For my Smart Money, "Christine" is one of John Carpenter's most underrated efforts (up there with "Assault on Precinct 13"), and also one of his most effective. Even though its modest look and relative restraint in gore came as a result of "The Thing"'s box-office failure the previous year, and Carpenter has all but admitted his heart wasn't in the project, it ultimately turned out VERY well (if this is an effort from a sleepwalking Carpenter, he's better than most directors when they're awake). As someone who was knocked out by Rob Bottin's intricately gruesome FX work in "The Thing," but left cold by the shallow characters, "Christine" fills in the gaps of suspense and human story with ease. In retrospect, some of the absurd plot elements ("a haunted car," as Carpenter constantly reiterates) lends the film an odd humor that doesn't detract from things (and indeed, it was Stephen King's own infatuation with cars and rock music that inspired this story of obsession). Scenes are composed with great skill by Carpenter (making wonderful use of the widescreen image), and there are many striking images sprinkled throughout (the most incredible being the flaming Christine speeding after a villain). The excellent cast gives their all in making a potential B-movie premise glow with A-list polish: Keith Gordon's Arnie (the painfully square high-school senior who buys the titular vehicle), John Stockwell's Dennis (the resourceful jock and best friend), Alexandra Paul's Leigh (the earthy girlfriend who sparks Christine's jealousy), and Harry Dean Stanton's Junkins (the snooping P.I.) provide this tale with a lot of propulsive force. In a sense, "Christine" is a nice even ground between the zaniness of "Escape from New York" and the FX extremes of "The Thing," and exemplifies Carpenter's range as a director. A very underrated effort that is very much worth your time.

I'm not particularly a fan of horror movies and I couldn't fix an ailing automobile if my life depended on it so the workings of cars don't fascinate me.....but this movie fascinated me. The '58 Plymouth Fury, alias "Christine," is absolutely gorgeous. What a piece of machinery!

This is a horror story but there are no ghosts or monsters nor is there any gore. A car is the star of the film, a very jealous and vengeful one at that. Man, that sounds silly but, if you're reading this you have probably watched the movie so no sense going into details. It's hard to describe the story in a paragraph without it sounding stupid....but it's not. Maybe the quickest way to explain it is that it is about a car that is alive, like a human, and you mess with it, you pay!

It is definitely one creepy, well-made, unique and always-entertaining film.

The car is a lot better than any of the people, sad to say. No, I didn't like any of the kids in this film (high schoolers who all look 30 years old!) and the language is a little too rough in spots, but that can be filtered out.

The car, the '50s music, the unique story, the satisfying revenge angle all make this very watchable.

There is a "whoa!" Moment an hour into this adaption of the Stephen King novel which is more than just a male version of "Carrie". Keith Gordon is a geeky high school kid in his senior year, misunderstood by his parents and brutally harassed by the school punks. When he comes across an old car, he expresses interest in buying it from the brother of the previous owner, and finds out that it has a bit of a history. The harassment of the kids continues, and the car takes revenge for him.

Like Amy Irving in "Carrie", Gordon has a cool kid on his side, and it's actually a best friend rather than someone who's just trying to do right. He's John Stockwell, a class jock who has been there to support him through the difficult times, and he even gets himself beat up in protecting Gordon. There's also the new pretty girl who likes him (Alexandra Paul), so it's not like Gordon doesn't have a chance of survival. But the bullies are brutal, so when Christine, the name of the car given by the late owner, takes it's revenge, it's brutal and violent.

This has a good supporting cast including Roberts Blossom (a veteran at playing spooky characters), Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton, and while the film is not as graphic as "Carrie", that actually has a bigger impact because of the subtlety. Christine has the ability to rebuild itself, basically rising like the phoenix. That makes this a modern horror classic that takes an old theme and puts a unique twist on it.