635. Christine (1983)

Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul

Director: John Carpenter

Running Time: 110 mins

Christine is an American film about a teenage boy who buys an old car with a mind of its own, and as he becomes more obsessed with it, its murderous and evil nature begins to rub off on him.

Well, this film, while not as heart-poundingly thrilling or tense as some other Stephen King adaptations, is still totally disturbing but completely intriguing. It’s got a great story and some fantastic characters, and even though I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the performances here, I was still able to hugely enjoy watching this film.

And before you even think that this is just a scary version of Herbie, forget that, because it’s a completely different ball game. I went into this expecting to see the sort of horror where a murderous car goes around killing people left, right and centre, and yet nobody will believe it, but it’s instead a much darker and more psychologically distressing story.

Of course, it doesn’t start out that way. Set in and around a high school, this film does feel like it has quite a bit of cheese to it. Before certain dramatic changes come, it’s quite a cheesy, dull, very 1980s flick, with little looking into the characters or the strange compulsion that this car, Christine, seems to cause.

However, after a slow start, it really picks up. After one big event halfway through, everything changes, and it does become quite exciting to watch. However, the reason that it’s not so thrilling is the way it feels like it’s giving away its ultimate twists too early.

I felt like I could see exactly what was going to happen (not having read the novel), and that arrogance of mine made me feel a little bored. But, gladly, I was proved totally and utterly wrong, as while it does seem like you’ve got it all figured out, this film throws countless more sucker punches in a hugely exciting climax, which was head and tails above the rest of the film.

The characters are also interesting too. The side characters, while seemingly helpless, are surprisingly heroic, while the main character, although I found him totally disgusting, is eventually looked into very deeply as to why this car has changed him so much.

Overall, then, this gets a 7.4, because although it was a very slow-starting film, it managed to ultimately shock me and give a good bit of entertainment at the same time.