Christine (1983)

Very nice film adaptation of the terrific Stephen King novel. Director John Carpenter did a nice job with this one, cramming a good amount of King’s little touches found in the book onto the screen, which is always a tricky thing to pull off in the “book to big screen” department. For anyone that was just a tad bit “unpopular” in high school, you will surely cheer on Arnold Cunningham and his possessed ‘57’ Plymouth Fury as they enact their revenge on all the “shitters of the world”. Now, you’re not really supposed to cheer him on, but it sure is hard not to. Arnie you see, is your typical high school “nerd” picked on by just about everyone except his jock buddy Dennis. Nothing really seems to go right for the guy until the day he and Dennis happen to come across an old beat up car that’s for sale by the side of the road. Arnie falls for the car immediately, unaware that the thing is possessed by the previous owner, a mean bastard who asphyxiated himself in the drivers seat by the car’s, excuse me Christine’s, exhaust fumes. Pretty soon Arnie undergoes a major personality change as he goes from nerd to hard-ass, and all those that wrong him and Christine are done away with. A major plus for this film is that you really get a sense of feeling for the characters. Everyone is likable and seem as if they stepped right out of the book to the screen. The dude that played Arnie was especially good, turning in a great performance. As far as special effects go, look for the scene where Arnie watches as Christine repairs herself after getting smashed up by a gang of hoods, terrific f/x done years before that shitty CGI crap would come into play. Another cool scene involves Christine, on fire, tearing down a night road stalking a soon to be ran over victim. Good shit there friends. A must see for King and non-King fans (do they exist?) alike.