Horror History: Carpenter & King’s CHRISTINE Was Unleashed in 1983
On this day in horror history, John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s classic killer car novel Christine unleashed itself into theaters back in 1983.
It tells the tale of an unpopular nerd who buys a 1958 Plymouth Fury and develops an obsession with it. After a bully defaces the car, it restores itself to perfect condition and begins killing off people. Determined to stop the slaughter, Arnie’s girlfriend and best friend try to destroy the vehicle from Hell once and for all.
King originally offered Salem’s Lot producer Richard Kobritz two books: Cujo and Christine. Kobritz snagged Christine due to the novel’s “celebration of America’s obsession with the motorcar.” Bill Phillips penned the script based on King’s novel.
RELATED: Every Kill in John Carpenter & Stephen King’s Killer Car Cult Classic CHRISTINE [Video]
Carpenter was Kobritz’s first choice to direct after collaborating on Someone’s Watching Me. But Carpenter was unavailable due to his commitment to another King adaptation, Firestarter. When Firestarter stalled, Carpenter jumped into the driver’s seat on this film.
Carpenter claims Christine was just “a job.” He had just directed The Thing, which bombed. And so, while he thought King’s novel “wasn’t very frightening”, helming the movie was something he felt he needed to do at that time for his career.
Columbia wanted Brooke Shields (Alice, Sweet, Alice) as Leigh and Scott Baio (Happy Days) as Arnie. Carpenter declined the suggestion. Kevin Bacon (Friday the 13th) auditioned for Arnie but dropped out when he was offered Footloose.
Keith Gordon (Dressed to Kill) took over the role. John Stockwell co-starred along with Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, and Kelly Preston.
Christine managed to snag $3.4M over the course of its opening weekend and a total of $21M in the US. It sports a 69% approval rating over on Rotten Tomatoes with a Critics Consensus that reads: The cracks are starting to show in John Carpenter’s directorial instincts, but Christine is nonetheless silly zippy fun.
Do you dig John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine?
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