IMDb plot summary: A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.
Directed by John Carpenter. Starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, and Robert Prosky.
John Carpenter directs this adaptation, and it's a pretty good fit. While on the surface "murder car" sounds like a fun silly horror movie premise, where the film really gets scare mileage is in the character development of Arnie, Christine's owner. One minute he's the mild-mannered nerd constantly getting beaten up, the next he is ALL ABOUT letting his car take lethal revenge on his enemies and cracking jokes about it afterward. His mutual friends are worried the car is the cause of this -- one even says at one point, "I don't think he's Arnie anymore" -- but we never see this change, and I find it JUST as likely that all this rage has been simmering below the surface, and as soon as he got enough power to make his revenge fantasy come true, he was happy to take it. That hits close to home in a way "murder car" never could, and this adaptation definitely helps to bring that deeper, truer fear to the front in really interesting ways.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Christine > Downfall
Christine < National Lampoon's Vacation
Christine < A Goofy Movie
Christine < The Fall (2006)
Christine < Madame Blueberry
Christine < Hustle & Flow
Christine < The Beach
Christine > Wreck-It Ralph
Christine > Spider-Man: Homecoming
Christine < High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Christine > It Comes at Night
Final spot: #1594 out of 3232, or 51%.
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