Christine (4 Stars)

I've decided to watch a mini-marathon of John Carpenter's films, three films over the next three days. The first film on my list is "Christine". I admit it, the photo that I've put at the top of this post is clickbait. Christine Nguyen doesn't appear in the film, but whenever I hear the name Christine I think of her. She was born in Vietnam, but she's as American as grandma's apple pie. She even likes that funny game that the Americans call football.

The Christine in the film is a car, a 1957 Plymouth Fury. It came off a production line, but it was different to all the other cars; it was sentient. Those who own the car are subtly influenced by her and become obsessed with her.

In 1978 the awkward teenager Arnie Cunningham sees the car on sale and immediately decides to buy her. The owner tells him that the car's name is Christine, as if it's the most natural thing in the world for a car to have a name. I've had six cars in my life, and I've never given any of them names. Well, that's not quite true. I called my second car Puffing Bluey. That's because it was a large car, a Peugeot 505, with a relatively small engine. It couldn't drive faster than 50 mph uphill.

This is Christine. She looks good, but I prefer the other Christine.

Arnie's parents don't want him to park the car on their drive, so he keeps it – I mean her – in a garage where he has a part time, after-school job. He's often bullied by three other boys. One night they break into the garage and smash Christine. Surprisingly, she repairs herself in front of Arnie's eyes. At night she goes out, driverless, and hunts down the three boys. She kills them all.

Killing bullies is a borderline case. We might say murder is bad while thinking to ourselves that they deserved it. But Christine's murderous intentions don't stop there. She attempts to kill Arnie's girlfriend Leigh out of jealousy. Christine won't share Arnie with anyone else.

This doesn't seem to bother Arnie. A normal 17-year-old boy would want a girlfriend more than anything else, but the most important girl in Arnie's life is Christine. He's glad when Leigh dumps him. It gives him more time to spend with Christine.

This is a ridiculously camp story, but it works well. It's a guilty pleasure, not a masterpiece like "Dark Star" or "Assault on Precinct 13", but it's fun to watch. The film is based on a novel by Stephen King. It seems out of character for him. His stories are usually more believable. Maybe I should check out the novel. It's possible that it's less camp than the film.

Success Rate:  + 0.1

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