Christine was not a film John Carpenter had planned on directing, as most of his films were personal projects, not just jobs. But after the poor reception that The Thing received, he needed a project that would jump-start his career. It may not be frightening. But sometimes, you need to make money to live on.Richard Kobritz, who produced Salem's Lot, was given some two unpublished manuscripts from King to consider for their next film adaptation. He chose this one over Cujo, as he felt that story was silly. One was "Christine" and the other was "Cujo." Korbitz chose Christine because he thought Cujo was too silly.This film was already in production as the book was being published. In its original prose form, it's made clear that the original owner of the car, Roland D. LeBay, is the one possessing it. But in the film, from day one, there's an evil force that powers this 1958 Plymouth Fury (a '57 and two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to create the car).That malevolent spirit shows up on the assembly line, when Christine cuts a man's hand off and then kills another worker who dares to ash his cigar on her upholstery.Fast-forward 21 years and Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon, Dressed to Kill) has only one friend - Dennis (John Stockwell, who became a director and helmed Blue Crush, Turistas and Crazy/Beautiful, amongst others). His life gets better when he buys Christine for $250, an action that no one understands.Arnie not only restores the car, he restores himself. Tossing his glasses, he begins to become more arrogant and dresses like a 1950's greaser. That allows him to hook up with the new girl in town, Leigh.Dennis worries about Arnie, so he begins to study the dark past of his car - like how it killed its previous owner and his family. It tries to do the same to Leigh, jealous of anyone who gets close to its owner.After a fight with Arnie leads to him being expelled, Buddy Repperton and his gang completely destroy Christine. As Arnie watches, it comes back to life, repairing itself and hunts the gang down, one by one. There's an incredibly directed scene here where a flaming Christine (obviously this scene influenced the close of The Strangers: Prey at Night) chases Buddy to his death.The murders don't stop there, as Christine even kills Darnell (Robert Protsky, Grandpa Fred from Gremlins 2), the owner of the garage where Arnie fixed up the car. This leads state policeman Rudolph Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton, always a welcome face) to investigate Arnie.Dennis and Leigh try to save Arnie by luring Christine to Darnell's. They think it's just the car coming to battle them, but Arnie is behind the wheel as it crashes, sending him flying through the windshield to his death. They finally get the car into a crusher, but even as it's deposited into a junkyard as a cube, it's already reforming to the tune of "Bad to the Bone." If you look close enough, the singer of that song, George Thorogood, is working in the junkyard.There's a lot more that was jettisoned from the book, like how crooked Darnell was, the romance between Leigh and Dennis, Junkins getting killed by Christine and her coming back and hunting down the rest of the gang after she's crushed.There's just enough Carpenter (and a great score alongside frequent collaborator Alan Howarth) to make this movie worthwhile. It's not the best of his films. Nor the best King film. But it's an enjoyable enough way to pass ninesome oddodd minutes.

Deeply romantic story by Stephen King about true love and how jealousy and possessiveness can become fatal. True love between man and his car in all its glory. Carpenter made right choice by leaving previous owner from the back seat out of this movie, cause "three's a crowd". To me, this movie is awesome. :D9/10

For me, Carpenter is the best horror director ever : his « Halloween », « prince of darkness » « fog » were really impressive and produced fear ! here, he adapts a novel from the King of horror paperbacks, and strangely, the movie isn't scary ! But an haunted killing car is not very suited to terror and as King devised it, it' rather about the dramatic fate of a nerd in the 80s. and for that, the movie is really good, all the more than every spot is filled with a cool face : the girlfriend will do « Baywatch », the detective is Lynch family, the garage owner will do « Mrs Doubtfire », « broadcast news », « gremlins 2 », a thug « ghost-busters » and finally, the nerd who played in « Jaws 2 » is for my eyes the look alike of young Spielberg ! In all cases, he did an amazing job going from nerd to hero to menace. Unfortunately, Carpenter follows King and if at that time, his novels were amazing, they were highly heart-wrenching as he get rid of innocents heroes ! This Arnie could be Carrie mirror and i'm totally sad to see him die as he was not bad ! It was just the car who did it ! My DVD has the commentary from Carpenter and Arnie, nearly 30 minutes of cut scenes and a full making-off ! So this movie is an excellent recommendation that the 80s were definitely the best years for cinema !

One of the most intriguing coming-of-age stories in cinema, and this tends to be overlooked, both as a Stephen King story and horror film, in place of the more sensationalized frolic and mayhem of works such as 'The Shining', 'Carrie', 'Misery' and 'The Shawshank Redemption', which is a crying shame, because: a) John Carpenter is probably the finest director (at least Top 3) ever involved with King adaptations; and b) it perfectly conceptualizes, like earlier short experimental films by the likes of Kenneth Anger, the downright uncomfortable sleaziness and fetishism that has existed, mainly in America, between men and their cars.Keith Gordon does some really fine acting here (as he did previously for Brian De Palma in 'Dressed to Kill') as all possible dynamics along the range from nerd to psycho. It's impressive that, while growing up in film, he obviously learned some of the tricks of the trade from such cinematic greats (at least of American film of the past 50 years) and ended up becoming a decent film helmer himself.9/10 for me; Grade A Carpenter. It simply isn't top-tier for me, of his oeuvre, because I know he, like Sir Alfred Hitchcock, De Palma and other greats, is capable of cinematic perfection (Halloween, The Thing, etc.).