Christine (1983 Film)

''Christine'' (titled onscreen as ''John Carpenter's Christine'') is a 1983 American supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton. The film also features supporting performances from Roberts Blossom and Kelly Preston.

Written by Bill Phillips and based on Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same name, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies after Arnie buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury (for 250 dollars) named Christine, license plate CQB 241, a car that seems to have a mind of its own and a jealous, possessive personality, which has a bad influence on Arnie.

Released in the United States on December 9, 1983, ''Christine'' received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $21 million at the box office. The film has since become a cult classic. A remake from Sony Pictures and Blumhouse is in development.

Plot

A 1958 Plymouth Fury is built on the assembly line. While a worker inspects the engine, the car injures him. During closing time, another worker is killed in the Fury when he flicks cigar ash on its upholstery. Twenty years later, Arnold “Arnie” Cunningham, a nerdy teen, buys the same used Fury Coupe over the objections of his friend, Dennis Guilder, who says she needs a full restoration. At school, Arnie is viciously bullied by Buddy Repperton who is expelled after drawing a switchblade. Arnie begins restoring Christine in defiance of his parents at Darnell's Garage. As he spends time repairing it, he changes, shedding his glasses, dressing better, and developing a cocky arrogance. His obsession with Christine puts a strain on his relationship with his parents and as well as his friendship with Dennis.

When Dennis asks out new girl Leigh Cabot, he finds she has a date. As his best friend changes, Dennis returns to Christine's seller to ask about the car. He discovers the Fury's previous owner was obsessed with Christine despite his family's deaths in the car and later killed himself in it. Leigh and Arnie attend one of Dennis' football games. Dennis not only sees them together, but that Christine is completely restored. Distracted, he is gravely injured. Arnie visits him in the hospital and learns he was almost paralyzed and can never play football again. Leigh and Arnie's relationship goes well until they attend a drive-in movie. Leigh explains she is too uncomfortable with the car to have sex in it. When Arnie coaxes her back, the car's radio spontaneously turn on and a blinding light emits from the dash. As Leigh chokes on her food, Arnie discovers the doors have locked. Leigh unlocks the doors, and another patron saves her.

Buddy and his friends Moochie, Richie and Don vandalize Christine in retaliation for Buddy’s expulsion. When Leigh consoles Arnie, he lashes out at her and breaks up with her. Arnie returns to the garage later and promises Christine he will rebuild her. As he walks away, he hears creaking metal and sees the engine is fully restored. At his command, Christine restores herself to showroom quality. That evening, Christine chases Moochie into a corner and kills him. Detective Rudy Junkins questions Arnie, who says Moochie got what he deserved. Junkins lets him go when Arnie's alibi checks out.

Christine later targets Buddy and Richie. After chasing them to a gas station where Don works, Christine rams Buddy’s car into the gas station, killing Richie. Buddy escapes a gas tank explosion that kills Don, but Christine, still on fire, runs him down. The smoldering car returns to Darnell's garage. When Darnell investigates, the car crushes him in a seat. The police find Darnell's body in Christine, which is again in like-new condition. Junkins questions Arnie again, who becomes angry and provides an alibi.

Leigh requests help from Dennis to destroy Christine and save Arnie. Dennis scratches "Darnell's Tonight" into Christine's hood and leaves for the garage to hot-wire Darnell's bulldozer. They plan to lure Christine into the garage and destroy it, but Christine surprises them by emerging from a pile of scrap metal. Leigh flees while Dennis runs interference. After side-swiping another car, Arnie is revealed to be driving Christine. While trying to kill Leigh, Christine crashes into Darnell's office, and Arnie flies through Christine's windshield. As he grabs her, Leigh sees he is mortally wounded. Before he dies, Arnie reaches out to touch Christine.

Leigh exits the wreckage of the office to tell Dennis Arnie is dead. However, Christine continues attacking, regenerating faster than before. Dennis pulls Leigh into the bulldozer's cab, and they repeatedly smash Christine with it. They return to the junkyard the next day and see the remains of the Fury crushed into a cube. Detective Junkins joins them and attempts to console them, congratulating them for stopping Christine even though they were unable to save Arnie. They are momentarily spooked when they hear a 1950s rock and roll song, but it turns out to be a workman's boom box; however, Christine's grill slowly begins to unbend.

Cast

* Robert Nichols II (sound effects) as Christine
* Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham
* John Stockwell as Dennis Guilder
* Alexandra Paul as Leigh Cabot
* Robert Prosky as Will Darnell
* Harry Dean Stanton as Detective Rudy Junkins
* Christine Belford as Regina Cunningham
* Roberts Blossom as George LeBay
* William Ostrander as Clarence "Buddy" Repperton
* David Spielberg as Mr. Casey
* Malcolm Danare as Peter "Moochie" Welch
* Steven Tash as Richie Trelawney
* Stuart Charno as Don Vandenberg
* Kelly Preston as Roseanne
* Marc Poppel as Chuck
* Robert Darnell as Michael Cunningham
*Jack Faust as referee

Production

Conception

Producer Richard Kobritz had previously produced the miniseries ''Salem's Lot'', also based on a Stephen King novel. Through producing the miniseries, Kobritz became acquainted with King, who sent him manuscripts of two of his novels, ''Cujo'', and ''Christine''. Kobritz purchased the rights to ''Christine'' after finding himself attracted to the novel's "celebration of America's obsession with the motorcar."

Kobritz's first choice for director was John Carpenter, who was initially unavailable owing to two projects: an adaptation of another King novel, '' Firestarter'', and an adaptation of the 1980 Eric Van Lustbader novel ''The Ninja''. However, production delays on these projects allowed Carpenter to accept the director position for ''Christine''. Kobritz and Carpenter had previously collaborated in the 1978 television film ''Someone's Watching Me!.'' Bill Phillips was Carpenter's choice for writer and was brought on shortly after Carpenter arrived. Carpenter was also joined by special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast, who had previously worked with Carpenter in '' The Thing'' (1982). According to Carpenter, ''Christine'' was not a film he had planned on directing, saying that he directed the film as "a job" as opposed to a "personal project." He had previously directed ''The Thing'', which had done poorly at the box office and led to critical backlash. In retrospect, Carpenter stated that upon reading ''Christine'', he felt that "It just wasn't very frightening. But it was something I needed to do at that time for my career."

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 of the car manifested itself on the day it was built. Other elements from the novel were altered for the film, particularly the execution of the death scenes, which the filmmakers opted for a more "cinematic approach."

Casting

Initially, Columbia Pictures had wanted to cast Brooke Shields in the role of Leigh because of her publicity after the release of '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1981), and Scott Baio as Arnie. The filmmakers declined the suggestion, opting to cast young actors who were still fairly unknown. Kevin Bacon auditioned for the role, but opted out when offered the lead in ''Footloose'' (1984). Carpenter cast Keith Gordon in the role of Arnie after an audition in New York City; Gordon had some experience in film, and was also working in theater at the time; John Stockwell was cast at an audition in Los Angeles.

Nineteen-year-old Alexandra Paul was cast in the film after an audition in New York City; according to Carpenter, Paul was an "untrained, young actress" at the time, but brought a "great quality" about the character of Leigh. According to Paul, she had not read any of King's books or seen Carpenter's films, and read the novel in preparation.

Filming

''Christine'' was shot largely in Los Angeles, California, while the location for Darnell's garage was located in Santa Clarita. Filming began in April 1983, mere days after the King novel had been published. An abandoned furniture factory in Irwindale was used for the opening scene. The film's stunts were primarily completed by stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, who was behind the wheel of the car during the high-speed chase scenes, as well as the scene in which the car drives down a highway engulfed in flames. During that scene, Leonard wore a Nomex firefighter's suit complete with breathing apparatus.

Alexandra Paul's identical twin sister Caroline Paul wrote that she and her sister pulled a prank during filming, sending Caroline on set in place of Alexandra without telling Carpenter that they had made the switch until after he had shot a scene. She wrote, "My highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie."

The car

Although the car in the film is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury – and in 1983 radio ads promoting the film, voiceover artists announced, "she's a '57 Fury" – two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to portray the malevolent automobile onscreen. John Carpenter placed ads throughout Southern California searching for models of the car, and was able to purchase twenty-four of them in various states of disrepair, which were used to build a total of seventeen copies of the film car. All cars were two door hardtops.

Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and they were difficult to find and expensive to buy at the time. In addition, the real-life Furys only came in one color, "Sandstone White" with a "Buckskin Beige" interior, seen on the other Furys on the assembly line during the initial scenes of the movie, though the car in King's novel was ordered with a red-and-white custom paint job. The original Furys had anodized gold trim on the body and Fury script on the rear fender. In order to bypass the problem of obtaining the rare trim, the cars featured the more common Belvedere "Dartline" trim. Several vehicles were destroyed during filming, but most of the cars were Savoy and Belvedere models dressed to look like the Fury. At least one '57 Savoy was used, its front end modified to look like a '58.

Some of King's details about the car were incorrect in the novel. The 1956-1958 Plymouth Fury was only available as a two-door coupe, while the book described it as a four-door sedan, which would have made it a Savoy or Belvedere model. During Leigh's choking scene, Christine is shown to have common vertical lock "buttons" on the inside door panels. Chrysler vehicles of this era were not equipped with such buttons. To lock the door, the door handle has to be pushed downward. King also mentions a shift lever for the automatic transmission, but in real life it had push-button controls.

Originally, Carpenter had not planned to film the car's regeneration scenes, but gave special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast three weeks to devise a way for the car to rebuild itself. Arbogast and his team made rubber molds from one of the cars, including a whole front end. One of the cars was stripped of its engine to accommodate internally-mounted hydraulics that pulled the framework inward, crumpling the car, with the shot then run backwards in the final film.

Twenty-three cars were used in the film. Initially sold as scrap metal after filming ended, one of the best known surviving vehicles was eventually rescued from the junkyard and restored. It was subsequently bought by collector Bill Gibson of Pensacola, Florida.

One of the Christines was auctioned off at an auto-auction in Florida in January 2020.

Release

Box office

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

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 in 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.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, ''Christine'' holds a 69% approval rating based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The consensus reads: "The cracks are starting to show in John Carpenter's directorial instincts, but ''Christine'' is nonetheless silly, zippy fun.”

Roger Ebert gave the movie three out of four stars, saying: "by the end of the movie, Christine has developed such a formidable personality that we are actually taking sides during its duel with a bulldozer. This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower." Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' gave the film a middling review, saying: "The early parts of the film are engaging and well acted, creating a believable high-school atmosphere. Unfortunately, the later part of the film is slow in developing, and it unfolds in predictable ways." ''Variety'' gave the film a negative review, stating: "''Christine'' seems like a retread. This time it's a fire-engine red, 1958 Plymouth Fury that's possessed by the Devil, and this deja-vu premise rom the novel by Stephen Kingcombined with the crazed-vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop worn." '' Time Out'' said of the film: "Carpenter and novelist Stephen King share not merely a taste for genre horror but a love of '50's teenage culture; and although set in the present, ''Christine'' reflects the second taste far more effectively than the first."

Home media

The film was released on VHS by Columbia Pictures, a DVD came out on August 4, 1998, and later as a special edition DVD in 2004. On March 12, 2013, Twilight Time video released the film on Blu-ray for the first time in a limited edition run numbered at 3,000 copies. On September 29, 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment re-released the film on Blu-ray. The film was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on September 11, 2018.

Soundtrack

Two soundtracks were released, one consisting purely of the music written and composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, the other consisting of the contemporary pop songs used in the film.

Score

Songs appearing in film

The soundtrack album containing songs used in the film was entitled ''Christine: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' and was released on LP and cassette on Motown Records. It contained 10 (of the 15) songs listed in the film's credits, plus one track from John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's own score. The track listing was as follows:
# George Thorogood and the Destroyers – "Bad to the Bone"
# Buddy Holly & the Crickets – " Not Fade Away"
# Johnny Ace – "Pledging My Love"
# Robert & Johnny – "We Belong Together"
# Little Richard – "Keep A-Knockin'"
# Dion and The Belmonts – "I Wonder Why"
# The Viscounts – "Harlem Nocturne"
# Thurston Harris – "Little Bitty Pretty One"
# Danny & The Juniors – " Rock 'n' Roll is Here to Stay"
# John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – "Christine Attacks (Plymouth Fury)"
# Larry Williams – " Bony Moronie"

The following tracks were not included on this LP release, but were used in the film and listed in the film's credits:

* ABBA – " The Name of the Game"
* Bonnie Raitt – " Runaway"
* Ritchie Valens – "Come on, Let's Go"
* Tanya Tucker – "Not Fade Away"
* The Rolling Stones – "Beast of Burden"

Remake

In June 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of a remake of the film with Bryan Fuller penning the script and directing and Jason Blum, Vincenzo Natali and Steve Hoban producing.

Cultural references

* The film is referred to in the song Autopilot by Allison Ponthier.

See also

* List of films about automobiles

References

Bibliography

*
*
*

External links

*
*
*

{{John Carpenter

1983 films
1983 horror films
1980s horror thriller films
1980s mystery films
1980s supernatural films
1980s teen horror films
1980s teen romance films
American horror thriller films
American mystery thriller films
American romantic thriller films
American supernatural horror films
American supernatural thriller films
American teen horror films
American teen romance films
Columbia Pictures films
Films about automobiles
Films based on American horror novels
Films based on urban legends
Films based on works by Stephen King
Films directed by John Carpenter
Films scored by John Carpenter
Films scored by Alan Howarth (composer)
Films set in 1957
Films set in 1978
Films set in California
Films set in Detroit
Films shot in Los Angeles
American mystery horror films
Phantom vehicles
American romantic horror films
Teen mystery films
1980s romantic thriller films
Films about curses
1980s English-language films
1980s American films