Environmentalists will tell you that cars are evil. Now, almost all motor vehicles are inanimate objects, incapable of making any kind of moral or ethical decisions of their own, but when they do, cars usually are evil. Christine comes to us from the mind of Stephen King, which makes sense as the story is basically the same one as Carrie, but with a little Maximum Overdrive flare. The film is directed by John Carpenter, and stars a lovely 1958 Plymouth Fury as the titular character.* It is never made clear in the movie why the car is magically alive and has such a bad temper, but Christine's murderous rampage apparently began as soon as she rolled of the production line, smashing one man's hand with her hood, then killing another factory worker in her front seat. After this opening scene, the film jumps to 1978 in some random, all-american neighborhood where Arnie (Keith Gordon) and Dennis (John Stockwell) are on their way to school. The two are good friends in spite of Dennis being a popular and normal looking football player and Arnie being a socially awkward and generally greasy guy with huge glasses. In general Stephen King fashion, almost every other character introduced into the story aside from Arnie and Dennis is a shallow and hateful prick, particularly Buddy, (William Ostrander) leader of the student thugs and professional John Travolta lookalike. He and his gang corner Arnie in the shop classroom when Dennis rushes in to save his little pal. Buddy ends up pulling a knife on them, but is stopped by the principal and expelled from school.
Because of he constant abuse he feels he takes form the student body and his own family, Arnie starts to sink into a deep depression, until he finds a beat-up Plymouth Fury for sale outside someone's house. Arnie pays $250 for the junker that the scraggly old geezer selling it calls Christine. As Arnie spends time fixing up the old girl, he starts to change. He constantly refers to the car by her name and talks to it as if it were alive, feeling as though he and the car have some kind of connection. Strangely enough, the car actually returns this affection by murdering the bullies that have been tormenting Arnie, as well as anyone else that Christine perceives as a threat to her and Arnie's relationship. The movie really focuses in on the rise and fall of Arnie due to his demon-car. He starts of meek and helpless, then, after getting his sweet ride he starts sanding up for what he wants. He even manages gets himself a hot girlfriend named Leigh. (Alexadra Paul) But all this confidence he gets soon warps into a crazy power trip when he realizes that Christine will do anything for him, and he develops and deep and unhealthy love for his monster machine, forsaking his former friends and family in the process. The film does have some great and very believable practical effects, even for being over two decades old. To his credit, John Carpenter managed to infuse a lot of personality and menace, through a creative use of music and strategic body damage, into a villain that is otherwise incapable of delivering lines or using facial expressions.
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