work to cast Christine. The filmmakers bought 24 cars in total so they could have 17 versions of Christine in various states of repair and disrepair. Even with all of these models, special effects still needed to be incorporated to show the car rebuild itself. And the result is still impressive to this day.

Audiences did not instantly take to the film but it still made a respectable $21 million at the box office and has gone on to become a bit of a cult classic.

A vicious Beginning

Christine starts her life in a manufacturing plant and she’s already out for blood. She shuts her lid on one worker and another who dropped cigarette ash on her seats is found dead inside the car. This car is already taking victims and no one has even driven it yet.

High School Life

Arnie Cunningham is a teenage loser. He’s a bullied nerd who only has one friend named Dennis. A group of bullies takes Arnie’s lunch and Dennis intervenes. But the leader of the trio of bullies, Buddy Repperton, pulls a switchblade knife on him. For this behavior Buddy and his pals are expelled from school.

Arnie’s life is a rough one but he’s a normal kid and has a good friend at his side. He’s planning on going to college and wants to get away from his parents who are overprotective.

Obsession at First Sight of Christine

Driving home from school in Dennis’ car, Arnie sees a red 1958 Plymouth Fury in dilapidated condition on the side of the road. A man named George LeBay owns the car but he’s willing to sell it for a low price.

Arnie wants the car so much he offers $200 for it even though Dennis has LeBay down to $50 at one point. LeBay says he’s not selling it for the money. Dennis obviously thinks there is something wrong with the situation but Arnie is over the moon.

LeBay does tell the boys two things. One, the car is named Christine. Two, it belonged to his brother who recently died.

Arnie’s Going Through Changes

Soon after Arnie buys the car he gets into a huge fight with his parents as to where to keep it. They won’t let him keep it at home so he decides to leave it at a local garage owned by a man named Will Darnell. Darnell isn’t pleased with Arnie for bringing in such a clunker, spewing exhaust fumes everywhere. But he does let Arnie leave it there. The audience can tell Darnell is a gruff guy but has a soft heart.

Time goes by and Arnie starts to act strangely. He spends all of his free time repairing Christine. He does a good enough job with it that Darnell lets Arnie take scraps for parts in exchange for a bit of work around the garage.

But Arnie becomes angry and aggressive. Both his parents, and Dennis notice his personality change for the worse.

Christine’s Checkered Past

Dennis realizes Arnie has not been the same since he bought the car so he goes to LeBay to ask about the history of the car. LeBay tells a horrifying story about Christine. His five year old niece choked to death in the car. And his brother and sister-in-law both died in the car through suicide. None of this was disclosed to Arnie.

Dennis wants to get a look at Christine without Arnie around so he sneaks into Darnell’s garage. But when he tries to open the car door, Christine’s radio turns on and starts playing, Keep A-Knocking by Little Richard. Dennis is smart enough to high tail it out of there.

Young Love

At school, a new student named Leigh arrives. She’s the talk of all the boys and she turns them all down, except for Arnie. Dennis is playing football when he sees Arnie and Leigh kissing in front of a fully repaired Christine. This distracts Dennis enough that he sustains a major injury after a hard tackle.

No more football for Dennis but at least things are going well for his best pal right?

Jealousy

Arnie takes Leigh to the drive-ins in Christine. Leigh doesn’t like Christine. She’s mad that Arnie spends all of his free time with the car rather than her. Arnie gets upset and leaves the car. Leigh nearly chokes to death on a sandwich and Christine locks her doors preventing Arnie from saving her. Fortunately a stranger sees the incident and pulls Leigh out of the car and delivers the Heimlich maneuver. After this experience, Leigh vows never to get in Christine again.

That night, after Christine is tucked away at Darnell’s, Buddy and his fellow thugs sneak in and trash Christine. She’s totaled, smashed to bits, done for, and beyond repair.

Arnie finds Christine in this condition and is furious. He breaks up with Leigh and gets in a fist fight with his father.

Everyone here is basically jealous. Leigh is jealous of Christine, Dennis is jealous of Arnie for dating Leigh, and Buddy and his friends are jealous of Arnie for not getting expelled. And you better believe Christine is jealous of Leigh.

That’s Some Repair Work

The next day Arnie goes to check on Christine. The car puts itself back together in perfect condition. Arnie leaves the garage and the haunted car begins its most current killing spree. One by one, each of the boys who trashed Christine is killed by the car chasing them down. Even Darnell, the garage owner is killed.

When local law enforcement talk to Arnie about paint they found on the bodies, Christine is in pristine condition. Not a scratch and no filler. Arnie bluffs his way through the interview with the cops but it’s clear he’s under suspicion. But he has a clear alibi as he was nowhere near his own car the nights of the murders.

Goodbye Arnie

Leigh and Dennis spend some time together and realize how far off the rails Arnie has gone. They both blame Christine and decide she needs to be destroyed. They want to lure her into Darnell’s garage and take her down with a bulldozer. But when they get there, Christine comes from behind a pile of scrap, driven by Arnie. At one point, Christine smashes into Darnell’s office and Arnie is impaled on a shard of grass. he dies, touching Christine’s grill while her radio plays the song, Pledging My Love.

Leigh and Dennis are both still in danger but also sad their friend had to die like this.

Goodbye Christine?

Dennis does smash Christine up with the bulldozer until the car is no longer moving. And they take it to a junkyard the next day and watch Christine get smashed into a compact square of useless metal. The sound of a radio plays. But it’s just some guy walking with a boombox.

Leigh and Dennis lament the fact they didn’t save their friend. But no one notices as a tiny but of Christine’s grill seems to move. We fade out with the assumption Christine isn’t done for forever.

Christine in Conclusion

I’ll admit there are plenty of holes in this story. There are a few effects in the film that don’t quite hold up. But the repairs Christine does to herself all still look convincing to this day. And I just love the idea of a haunted car out for blood. It’s fun and scary and entertaining.

This is not by any stretch of the imagination the best film directed by John Carpenter. It’s not the scariest of King stories and it’s not the best of King adaptations out there. But, personally, I love this movie. If you can set aside overly high expectations and watch it for the pure entertainment, this one is definitely worth a watch.

Want More?

Want to see some of my other King reviews? Take a look here!

Looking for a good King read? Check out this one!

Do you love this movie or hate it? Let me know in the comments!

Automotively yours,

Slick Dungeon