Кристин: Машина с характером

Supernatural film by John Carpenter

Christine (titled onscreen as John Carpenter's Christine) is a 1983 American supernatural horror film co scored and directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton. The film also features supporting performances from Roberts Blossom and Kelly Preston. Written by Bill Phillips and based on Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same name, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies after he buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, a car that seems to have a mind of its own and a jealous, possessive personality, which has a bad influence on Arnie. Released in the United States on December 9, 1983, Christine received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $21 million at the box office. The film has since become a cult classic. A remake from Sony Pictures and Blumhouse is in development.

In 1957, at a car factory in Detroit, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury slams its hood shut by itself on a worker's hand, while another worker is found dead inside the car after dropping cigar ash on its seats. In 1978 Rockbridge, California, nerdy high school senior Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is bullied on the first day of school by classmate Buddy Repperton and his gang, but Arnie's best friend Dennis Guilder intervenes and calls the attention of a teacher, who sends Buddy and his gang to the principal's office. After school, Arnie and Dennis see a dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury for sale in the yard of a rundown house. The owner, George LeBay—the brother of the recently deceased original owner—tells them the car's name is Christine, and despite Dennis' objections, Arnie purchases the car for $250. Arnie's parents, however, refuse to let him keep the car at their house. Arnie begins to restore Christine at a local garage owned by the gruff Will Darnell, who offers Arnie a part time job and access to parts he needs to fix Christine. Soon, Arnie develops a rebellious, arrogant personality, worrying his parents and Dennis. Dennis confronts LeBay, who reveals that his late brother was also obsessed with Christine, that his five year old niece choked to death in the car, and that his sister in law and then his brother both committed suicide in it. At night, Dennis breaks into the garage to inspect Christine, but when Christine's radio begins playing 1950s rock and roll music, he flees. Arnie begins a relationship with a new student, Leigh Cabot, who had rejected all the other boys at school. While playing a football game, Dennis is stunned by the sight of Arnie and Leigh kissing in front of the now fully restored Christine, causing him to sustain a severe injury that permanently ends his football career. One night, when Arnie and Leigh are attending a drive in theater, Leigh expresses jealousy over Christine. While alone in the car, Leigh nearly chokes to death on a hamburger, as Christine briefly locks her doors to keep Arnie from saving her. After Arnie drives Leigh home, she vows to never get into his car again. Later that night, Buddy and his gang sneak into Darnell's garage and vandalize Christine. Arnie, angered by the destruction, breaks up with Leigh and assaults his father when he confronts him about Christine after dinner. The next day, Arnie returns to the garage alone, and watches as Christine repairs herself. Over two evenings, the car kills Buddy and all his gang members, destroying his car and blowing up a gas station in the process. Christine drives away in flames and returns to Darnell's garage, where she crushes him to death against the steering wheel. By morning, Christine is in perfect condition once again when the police find Darnell's body. Police detective Rudy Junkins questions Arnie about the death of Darnell and one of Buddy's gang members, Moochie Welch, but Arnie's alibis convince the detective. Leigh and Dennis conclude that Christine is responsible for Arnie's insanity. They plan to lure Christine to the garage and smash her with a bulldozer, but Christine surprises them by emerging from a pile of scrap metal. Leigh flees on foot while Dennis battles Christine with the bulldozer. Arnie is now driving Christine, and in an attempt to run Leigh down, Christine crashes into Darnell's office and Arnie is thrown through the windshield. After Arnie is impaled on a shard of glass, he reaches out to touch Christine's grille one last time. Christine responds by playing "Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace on her radio as Arnie dies. Christine continues to attack, repairing herself more quickly than before, until Dennis and Leigh corner her and flatten her with the bulldozer. The next day, Dennis, Leigh, and Junkins watch as the remains of Christine are crushed into a cube at a junkyard. Junkins congratulates the teens for stopping Christine, but they regret not being able to save Arnie. The sound of a 1950s rock and roll song spooks them briefly, but it proves to be coming from a boombox carried by a junkyard worker. Unbeknownst to any of them, Christine's grille twitches slightly.

Producer Richard Kobritz had previously produced the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot, also based on a Stephen King novel. Through producing the miniseries, Kobritz became acquainted with King, who sent him manuscripts of two of his novels, Cujo, and Christine. Kobritz purchased the rights to Christine after finding himself attracted to the novel's "celebration of America's obsession with the motorcar." Kobritz and Carpenter had previously collaborated in the 1978 television film Someone's Watching Me!. He had previously directed The Thing, which had done poorly at the box office and led to critical backlash. Other elements from the novel were altered for the film, particularly the execution of the death scenes, which the filmmakers opted for a more "cinematic approach." Filming began in April 1983, mere days after the King novel had been published. An abandoned furniture factory in Irwindale was used for the opening scene. The film's stunts were primarily completed by stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, who was behind the wheel of the car during the high speed chase scenes, as well as the scene in which the car drives down a highway engulfed in flames.

Although the car in the film is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury – and in 1983 radio ads promoting the film, voiceover artists announced, "she's a '57 Fury" – two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to portray the malevolent automobile onscreen. John Carpenter placed ads throughout Southern California searching for models of the car, and was able to purchase twenty four of them in various states of disrepair, which were used to build a total of seventeen copies of the film car. All cars were two door hardtops. Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and they were difficult to find and expensive to buy at the time. In addition, the real life Furys only came in one color, "Sandstone White" with a "Buckskin Beige" interior, seen on the other Furys on the assembly line during the initial scenes of the movie, though the car in King's novel was ordered with a red and white custom paint job. The original Furys had anodized gold trim on the body and Fury script on the rear fender. In order to bypass the problem of obtaining the rare trim, the cars featured the more common Belvedere "Dartline" trim. Several vehicles were destroyed during filming, but most of the cars were Savoy and Belvedere models dressed to look like the Fury. At least one '57 Savoy was used, its front end modified to look like a '58. Some of King's details about the car were incorrect in the novel. The 1956 1958 Plymouth Fury was only available as a two door coupe, while the book described it as a four door sedan, which would have made it a Savoy or Belvedere model. During Leigh's choking scene, Christine is shown to have common vertical lock "buttons" on the inside door panels. Chrysler vehicles of this era were not equipped with such buttons. To lock the door, the door handle has to be pushed downward. King also mentions a shift lever for the automatic transmission, but in real life it had push button controls. Originally, Carpenter had not planned to film the car's regeneration scenes, but gave special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast three weeks to devise a way for the car to rebuild itself. Arbogast and his team made rubber molds from one of the cars, including a whole front end. One of the cars was stripped of its engine to accommodate internally mounted hydraulics that pulled the framework inward, crumpling the car, with the shot then run backwards in the final film. One of the Christines was auctioned off at an auto auction in Florida in January 2020.

Christine was released in North America on December 9, 1983, to 1,045 theaters. In its opening weekend Christine brought in $3,408,904 landing at #4. The film dropped 39.6% in its second weekend, grossing $2,058,517 slipping from fourth to eighth place. In its third weekend, it grossed $1,851,909 dropping to #9. The film remained at #9 its fourth weekend, grossing $2,736,782. In its fifth weekend, it returned to #8, grossing $2,015,922. Bringing in $1,316,835 in its sixth weekend, the film dropped out of the box office top ten to twelfth place. In its seventh and final weekend, the film brought in $819,972 landing at #14, bringing the total gross for Christine to $21,017,849. Roger Ebert gave the movie three out of four stars, saying: "By the end of the movie, Christine has developed such a formidable personality that we are actually taking sides during its duel with a bulldozer. This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower." Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a middling review, saying: "The early parts of the film are engaging and well acted, creating a believable high school atmosphere. Unfortunately, the later part of the film is slow in developing, and it unfolds in predictable ways." Variety gave the film a negative review, stating: "Christine seems like a retread. This time it's a fire engine red, 1958 Plymouth Fury that's possessed by the Devil, and this deja vu premise [from the novel by Stephen King] combined with the crazed vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop worn." Time Out said of the film: "Carpenter and novelist Stephen King share not merely a taste for genre horror but a love of '50's teenage culture; and although set in the present, Christine reflects the second taste far more effectively than the first." In 2023, John Carpenter reflected on the movie:“I love my cast in that movie. Keith Gordon was fabulous, and Alexandra Paul was I believe she’d been a model, and she’s just a terrific actress. And the great character actor Harry Dean Stanton was on that. Harry Dean is quite a character, I really loved him. But it was a fun movie to make and easy — nothing tough about it. And it did OK, you know, it opened alright. So people were kind, which is nice.“

The film was released on VHS by Columbia Pictures, and on DVD on August 4, 1998, and re released on DVD in 2004. On March 12, 2013, Twilight Time video released the film on Blu ray for the first time in a limited edition run numbered at 3,000 copies. On September 29, 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment re released the film on Blu ray. The film was released on 4K UHD Blu ray on September 11, 2018.

Two soundtracks were released, one consisting purely of the music written and composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, the other consisting of the contemporary pop songs used in the film.

In June 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of a remake of the film with Bryan Fuller set to write and direct the film and Jason Blum, Vincenzo Natali and Steve Hoban producing.

The film Taarzan: The Wonder Car by Indian filmmaking duo Abbas–Mustan is loosely based on Christine. The film is parodied in the Futurama episode "The Honking", wherein a metamorphic Bender turned car haunts the crew. The film is parodied in The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy episode, "Tricycle of Terror". Billy's new Tricycle acts in a manner similar to Christine. The film is referred to in the song "Autopilot" by Allison Ponthier. David Gordon Green said his 2022 film Halloween Ends is a love letter to Christine and John Carpenter's body of work in general.