I have heard about Christine on and off through my adult life. The Stephen King novel about (Spoiler Alert 🚨) a car with a heart of gold darkness. I'll admit, I've never read the book.
A massive faux pas, I know 😅 But just recently I did watch the 1983 John Carpenter film and, allowing for the special effects of the day, I think it's absolutely brilliant 🤩
The reason, I'm ashamed to say, I have stayed away from this story is the overarching concept, and perhaps the age. And if I'm honest, I find Stephen King film interpretations very hit and miss. I always felt I had to be in a certain frame of mind to watch it, to give my fairest, unbiased opinion, and to find a mood that suited a haunted car story never came up.
So, what changed? Well, I don't know about the US or elsewhere, but here in the UK we have a free streaming service that seems to come with Amazon called Freevee. This service covers lots of genres, but I only seem to watch horror on it. Anyway, the service comes with ads, but I don't mind because there are some things I like to casually watch or may switch off if I'm bored. So, Christine eventually popped up and I thought, I'm bored with nothing to do, now's the time to do this. With my expectations suitably low, I hit play. Then my opinions changed forever. The opening music, 'Bad to the bone' by George Thorogood began playing while the car is being built on the production line. I was hooked by how professionally filmed it was and within 10 minutes I knew this was a far better film than I could have hoped for. The main reason, I'll be honest, I gave it a shot was that I found out it was directed by John Carpenter, one of my all-time favourite directors and his skill during this period of his career really showed in the movie. The characters were fleshed out, the shots were great and the special effects, like the car repairing itself, I'd say, are hands down still better than any CGI effects nowadays.
Once I realised, I'd discovered a gem, I'd immediately told my wife (who is not into horror at all) and she reluctantly agreed to watch it with me on Friday night. Like me, she immediately felt the concept was too silly and would hold it back. But just like me, she loved it all the way to the end. We felt Arnie was a nice relatable kid with overbearing parents. That has been done before, I know and sometimes badly. For example, Carpenter could have easily made Arnie comically nerdy and made the same decision with his parents. But he doesn't. Instead, he keeps the tone very grounded. Which I really liked. Plus, making Arnie so real and relatable made us care about him and dreams. We also liked his loyal friend, Dennis who tries to watch out for him. Other characters I enjoyed were the bullies and how well they were portrayed. Especially Buddy, I've met a few of them in my youth. But that was what I found made Arnie's issues that more understandable. I thoroughly enjoyed the old man who sold him the car; he was a great character and just the details that made him so realistic. Having never read the book (I will!) I don't know if he wore a back brace. But I just thought it was a nice touch, not to mention his not-so-subtle use of profanity, which I wasn't expecting. But made me laugh 🥰 I even enjoyed the grouchy owner of the garage. It was like everyone was trying to hold Arnie back and Christine unlocked his potential. But, maybe not in a good way. I won't spoil what is, in my opinion a fantastic film, and probably, by all accounts a brilliant book, that I will read one day. But as someone who had avoided this gem, I can safely say, you will be entertained. It's well acted, well filmed and the use of music is great, as in all of John Carpenter's movies of this era. Not to mention, Christine herself, is stunning 😍
As a little aside, they used about 20 Plymouth Fury's in the making of the film at a cost of 15% of the film's $10,000,000 budget! Only 2 cars survived the destruction, and one of them sold in 2004 for $167,000.