Christine (1983 film)

Christine
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Carpenter
Produced by	Richard Kobritz Larry J. Franco
Screenplay by	Bill Phillips
Based on	Christine by Stephen King
Starring	Keith Gordon John Stockwell Alexandra Paul Harry Dean Stanton
Music by	John Carpenter Alan Howarth
Cinematography	Donald M. Morgan
Editing by	Marion Rothman
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 9, 1983 (1983-12-09)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9.7 million
Box office	$21,017,849[1]

Christine is a 1983 horror film about a sentient automobile named "Christine" and its effects on its teenaged owner, adapted from the novel Christine written by Stephen King. The film was directed by John Carpenter, and set in 1978.

Synopsis

In 1957, it shows a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury in an auto plant assembly line. One worker is injured when the car's hood slams shut on his hand, and another is choked to death inside after dropping cigar ash on the seat.

20 years later in 1978, Arnold Cunningham (Keith Gordon) is a nerdy teen with only one friend, a childhood companion and popular jock named Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell). Arnie's life begins to change when he buys a used car (Christine) in serious need of repair. Arnie begins to restore Christine to her original beauty, but as he spends more and more of his time repairing her, those in his life notice that he is changing as well. Formerly shy, Arnie develops a cocky arrogance. Dennis, as well as Arnie's new girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, (Alexandra Paul) discover that the car has a deadly past. The previous owner, Roland LeBay, became obsessed with Christine and he paid for it with his life. Leigh and Dennis try to save Arnie from a similar fate. Christine, however, isn't ready to give up Arnie without a fight.

A group of bullies at school bear a grudge against Arnie after a shop class confrontation that results in the gang's leader, Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander)'s, getting expelled for threatening Arnie with a switchblade. They severely vandalize the newly restored Christine, leaving her totally ruined. Arnie sees the wreck of Christine the next day and is totally shocked that all the work he put into restoring the car has been destroyed. Arnie begins a slow descent into darkness, angrily blaming Leigh for the wreck, and displaying further problems with his temper, getting into arguments with his parents and having a scuffle with his father. He is determined to restore Christine again. The next day as he looks the wreck over, he turns his back and hears the creaking of metal behind him. Arnie looks at Christine again and sees that her engine is fully restored. Arnie simply smiles and says, "Okay... show me." Christine, flickering her headlights on, then comes to life and restores herself so she looks good as new. Subsequently, Christine seeks out and gruesomely kills the individual members of the gang who destroyed her, one by one. Eventually, Christine arrives at a gas station, spilling gasoline, burning the building down, catching herself on fire and running down Buddy as he flees the scene in terror. She also kills Will Darnell (Robert Prosky), the grouchy, foul-mouthed owner of the garage where she resides, crushing him in the front seat against the steering wheel. In each of these nighttime attacks, Christine is badly damaged, but somehow regenerates herself every time so she looks showroom new.

On New Year's Eve, Dennis and Leigh reason that the only way to stop Christine and save Arnie is to destroy the car. Dennis then says that he is going to Arnie's, and Leigh urges him to be careful. After she leaves, Arnie pulls up to Dennis' house in Christine, picks him up and drives off. During the ride to Arnie's house, Arnie does a variety of things: drinks beer, takes his hands off the wheel, and tells Dennis about how strong the bond is between Christine and him. The next day, Dennis scratches the phrase "Darnell's Tonight" into Christine's hood, and drives off with Leigh. The two go to Darnell's and wait in a bulldozer. Dennis then tells Leigh to wait in the office so she can shut the door after Christine arrives. This way the car will be trapped. When Leigh exits the bulldozer and heads for the office, Christine's headlights shoot out of a pile of garbage, and the car charges at Leigh. As Christine crashes into Darnell's office in an attempt to kill Leigh, Arnie is thrown through Christine's windshield and is impaled on a shard of glass, surviving just long enough to admire Christine one last time. However, Christine continues to attack Dennis and Leigh, sustaining damage, and regenerating. Dennis pulls Leigh into the cab, and they finally crush Christine with the bulldozer, compacting her into a cube and tossing her into a junkyard, finally destroying her. Zooming in on the crushed cube that was formerly Christine, a piece of the grill slowly begins to bend.

Production notes

Four "survivors" of the many red-and-white 1958 Plymouth stunt cars used in Christine now reside in private hands: one in California (pictured); one in Florida; one at the Volo Car Museum, Volo, Illinois; one in England.^{[citation needed]}

King's novel, the source material for Carpenter's film, made it clear that the car was possessed by the evil spirit of its previous owner Roland D. LeBay, whereas the film version of the story shows that the evil spirit surrounding the car was present on the day it was built.

Although the car in the film is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury, two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to portray the malevolent automobile onscreen (Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303). Several Fury models were destroyed during filming, but most of the cars were Savoy and Belvedere models dressed to look like the Fury.^[2] Director John Carpenter destroyed 21 Plymouth Belvederes to make the film.

In the scene where Leigh chokes on a hamburger, the door lock button clearly goes down by itself, yet the 1958 Fury did not have lock buttons. They required the door handle to be pushed forward to lock them, pulling rearward opens the door.

The letters on Christine's license plate are CQB, a military acronym for "close quarters battle," where targets are engaged at very close range, very swiftly and usually very violently, leaving the victim with little chance of withdrawal and/or survival.

Cast

• Keith Gordon as Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham
• John Stockwell as Dennis Guilder
• Alexandra Paul as Leigh Cabot
• Robert Prosky as Will Darnell
• Harry Dean Stanton as Detective Rudolph "Rudy" Junkins
• Christine Belford as Regina Cunningham
• Roberts Blossom as George LeBay
• Kelly Preston as Roseanne
• William Ostrander as Clarence "Buddy" Repperton
• Malcolm Danare as Peter "Moochie" Welch
• Steven Tash as Richard "Richie" Trelawney
• Stuart Charno as Donald "Don" Vandenberg
• David Spielberg as Mr. Casey

Release

Christine was released in North America on December 9, 1983 to 1,045 theaters.

Box office

In its opening weekend Christine brought in $3,408,904 landing at #4. The film dropped 39.6% in its second weekend, grossing $2,058,517 slipping from fourth to eighth place. In its third weekend, it grossed $1,851,909 dropping to #9. The film remained at #9 its fourth weekend, grossing $2,736,782. In its fifth weekend, it returned to #8, grossing $2,015,922. Bringing in $1,316,835 it its sixth weekend, the film dropped out of the box office top ten to twelfth place. In its seventh and final weekend, the film brought in $819,972 landing at #14, bringing the total gross for Christine to $21,017,849.^[1]

Critical reception

Based on 21 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Christine has an overall 67% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 5.7 out of 10.^[3]

Soundtrack

Christine: Music from the Motion Picture
Film score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth
Released	June 1, 1990
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	33:14
Label	Varese Sarabande
Producer	John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

All tracks written and composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth.^[4]

Christine: Music from the Motion Picture
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Arnie's Love Theme"	1:15
2.	"Obsessed With The Car"	2:07
3.	"Football Run/Kill Your Kids"	2:42
4.	"The Rape"	1:10
5.	"The Discovery"	1:30
6.	"Show Me"	2:36
7.	"Moochie's Death"	2:25
8.	"Junkins"	3:33
9.	"Buddie's Death"	1:27
10.	"Nobody's Home/Restored"	1:44
11.	"Car Obsession Reprise"	1:53
12.	"Christine Attacks (Plymouth Fury)"	2:30
13.	"Talk On The Couch"	1:23
14.	"Regeneration"	1:25
15.	"Darnell's Tonight"	0:13
16.	"Arnie"	1:01
17.	"Undented"	1:54
18.	"Moochie Mix Four"	2:26

See also

• The Wrecker, a 1924 stage play by Arnold Ridley about a possessed steam locomotive
• "You Drive", a 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone
• My Mother the Car, a 1965 television sit-com series
• The Love Bug, a 1968 comedy film about an anthropomorphic 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle
• Killdozer!, a 1974 made-for-TV horror movie based on a short story by Theodore Sturgeon of the same name
• The Car, a 1977 film about an anthropomorphic customized 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III
• The Hearse, a 1980 horror movie about a possessed hearse
• Knight Rider, a franchise - begun in 1980 - featuring an anthropomorphic car named Kitt
• Nightmares, a 1983 movie consisting of four separate story segments; the third segment, "The Benediction", features a traveling priest (played by Lance Henriksen) attacked on the highway by a demonic 4x4
• Maximum Overdrive, a 1986 horror movie; and Trucks, a 1997 made-for-TV remake film; both based on the short story Trucks by Stephen King
• The Wraith, a 1986 film starring Charlie Sheen, who plays a man murdered by a gang of car thieves who gets revenge upon his killers by returning as a phantom car and driver set out to eliminate them
• "The Honking", a 2000 Futurama episode in which the robot character, Bender, is possessed by a were-virus, transforming him into a murderous car every night at midnight. The curse could only be lifted by destroying the originator of the virus, a project-Satan car located at the "Anti-Chrysler" building.
• Phantom Racer, a 2009 SyFy movie about a possessed race car

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Overall Box Office". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com, Inc. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=christine.htm. Retrieved October 22, 2010. 
2. ^ "Christine at 20 - the Famous 1958 Plymouth Fury" at allpar.com, retrieved on 2009-12-08.
3. ^ "Christine Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/christine/. Retrieved October 22, 2010. 
4. ^ "Christine – Production Credits". Allmusic. http://www.allmovie.com/work/christine-9504/credits. Retrieved October 22, 2010. 

External links

• Christine at AllRovi
• Christine at Box Office Mojo
• Christine at the Internet Movie Database
• Christine at Rotten Tomatoes