Christine

Samuel T.

Haven't seen since like '86 (I was a barely a kid). Re-viewed to commemorate his excellent just-released first album (not score), and the second ride is even better. The American, psychologically obsessed with shiny, status-elevating trophies of merchandise, of course with haunting repercussions. Oh, and brilliant use of 2.35:1.

Zachary George Najarian-Najafi

Absolutely brilliant. Christine plays like a cross between Rebel Without a Cause and Videodrome. What I can't get over is Carpenter's sense of composition and color. He owes just as much a debt to European art cinema as he does to pulp movies, but his real strength is elevating his material into something uniquely his own. It's fun, bizarre and one hell of a ride.

Ghostman

Although it's adapted from a Stephen King story, Christine is pure John Carpenter and it's a masterpiece of horror in a career filled with them. And it's amazing how Carpenter makes Christine the car into a real character.

Henri de Corinth

Hadn't watched this since I saw it on television a few times back in the mid '80s. It's not particularly scary or exciting, and parts of it border on camp today, but it *is* relentlessly dark and humorless throughout (more so even than The Thing), which in a way says something about how we prefer the company of 'things' over other people.

Stefan Drees

I couldn't appreciate this film twenty years ago, but today I think it's a fine piece of work. Carpenter creates some real strong images for the freaky symbiosis between man and machine: Arnie's slowly changing character, the burning car chasing a man through the night, Christine's efforts to repair herself or Arnie's loving touch in the end.

Duncan Gray

Carpenter said he didn't care for the material, it was just a job he took to help his career after The Thing flopped. To his credit, the disinterest doesn't show; the camerawork and FX are top-notch. But disinterest is understandable: the film is mired in enough script problems that the interesting concept—frustrated teen masculinity feeding supernatural evil—isn't give enough care. Still, nice moments.

Lights in the Dusk

From the car's drifting 'fin' as it moves shark-like along the line (beautifully evoking the underwater terror of Jaws) to the shot of the first victim reflected in the drivers' side mirror, Carpenter establishes the presence of Christine as a legitimate femme fatale. Not just an inanimate object or embodiment of evil in the supernatural sense, but an actual seductive killer, motivated by jealously, lust and revenge.

Matt Burgess

Fun little horror, if not a bit visually bland and ordinary (Cronenberg would have filmed the car more with erotic, fetishistic urgency), however its always nice to see a mainstream genre film exploring male issues and masculinity through a complex, coded-gay protagonist.