Arnie Cunningham

Yeah.

It just looks like Christine before Arnie Cunningham restored.

Yeah, that's the biggest difference with the novel versus this, is that the novel takes place at least half the time off campus, like with the other ways he's trying to make money, whereas it's almost, other than the apartment, I don't think there's any scenes where we're away from the campus.

That's where,

And in fact, the novel would end up being published in April of 1983, just eight months before the movie was released.

Christine, a story set in the late 1970s, is the story of a nerdy teenager named Arnie Cunningham.

and a very, very special, in a bad way, 1958 Plymouth Fury, named, of course, Christine.

I think in the novel, which I read like 20 years ago, that the car is basically haunted by the spirit of an earlier owner, and in the film it's depicted that the car is just sort of inherently possessed with some sort of evil entity from the time that it's built.

Don't come near me.

you know don't touch me don't come near me don't come near anyone i know he's rightfully scared and i think it's partially what eddie kind of wanted but i mean if you had the power to command pumpkin flames wouldn't you want that too i mean that's kind of cool for all the things that this movie lacks in horror as far as contemporary horror and us being a seasoned horror fans it doesn't have gore it doesn't have a lot of like gratuitous um terror scenes it's not infused with a lot of horror it doesn't have a lot of the gross out it doesn't have a lot of those things it does have a general unease it does have a bad guy and a monster if you look at Sammy Kerr that way or the actual monster demon that we see once in this film it does have that but it does have this like sort of like intangible power that is being asked for in a roundabout way much like Christine and I think that's what made Christine so scary because you're there with Arnie Cunningham and you know, yeah, you're feeling for him.

You are.

But you're also afraid of him because you're like, wow, if I was given this choice with this sort of power, if you're Arnie Cunningham standing there in front of your demonic possessed car that you should be just as scared of, but you're like, this is my friend.

So what can you do? Show me.

And just even saying that is kind of like I get a little bit of goosebumps because it's like such a powerful idea of being able to say yes or no to power at that at that precipice.

you said something important there.

I heard you say Arnie Cunningham.

Arnie Cunningham from Christine.

There you go.

Oh, yeah.

His old Honda CR-V Christie after Christine, because that car was quite a bit feisty, and she could be evil at times, which made her so much fun.

But in this movie, a teenager named Arnie Cunningham hopelessly falls in love with this classic car, even though it's in absolutely horrible condition.

[laughs] But of course, he buys it, he restores it, and he becomes increasingly obsessed with it.

Christine herself is possessed.

She's jealous and turns homicidal.

She starts killing the people to get between her and her Arnie.

But apparently she can repair herself, which is super cool, and honestly, I sympathize with Christine.

She's this beautiful, classic car.

The genre is horror.

And the synopsis is, when Arnie Cunningham, played by Keith Gordon, purchases a 1958 Plymouth Fury nicknamed Christine, his parents' best friend and new girlfriend become disturbed by his newly aggressive behavior.

So this Stephen King adaptation essentially doubled its money at the box office, something Carpenter badly needed right in that moment.

He didn't think the concept of this film, a killer car that slowly takes more and more control of the teenager who owns it, was very scary.