You would think I would want to see a film named after my wife (even though I didn't know her at the time CHRISTINE was released). But I didn't (she spells her first name with a K by the way). Until recently, I was never into vintage cars. The Christine in CHRISTINE is not a woman but a 1957 Plymouth Fury. Lastly, the cast for CHRISTINE was not on my who's who of actors I had to race to a theater to see on the big screen. Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul. All fine actors but unknowns that I wasn't aching to watch for 110 minutes.
Having now watched CHRISTINE a couple of times, it's a taut, atmospheric film by director John Carpenter. Carpenter creates a sense of dread as CHRISTINE becomes more and more powerful. Themes and motifs emerged from CHRISTINE that appear in other Stephen King novels (and film adaptations). CHRISTINE provides us with another ugly duckling (like Sissy Spacek in the title role of 1976's CARRIE) who discovers a power that won't end well for them. King also introduces a new type of evil, not a hotel or a town, but an automobile with a mind and agenda of its own. My initially not wanting to see CHRISTINE as a teenager might have been prophetic as CHRISTINE would not be a box office hit.
CHRISTINE was adapted by Bill Phillips based on King's novel. The film opens with the origin of Christine. From George Thorogood's Bad to the Bone playing on the soundtrack, Carpenter tells us that Christine was a bad seed from the moment she came off the assembly line in Detroit in 1957. Her hood clamps down on a worker's hand, mangling his fingers. Later, a manager sits in the car, smoking a cigar, a butt falling on it's nice leather seat. He's found dead a few hours later, the Fury's radio playing "Not Fade Away" by Buddy Holly. Jump ahead to 1979. Rockbridge High School football star Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell) picks up his nerdy best friend Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) as a new school year begins. Dennis and Arnie are an unlikely pair. School stud and school geek. But some things never change. In shop class, Arnie is terrorized by school bullies Buddy Reperton (William Ostrander), Moochie (Malcolm Danare), and Don Vandenberg (Stuart Charno) until Dennis comes to the rescue.
On their way home from school, Arnie sees an old piece of junk car sitting in a deserted lot. It's a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Arnie buys the car from the lot's owner George LeBay (Roberts Blossom). Against his mother Regina's (Christine Belford) wishes, Arnie keeps the car and takes it to Darnell's Do It Yourself Garage run by the cantankerous Will Darnell (Robert Prosky). Arnie sets about restoring the Plymouth. As the Plymouth undergoes a transformation from junk to cherry, Arnie begins to change. He's no longer the nerdy, unsure teenager. He becomes confident, dark, dangerous. He's taken on Christine's evil persona.
Arnie begins dating the new girl in high school Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul) to the surprise of jock Dennis. Arnie and Leigh watch Dennis's football game, leaning on Christine. Dennis is injured, forcing him to miss the rest of the season. Dennis begins to look into Arnie's metamorphosis which began as he refurbished Christine. Dennis revisits George LeBay and discovers that LeBay's brother and family all died inside Christine. Arnie treats Christine like a girlfriend. At a drive-in movie theater, Leigh almost chokes in the car. Christine has become jealous of Arnie's friends like Dennis and Leigh.
Buddy, Moochie, and Don sneak into Darnell's garage one night and vandalize Christine. Horribly disfigured, Christine supernaturally rebuilds herself on her own. Christine stalks the vandals, killing them one by one . A local police detective Rudolph Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton) begins investigating. He first looks into who vandalized Arnie's prized car but soon has to deal with the deaths of Buddy and his gang and the garage owner Darnell. Meanwhile, Dennis confides with Leigh that they need to destroy Christine to save Arnie. They lure Christine and Arnie back to Darnell's garage for a final battle between car and Caterpillar tractor.
I imagine Stephen King (and possibly John Carpenter) may have been outcasts in high school, uncool to the regular crowd. King's stories often focus on underdogs and the disadvantaged that rise up to confront evil. Corey Haim in a wheelchair confronting a werewolf in his town in SILVER BULLET (1985). Little Danny Lloyd fighting off deranged Dad Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING (1980). The four young boys from STAND BY ME (1985) beating the bullies to see the dead teenager's body first. The Losers Club in IT (2017) battling Pennywise the Clown. But King also makes some of these cast offs and ugly ducklings have unique powers to deal with bullies and evil incarnate. They don't always handle their new found powers very well. Drew Barrymore using her telekinesis to start fires in FIRESTARTER (1984). Sissy Spacek in CARRIE destroying her entire high school and classmates with her vengeful telekinesis after they humiliate her one time too many. In CHRISTINE, it's Keith Gordon as Arnie transforming from geek to cool dude only he's possessed by the demonic Plymouth Fury he restored. Christine is overprotective. She's one jealous girlfriend. Arnie takes on Christine's persona, killing and maiming anyone who gets in their way.
King and Carpenter have both dealt with pure evil before in their works. In Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978), the killer Michael Myers is evil personified, seemingly indestructible. In THE THING, it's the alien stuck in the Arctic, hiding in various human host bodies, attempting to reach civilization and end the world. For King, we've seen evil living in a mountain hotel in THE SHINING or a vampire bringing horror to a small Maine town in SALEM'S LOT (1979). In CHRISTINE, it's a classic 1958 Plymouth Fury that represents evil. She becomes attached to her owner and hurts anyone that tries to come between her and Arnie. Arnie starts out a nice, awkward teenager but becomes transformed into a brooding, angry dangerous person. Arnie and Christine become one.
Stephen King's choice of car for CHRISTINE is a good one. The Plymouth Fury, in a way, resembles a shark. Big tail fins, teeth like grill, and twin headlights that flash on like big eyes. The Fury is cherry red, almost like the color of blood. If Satan had a hot car, it might be a '58 Plymouth Fury. The console lights up with a creepy green glow, the supernatural life force of Christine. Carpenter makes the car like a predator especially when it's on the prowl, hunting the hoodlums that vandalized it. Buddy's death is especially wicked, the flaming Plymouth following Buddy down the road like a wolf until it runs him over, Buddy's body roasted.
CHRISTINE is the perfect union of Stephen King and John Carpenter. Besides both men ruling the horror genre, both King and Carpenter are big rock and roll fans. CHRISTINE has plenty of vintage rock and roll music in the film. King played in a rock and roll band made up of other writers. Carpenter made the TV film ELVIS (1979) with Kurt Russell. Christine pumps out classic 1950's Rock and Roll tunes to convey what she's thinking by the likes of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, Dion & the Belmonts, and Little Richard. Carpenter along with Alan Howarth composed the music for CHRISTINE. CHRISTINE returns Carpenter to suburbia where he scared the living daylights out of people with HALLOWEEN. Instead of scaring us with empty sidewalks and hedges that could hide a killer in HALLOWEEN, Carpenter gives us dark driveways and streets where CHRISTINE lurks.
We've talked about one type of hero in Stephen King stories. The handicapped kid, the nerd, the overweight kid or the kid with asthma fighting evil. But CHRISTINE gives us Dennis (John Stockwell), the typical hero. Good looking, ladies man, star athlete. Yet Dennis is to some degree a failed or flawed hero. Early on, Dennis sticks up for Arnie in front of Buddy and his gang. But then Dennis suffers an injury during a football game (did Christine influence it by distracting Dennis?). He has to have crutches. He's handicapped in his ability to protect Arnie or Leigh. Arnie becomes the alpha male and Dennis the weak one. When he's called a hero by Detective Junkins, Dennis laments, "A real hero could have saved Arnie." It's a nice juxtaposition between weak Arnie and strong Dennis. They switch roles as the film progresses.
Stephen King has been intrigued by the idea of cars (and other vehicles) having a mind and soul of their own previously. King wrote a short story called Trucks about a world where cars and trucks and all types of vehicles ruled mankind. In his only directorial effort, King would write and direct a film version of the short story called MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986) starring Emilio Estavez. The movie would be a flop. My hunch is CHRISTINE materialized from King's Trucks story but on a much smaller scale. The granddaddy and best movie of this sub-genre is still DUEL (1971), a TV movie directed by a young Steven Spielberg and written by horror/science fiction master Richard Matheson about a semi-truck menacing Dennis Weaver. One last bit of car trivia. CHRISTINE'S production team used 28 Plymouth Fury's for the film.
I honestly didn't want to see CHRISTINE earlier in my film watching career primarily because of the three leads. They were mostly unknowns. I liked Keith Gordon in Brian DePalma's DRESSED TO KILL (1980) but like his character in that film and CHRISTINE, Gordon is more of a nerd than a matinee idol. After watching CHRISTINE, I discovered that I thought John Stockwell who plays Dennis was John Pankow, an actor who I never really liked (even though he's in a film I like 1985's TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. directed by William Friedkin). I found Pankow to be an irritating actor. But Stockwell is actually very good in CHRISTINE. It turns out Stockwell also appeared in TOP GUN (1986) and would later become a director himself, directing INTO THE BLUE (2005) starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba. For Alexandra Paul, CHRISTINE was one of her first films and it shows. Her acting is hesitant and not very assured early on. She's supposed to be the new beautiful girl on campus but I didn't find her alluring until the end of the film when hair and makeup finally made her look stunning. Paul would go on to star in TV's BAYWATCH from 1992 to 1997.
Making up for his young talent, Carpenter wisely casts two veteran actors in CHRISTINE who chew up their supporting roles. Harry Dean Stanton (ALIEN, PARIS TEXAS) plays the small but vital role of Detective Junkins. Junkins is one of the few positive adult role models in the film. Stanton worked with Carpenter on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Robert Prosky (THE NATURAL) as Will Darnell has fun as the ornery garage owner who lets Arnie rebuild Christine in his facility. William Ostrander who plays the lead bully Buddy Repperton is terrifying but looks much too old to be in high school (he was 24 when the film was made). But then we all went to high school with kids who looked older than their age, right? Look for a young Kelly Preston (TWINS) in a small role as high school cheerleader Roseanne.
Stephen King was a hot commodity in the early 80s. I began to stop reading his novels after Misery. King was branching out into new types of horror stories but I didn't find them as compelling. Like CHRISTINE, you can't keep a good horror storyteller down (although King never really went away). Today, Stephen King novels and short stories are popping up in the theaters and television like never before. The blockbuster 2017 remake of IT, GERALD'S GAME on Netflix, and a new version of THE STAND in the works to name but a few. Some of King's adaptations have been hits like CARRIE or THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994). Others like CUJO (1983) or THE DARK TOWER (2017) flopped. CHRISTINE falls into that in-between category. Having John Carpenter direct CHRISTINE made the film more interesting than if someone else had directed it.
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