Christine review.
John Carpenter and Stephen King sounds like a match made in heaven. On its 40th anniversary we ask: Is Christine more Carpenter or King?
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Christine
Directed by John Carpenter
Screenplay by Bill Phillips
Starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford and Kelly Preston
Christine Review
The most interesting thing about looking back at Christine forty years after its release is in seeking out where it places in the careers of the two famous names attached to it. For author Stephen King whose 1983 novel the movie is adapted from…it comes from one of his most memorable periods. Pet Sematary and Cycle of the Werewolf (adapted into Silver Bullet) were released the same year. His Dark Tower series began the previous year. It and Misery were three and four years away, respectively. He was firmly entrenched as the most famous horror fiction writer in the world.
As far as movie adaptations of King’s works…Christine is a part of the early success stories helmed by some of cinema’s best auteurs. David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone was released the same year. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining set the gold standard three years earlier. Brian De Palma’s Carrie started things off a whopping seven years before John Carpenter took on King’s story of a killer 1958 Plymouth Fury.
I put the director’s possessive credit before those titles to differentiate them from King’s novels…but that comes with its own interesting detour. Neither De Palma nor Kubrick set their names above the title. Both take a “so and so film” credit above the title. Cronenberg not only puts the title first in his film…the poster credits it as Stephen King’s The Dead Zone. King’s name had become a bankable entity by 1983. We’d see more and more movies follow suit by using his name above title. But not Christine.
As he had done on Halloween five years prior…and every movie in between…Carpenter titles his picture John Carpenter’s Chrstine. Halloween made Carpenter a name in horror…partially due to that pre-title credit demand. The Fog, Escape From New York and The Thing followed…each bearing his name above title. Christine, then, comes during the period of Carpenter’s career where he directed cult classic after cult classic.
Two men at the peak of their powers. A combination that would make any horror fan salivate. The possessive credit discussion is ultimately meaningless, of course. But it is also a bit prescient as to what Christine is. Despite its origins as a Stephen King story…this is purely a John Carpenter film. It’s paced like a Carpenter film; it’s shot like a Carpenter film…it feels like a Carpenter film. That’s what’s in its DNA. The Carpenter style overwhelms any King that is in there. With respect to King’s thoughts on what Kubrick did to The Shining…Christine feels even less like his. That’s probably why he also wasn’t a fan of Carpenter’s movie.
For those unfamiliar with the story of Christine…it’s the one about a killer car. Modern horror fans will recognize it as the movie David Gordon Green turned to when he ran out of ideas for his Halloween trilogy. Halloween Ends lifts so much from this movie I’m almost surprised Carpenter didn’t demand his name above that title too. Arnie Cunningham (not Corey as Green would so cleverly disguise it) is a bullied teen whose life starts down a dark path when he encounters Michael Myers. I mean a car. Christine the killer car that can regenerate itself from any damage and murders whatever gets in its path. Wait…that is Michael Myers.
Anyway…I started this review by stating that the most interesting thing about the movie was where it placed in Carpenter and King’s work. That’s because the movie itself isn’t that interesting. I’m sorry…but it’s true. It’s an early John Carpenter movie…so there is a high floor on these things…but it’s more The Fog than Halloween. The success of the latter caused some pacing issues for later Carpenter horror films. What works for Michael Myers doesn’t necessarily work for a car. Or fog.
Still…it’s Carpenter. It has that Carpenter look and feel that no one else does half as well (cough David Gordon Green). The problem is that there isn’t much to the story. I’d argue that Carpenter’s camera elevates things here. There’s only so much you can do with the concept. Because…let’s face it…it’s a silly concept. An autonomous killer car sounds great on paper…but come on. Or, perhaps, we just live in a post-Michael Bay Transformers world now.
Arnie’s rise and fall is interesting enough, but he (pardon the pun) takes a backseat to a car in his own story. Thankfully, Carpenter knows that and gives us a string of highlight reel material from Christine, herself. The scene where Christine fixes herself after Arnie’s bullies destroy her is an all-timer. And hey, any movie where Harry Dean Stanton shows up to investigate has to be a good one. The cast does a fine job acting like this isn’t the height of absurdity. Carpenter does a better job letting it be both serious and absurd.
I don’t want to give the impression that Christine is a bad movie. It’s a good one. At times, a very good one. It is to say, however, that the quality of the film fittingly belongs to the director whose name can be found above the title. With a possessive apostrophe. There’s a reason so many of Carpenter’s films have become cult classics. Nothing feels quite like them. Nothing looks quite like them. You know them when you see them. Whether they were written by the world’s most famous author…or anyone else. Christine belongs to Carpenter.
Scare Value
Stephen King’s name started appearing above the title of some movie adaptations the same year as John Carpenter put his name above Christine. It’s a fitting thing, really. This is a Carpenter movie that you wouldn’t recognize as a Stephen King story unless you paid attention to the credits. The good news is that this is Carpenter still at his peak as a filmmaker. The bad news is that the movie is kind of boring. Pretty to look at…interesting to follow…too patient by about 30 minutes.
3.5/5
Christine Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
Buy on 4K/Blu-Ray from Amazon
