Tight editing and some decent scares make this one of the better King adaptations.
Christine (1983)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 21
Fresh: 14
Rotten:7
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: Based on the best-selling Stephen King novel, CHRISTINE is a dark and violent film about the dangers of obsession. When a unpopular young man, Arnie (Keith Gordon), buys a vintage car to restore,... Based on the best-selling Stephen King novel, CHRISTINE is a dark and violent film about the dangers of obsession. When a unpopular young man, Arnie (Keith Gordon), buys a vintage car to restore, it changes his life completely. The more he works on the car, which he names Christine, the more his personality changes. He becomes moody and dark, spending more and more time with the car and less and less with his friends. The friends become concerned as Arnie's passion for the automobile turns to extreme, and he becomes unstable. But the car has powers over the young man, and takes on a life of its own, becoming as obsessed with its new owner as he is of it. Their devotion to one another quickly becomes violent, and separating Arnie from the car is a deadly task for his friends. With CHRISTINE, director John Carpenter delivers a faithful adaptation of the book by Stephen King. One master of horror adapting another's work seems ideal, and the results are as powerful as expected. With Carpenter's ability to make the supernatural seem plausible, even commonplace, the film excels in evoking plenty of scares and nail biting from the audience. [More]
Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton, Alexandra Paul
Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Kelly Preston
Director: John Carpenter
Director: John Carpenter
Story: Stephen King
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Reviews for Christine
This deja vu premise [from the novel by Stephen King] combined with the crazed vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop-worn.
Boils down to another average adaptation of one of the increasingly weak Stephen King novels that hit Hollywood like a bad rash in 1983.
Carpenter's thematic self-consciousness can't entirely overcome a shaky dramatic structure that sacrifices character logic to increasingly meaningless thrills.
Off the page, a 1958 Plymouth is no more scary than the St Bernard which romped through Cujo.
This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower.
Christine doesn't distinguish itself alongside director John Carpenter's high points.
[Stephen] King has created some engaging characters, and Carpenter has done a decent job with the filmâs casting.
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