Christine (1983)
Directed by John Carpenter

Film Review

John Carpenter's second helping of teen horror, after his genre defining Halloween (1978), sees another group of nauseating adolescents under threat, this time from a psychopathic automobile.  If you can swallow the film's unlikely premise, that a car has a soul and can go about killing people, then Christine can be considered a respectable entry in a genre which has done far worse.  It is directed by Carpenter with his customary panache and subtle dark humour, and sustained by some state of the art special effects and a gripping (and very creepy) central performance from Keith Gordon, who had previously distinguished himself in Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill (1980).

The problems only begin when you look under the bodywork and realise that the storyline, what there is of it, makes no sense whatever.  The film's deficiencies - its implausible premise, lack of coherence and underdeveloped secondary characters - all stem from Stephen King's novel on which it is based.  In his book, King at least makes an attempt to explain how an inanimate lump of metal can become a psychotic killing machine, by having it haunted by the spirit of its dead owner.  In adapting the novel for the film, screenwriter Bill Phillips threw out the ghost idea and thereby created a narrative void which the spectator has to fill for himself.  Whilst most cinemagoers are able to buy into the notion of a haunted house, a haunted car which can magically repair itself after being smashed to pieces is a somewhat more challenging proposition.  (And if the car can repair itself, why is it doing a good impression of a rust bucket when Arnie comes across it in the first place?)

Whilst it is unlikely to be ranked along side Carpenter's best horror films, Christine is still a compelling little shocker that holds our attention even if its central story concept is pretty well lacking in the credibility department.  Like all good teen horror films, it serves as a wry allegory on the traumas of coming of age.   In common with other notable slasher villains (such as Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger), the psychopathic car is a symbol of adolescent sexual awakening, something that is both terrifying and alluring, imbued with a seemingly demonic power to possess and destroy.  The film passes muster as an escapist thriller, but the idea of a car that kills of its own volition is really just too silly to be taken seriously.  Or is it...?

Film Synopsis

Arnie Cunningham is a 17-year-old high school geek whose life is made Hell at home by his straitlaced parents and at school by knife-wielding bullies.  His one friend is Dennis Guilder, a star in the school football team.   One day, Arnie comes across a dilapidated red-and-white Cadillac, a 1958 Plymouth Fury, and feels impelled to buy it.  Ignoring the protestations of his parents, Arnie sets about refurbishing the wrecked automobile and it is soon restored to its former glory.  But, named Christine by its former owner, the car has a dark history and it soon becomes apparent that it is possessed by supernatural forces.  The first sign of this is Arnie's sudden character transformation.  No longer the shy, inoffensive geek, he is now cocksure and impulsive, perhaps even dangerous.  This change does not impress Arnie's high school enemies, who decide to smash Christine up one evening.  Miraculously, the car repairs itself and goes after its attackers, intent on a merciless revenge...