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The afterword of Stephen King's 1982 collection Different Seasons alluded to a new tale he would be publishing soon, albeit in a somewhat humorous way. King's previous best-sellers had revolved around haunted towns (Salem's Lot), haunted hotels (The Shining) and haunted prom queens (Carrie), and his editor was worried that the font of hauntings within his star writer would dry up.
"How about a haunted car?" King casually mentioned. His editor's response: "My man !!!"
Of course by then Stephen King already had Christine, his harrowing tale of a demonic 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, in the can, and its publication the following year was yet another smashing success for the gifted author. The project was greenlighted almost immediately for a movie tie-in (even while King's follow-up novel, Pet Sematary, was being prepared for a release and wouldn't manifest itself on the silver screen for another six years). On tap to direct was none other than John Carpenter, who would also add his own musical score with a little help from longtime collaborator Alan Howarth. So what could go wrong?
Commercially, nothing. The film was a hit, and it received some not-bad reviews from critics who by default hated this kind of movie. Aesthetically, it delivers well enough. Carpenter cranks up the classic rock and roll, plus one then-current hit single, George Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone." The 2.35:1 widescreen is always a treat, even if the landscapes such as these don't really call for it. The principles (Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham, John Stockwell as Dennis Guilder and Alexandra Paul as Leigh Cabot) are all well-cast and flesh out the characters believably. Even the supporting players offer commendable presentations of secondary characters from the book, particularly Robert Prosky, William Ostrander and Harry Dean Stanton as Will Darnell, Buddy Repperton and Rudy Junkins, respectively.
The film mis-delivers a bit with the liberties scripter Bill Phillips took with the source material. Where King's tale had Christine's original owner Roland D. LeBay as the true architect of the carnage and Arnie's spiritual seduction, Phillips instead makes the car itself an elemental force of nature, innately evil on its own. LeBay himself is already dead when Arnie first lays eyes on Christine, whom he promptly purchases from LeBay's surly younger brother George (Roberts Blossom). In the book, George LeBay is actually a kindly character whose exposition becomes important late in the tale. But precious little backstory is found here. King's marvelous web of a dysfunctional family and the legacy of death that followed is largely ignored in favor of just another haunted car which, courtesy of run-the-film-backward visual effects, has a way of repairing its own damages after inflicting vengeance upon "the shitters" who have it coming to them.
That aside, the film itself is still a technical triumph filled with amazing images, convincing performances and truly unsettling implications. Fans of the book be warned, though. This is not "Stephen King's Christine"; it's "John Carpenter's Christine," as both the original marquee and the current video cover accurately assert.
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