Classic Horrors Club

The combination was inevitable. By the time Christine (1983) was released, directors such as Brian DePalma, Tobe Hooper, Stanley Kubrick, and David Cronenberg had made adaptations of Stephen King novels. Although he considered it “a job” and not a personal project like his previous films, John Carpenter took his turn with King. (Interestingly, he was able to take the job because his work on another adaptation, Firestarter, had stalled.)

Christine has always been one of my favorite King films, if not one of Carpenter’s. The cast is likable, the story is compelling, and the special effects are perfect. It looks terrific! Every shot is beautifully staged, with the director’s penchant for placing the camera low to the ground. It’s perhaps just a skosh too long. Although a lot of plot points occur in the running time, it’s evenly paced with only a few scenes of real action or suspense.

Lest you think it’s just another high school revenge flick like Carrie, which it is, it’s also a statement about teenage family rebellion. Arnie (Keith Gordon) blames his parents for what happens to “Christine,” the classic car he bought for $250, because they didn’t let him keep it at their house. He also asks his buddy, Dennis (John Stockwell), “Has it ever occurred to you that part of being a parent is trying to kill your kids?”

Ultimately, his grudge against his mother and father isn’t deadly and it’s the school bullies who steal his lunch and trash his car that meet their fates on the dark roads and narrow alleys of Rockbridge, California in the fall and winter of 1978. Maybe there’s also a statement of holiday stress thrown in; Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are all mentioned in the timeline, which passes with onscreen reminders of the dates as Arnie becomes more unhinged.

The soundtrack unintentionally piggybacks on a craze that began a few months earlier with The Big Chill. It’s comprised of mostly vintage tunes that emanate from Christine’s radio as she “turns on” and gets ready to kill someone. As she rolls along the assembly line in the Detroit, 1957, prologue, one song tells us everything we need to know about the vehicle’s evil origins, “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

In the last third of the film, Carpenter and Alan Howarth’s familiar pulsing synth score, used judiciously, drives scenes of pursuit and murder. One of the fascinating aspects of Christine is that there’s virtually no gore and, honestly, it’s refreshing. Writer Bill Phillips throws in enough language, though, to ensure its R rating. There may or may not be a remake in the works, but I’m willing to bet it won’t go light on the splatter.

Whether it be the nostalgia related to the time in my life when it was released, or the involvement of King and Carpenter, Christine is comfort food for me. I could consume it over and over again, feasting on its simplicity. While there are a few facts about the automobile’s history sprinkled in for context, it’s not a detailed or complicated story. It doesn’t try to do too much, but just does what it does extremely well.