Review of Christine (1983) by Filipeneto — 03 Dec 2019

T's a good movie, but it has its flaws.

This movie is based on a horror novel by Stephen King and expertly directed by John Carpenter, a devoted master of horror cinema. It basically tells the story of Christine, a fifties car that has a spirit of its own and an instinctive will to kill. The car belonged to the same owner for decades but, after death, was sold by his brother, in very poor condition, to teenager Arnie Cunningham, a shy, withdrawn teenage geek. As he restores his new car, Arnie changes: changes the way he dresses and is, becomes brash and cocky, arrogant even, and quickly realizes the supernatural characteristics of the car. But as his enemies mysteriously die, and as the police increasingly watch them closely, Arnie's parents and friends are becoming aware that the car is a bigger problem than they thought.

Well, I must say I really enjoyed this movie. It has style, charm, a good rhythm and holds us until the end. The script is good, and can turn an inanimate object into a real villain. The merit is probably from Stephen King. I really think the book is better than the movie (for example, if the movie never explains the origin of Christine's evil, the book explains it logically and might even have been taken advantage of by the movie). There are good moments of action and some notable scenes, such as the car repairing itself. The use of rock-and-roll music as a supernatural sign of the car's spirit presence was clever. We also have good action scenes but (which is curious being a Carpenter movie) there is virtually no drop of fake blood or gut strewn on the floor, which may disappoint those who love the massive gore. But I, for my part, handled it well. What really displeased me was the ending. Totally anti-climatic and warm, far from what this movie required.

The cast is composed of actors who were not known at the time, not being the kind of movie we see for the quality of the cast and his work: Keith Gordon did a good job as Arnie but slowly becomes a nasty being . The problem with this is that we don't feel sorry for him in the end. John Stockwell saves the day in the end and does what we could expect of him, while Alexandra Paul is not much more than a permanent damsel in distress. The rest of the cast is deleted and appears only when it has to be. At the technical level, the movie is much more interesting. Not having brilliant cinematography, it makes up for the visual, special and sound effects, which are pretty good considering the time the film was made. The cars are beautiful and the movie's soundtrack is truly good, with high quality songs and a strong bet on rock-and-roll (although George Thorogood & The Destroyers' opening song is equally excellent and a hard-rock classic).

In short, although not brilliant and flawed, it is a film that still deserves our attention. It has gained classic status and has fans, and it gives us an hour and a half of good entertainment, although there is much better out there.