Stephen King Week: Christine

Welcome back King fans to Day 2 of Stephen King Week.  As there have been more than a few TV movie adaptations, we easily forget the directors involved.  How does the collaboration of  director John Carpenter (Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Village of the Damned and Prince of Darkness) and horror novelist Stephen King grab ya?    Join with me as we view the disturbing haunting of a 1958 Plymouth Fury and its murderous mayhem it ensues.   This is Christine.

Yeah, I need a car for girls.  Why are you snickering?

Will Darnell: Look... uhh... I know you don't exactly have money falling out of your spoiler.  If you did, you wouldn't be here.



In 1978, nerd stereotype Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon of Jaws 2,  All That Jazz, Dressed to Kill, The Legend of Billie Jean, Back to School and I Love Trouble) is as about as cool as Eddie Deizen but his jock buddy Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell of Eddie and the Cruisers, City Limits, My Science Project, Top Gun and Born to Ride) sticks by his childhood buddy to the thick and thin.
 Arine becomes to the age of needing wheels to get him to and fro, spies this rusty red 1958 Plymouth Fury.  It needs some love to repair it proper and crotchety George LeBay (Roberts Blossom of Another World, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Escape from Alcatraz and Home Alone) off loads this heap for 250 clams.   Forced to park his car in a local garage ran by surly Will Darnell (Robert Prosky of Thief, World War III, Hill Street Blues, Loose Cannons, Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Last Action Hero) tries to tell Arnie the car is a lost cause and he is better getting something newer but Arnie cannot hear him.  Enamored with the Fury dubbed "Christine" Cunningham proceeds to put time, money and effort in every inch of this car bringing it back to life.

Ah, chicks DO dig the car. Not an urban legend after all.

For some reason the stock radio only seems to play 1950 rock and roll era music but this doesn't bother Arnie at all and starts spending more and more time with his fully restored creation.  His shy demeanor seems to ebb out of him and he takes on more of a dark and cocky attitude.  So he was Goth before it was popular.   This new persona concerns his buddy Dennis and he asks LeBay the former owner if he knows anything.  He tells Dennis that his brother took on the same level of obsession to the point he committed suicide in it.

Arnie's nemesis, high school football jocko Buddy (William Ostrander of Fire and Ice, Red Heat, North and South, Knots Landing and Angel) cannot believe the most popular girl in school is talking to Arnie let alone seems into him and he and his buddies follow Arnie to thrash Christine.  The car seems to repair itself in front of Arnie and you get the vibe she and he are becoming inseparable.   Mysterious vehicular homicides seem to be be happening and local police is trying to blame Arnie for it who seems to have an airtight alibi for each one.  So who is doing this?

I had just a few tidbits on the film now.  According to the screenwriter Bill Phillips, the level of violence was not substantial enough to warrant a R rating.  To combat this problem, Phillips dropped the "F" bomb into it to put more butts into seats to see it.

Rock and Roll Blues artist George Throughgood was buddies with Phillips and ended up making a cameo in the film as a junkyard worker.  Phillips suggested that Bad to the Bone be added to the soundtrack of the film and RIGHTFULLY SO.

Being a fan of both George Romero's work and enjoying King's novels, a conversation with Romero convinced Carpenter to do Christine with King.

King's popularity was beaming so that the film was going into production before his manuscript was completed.  That my friends, is pull in the industry.

Death Race: 1978