Christine (1983)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.3/10   

Director:

John Carpenter

Escritores:

Stephen King (novel)
Bill Phillips (screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

9 diciembre 1983 (USA)

Género:

Drama | Fantasía | Horror | Misterio | Suspenso

Frase comercial:

She'll possess you. Then destroy you. She's death on wheels. She's...

Plot:

A nerdish boy buys a strange car with a evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.

Plot Keywords:

Car | Crushed To Death | 1970s | Automobile | Immolation

Premios:

2 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

"Watch what you call my car...she's real sensitive."

Reparto

Keith Gordon	...	Arnie Cunningham
John Stockwell	...	Dennis Guilder
Alexandra Paul	...	Leigh Cabot
Robert Prosky	...	Will Darnell
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Rudolph Junkins
Christine Belford	...	Regina Cunningham
Roberts Blossom	...	George LeBay
William Ostrander	...	Buddy Repperton
David Spielberg	...	Mr. Casey
Malcolm Danare	...	Moochie Welch
Steven Tash	...	Richard Trelawney
Stuart Charno	...	Don Vandenberg
Kelly Preston	...	Roseanne
Marc Poppel	...	Chuck
Robert Darnell	...	Michael Cunningham

También conocida como:

John Carpenter's Christine (USA) (complete title)
Christine, de John Carpenter (Spain) [es]

Duración:

110 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby

Clasificación:

Iceland:16 | Canada:R (Ontario) | Canada:18A | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-15 (2004) | Finland:K-16 (1984) | India:A | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | France:Unrated | Germany:16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1984) | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Locaciones de Filmación:

Oak Park High School - 899 Kanan Road, Oak Park, California, USA

Compañía:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivialidades:

The license plate of Christine reads: CQB - which is an acronym for Close Quarters Battle.

Errores:

Continuidad: The spot on Dennis Guilder's sweatshirt from where Moochie attacked him during lunch, is still moist that night while at the Cunninghams'.

Citas:

Arnie Cunningham: Okay... show me.

Conexiones de Película:

Editado en "30 Even Scarier Movie Moments" (2006)

Banda de Sonido:

I Wonder Why

"Watch what you call my car...she's real sensitive."

Back in 1983, Stephen King was such a popular author that this film adaptation went into production before the book was even published. King had been satisfied enough with producer Richard Kobritz's TV miniseries adaptation of his novel "Salem's Lot" to send him a few manuscripts. One was "Cujo", another was "Christine". Kobritz decided he liked the latter more, and pursued it as a film project.

Accomplished film-maker John Carpenter, who at the time was still suffering the effects of the critical and commercial failure of his previous film, "The Thing", agreed to take the helm, and Bill Phillips was hired to write the screenplay. Phillips eliminated much of the material of the novel (especially the central character of the malevolent spirit Roland D. LeBay) and both he and Carpenter agreed to more or less focus the film on Christine herself.

In the film, Christine is possessed with a murderous, vengeful personality, seemingly for no reason at all. She is simply as evil as an inanimate object can get. Before she even comes off the assembly line, she's injured one man and killed another. Eventually, she comes into the life of hopeless high school nerd Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon, in his first top-billed role, and offering a dramatic tour de force) and helps to transform him from pathetic dweeb to dangerous 1950's style rebel - complete with 1950's style wardrobe.

As the car sets about methodically eliminating most of the characters who cause Arnie grief, Arnie's loyal, level-headed jock friend Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell) and beautiful, would-be girlfriend Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul) try their darnedest to save Arnie and get rid of the car once and for all.

While I myself found this movie to be rather lacking in terms of scares, suspense, and atmosphere, it's still a pleasantly well-crafted and stylish film. Carpenter contributes another of his marvelous electronic scores, and the film is peppered with vintage rock 'n' roll songs. Approximately 25 different cars were used for the film - many of them ended up completely destroyed - and the special effects are admirable, especially in all scenes where Christine is repairing herself. One standout scene has Christine pursuing pudgy thug Moochie Welch (Malcolm Danare) into an exceptionally narrow loading dock, and then SQUEEZING herself inside so she can annihilate him.

The wonderful cast is a heavy asset. Stockwell and Paul were certainly okay, but even better are the familiar faces in the character parts - Roberts Blossom as George LeBay, Robert Prosky as Will Darnell, and Harry Dean Stanton as Detective Rudolph Junkins. Kelly Preston appears in an early role. Bill Ostrander, as lead bully Buddy Repperton, has always struck me as a great casting choice (Gordon and Carpenter remark in the DVD commentary that he seems to be partly channeling John Travolta in his performance - appropriate, because the film takes place in 1978, when Travolta was experiencing his original bout of stardom), because he looks EXACTLY like I'd always imagined Buddy Repperton would look when I visualized the action while reading the novel.

Here's an interesting thing to take note of: the actors playing Arnie's rather unlikable parents are named CHRISTINE Belford and Robert DARNELL. Just coincidence? I myself don't know.

Like I said, I don't really find it to be all that scary but it certainly offers a fair amount of fun. It's not a top-drawer King adaptation but it's definitely not one of the worst ones either.

8/10