Effective horror is much easier to write than it is to film. The
reason for this is because horror plays best off of the imagination and movies, by nature, tend to show much more than they imply. Perhaps this is why Stephen King’s novels often translate so poorly to the silver screen. Scenes that make perfect, scary sense on the printed page come off as ridiculous when put to film. Just take a look at the IT mini-series for a perfect example.

The best book-to-film adaptations of his works have been the stories that involve more psychological horror, instead of supernatural. The Shining and Misery come to mind.

So it seemed unlikely that Christine, a story of a demonic 1958 Plymouth Fury, and one of this best books (in this reviewer’s humble opinion), could possibly be turned into anything but a campy, silly film.

Then again, John Carpenter was the one behind this film. And one can never underestimate the power of a man who can make a serial killer wearing a William Shatner mask into one of the most memorable and scary movie villains of all time.

One of the things that Carpenter did was to strip away a lot of the supernatural elements from King’s book. Christine remains a car possessed, and is certainly one of the main stars of the film, but Carpenter’s spin gives far more weight to the relationships between the three main human stars.

The film opens with an introduction to Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) and Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell). Seemingly unlikely high school friends, Arnie is your typical outsider nerd, while Dennis is the football playing jock. There is a long friendship implied between these two and it’s very obvious that Dennis often looks out for his more vulnerable friend.

Their lives take a turn when, driving home from school, Arnie
catches sight of a junked out old car for sale. Dennis immediately recognizes the heap for nothing more than a money pit, but Arnie is hooked. It’s love at first sight. As he explains to Dennis, he has finally found something uglier than himself, and he can fix it and make it beautiful again.

The car, of course, is Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury and it is a car with a soul. She, and Christine is most definitely a she, immediately begins to take control of Arnie. As her restoration comes along, changes also begin to take place with Arnie. He begins to gain more confidence, which later evolves into arrogance and anger. He finds, for the first time, a girlfriend, Leigh Cabbot (Alexandra Paul). And, with the help of Christine, he also begins to find revenge against the bullies who have tormented him.

As bodies pile up, Dennis and Leigh begin to suspect that Arnie, and Christine, have something to do with it. For one thing, there is odd manner in which the car is restored. Much of the work done is simply beyond Arnie’s capabilities, but more than that, the repairs seem to happen almost over night. It is as if the car is feeding off of Arnie and repairing herself. And in return, Arnie is inheriting Christine’s fury until it seems that he is angry at everyone, including Dennis and Leigh. Fearing for their own lives, Dennis and Leigh have no choice but to come up with plan to destroy Christine and try to save their friend.

Christine is surprisingly effective as a horror film, and while
there are never really any jump out of your seat moments, there is a certain creepiness throughout. Perhaps the most interesting aspects is Arnie’s relationship with the car. Carpenter and Gordon take inspiration from King’s book and conspire to give exactly the right emotional punch. Arnie views Christine less as a car, and more as his first, true love. Arnie doesn’t so much touch Christine as he caresses her.

There is a scene in which Christine first shows Arnie her true power. She repairs herself before his eyes after bullies have trashed her. There is almost a sexiness to the way this moment plays out that makes it far more scary than just the notion of a car that can kill and fix itself.

Of course, the notion of a demonic car is ridiculous, but the actors and the story never flinch. By playing it serious, they allow us to suspend our disbelief – at least for most of the film. The weak moment comes right at the very end. I won’t spoil it, but the moment is completely wrong and against the entire mood of the of the film. Although the intent of this scene is much the same as in the book, the book handled it far more effectively. Still, it doesn’t stop Christine from being a decent film and one of the better adaptations of a Stephen King horror story.