Directed by John Carpenter Screenplay by Bill Phillips Based on the novel Christine by Stephen King Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton Original Release date December 9, 1983 Run Time 110 minutes Budget $10M Box Office $21M IMDb 6.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes 69% Metacritic 57/100
For the first time, I have two of the trailers included for this film. One is the original, classic trailer, the other is the typical trailer you would get after the movie had been released but was still being promoted before showings of other films or on video cassette previews. This is one of my all-time favorite movie adaptations of a Stephen King novel. What’s so blatantly different about this particular story of King’s pretty much starts out with from the first scene with death and we just keep going. Now, since this film was release in ’83, I’m going to take a wild shot in the dark here and assume that this movie is old enough that it has been seen by the majority of my readers... However, if you haven’t seen it by now, before I go any further, here is your spoiler alert notice. !!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!! !!!!!!CONTENT BELOW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!! There, now we can continue. So, first thing we see is a Chrysler auto plant and auto workers making 1958 Plymouth Furys. All of the ones currently on the line are all the same boring grayish kind of color except for one. This one single solitary masterpiece of an automobile comes rolling down the line and she’s a pristine, gorgeous, sporty, candy apple red with a high gloss shine. By the time this sexy beast leaves the factory, she’s already claimed the life of one man, he ashes his cigar on her front seat and another man was messing around near the front end under the hood and well, she probably took off a finger or two when she let the hood of this American made tank of a car slam down on his hand, sending him into shrills of pain. Okay, that’s in 1957, got it? Fast forward twenty-one years later to 1978 and we meet Arnie Cunningham. Arnie is the poster boy for the stereotypical of what my generation called a geek or a nerd. (Do kids still do that these days? I would think with all the progression that the school popularity hierarchy might have changed a bit by now. But what do I know? I don’t have kids. Anyways…1978) It’s the first day of a year at high school. Luckily, Arnie is friends with a kid named Dennis Guilder. Dennis is a football player and he and Arnie are close buddies. And for Dennis, the first day of school isn’t a big deal or anything. But for Arnie, it’s the first day of a long line of upcoming torturous, embarrassing and demeaning encounters with Buddy Repperton and his cronies, Don Vandenberg, Moochie Welch and Richie Trelawney, the merciless school bullies. On the way home, Arnie and Dennis pass by what looks like a junky old car parked in a junky old yard of a junky old house. Arnie tells Dennis to stop the car and go back. When they get to the car Arnie immediately falls in love with it, while all Dennis can see is a hunk of junk not worth anything. The owner comes to talk to Arnie and is happy to speak with him, since he is interested in the car, a 1957 Plymouth Fury. Dennis has some smartass comments to say and tries to talk Arnie out of buying the car but it’s no use. Arnie writes a check and Christine becomes his new baby. From that point on, Arnie starts to change and with every little thing he fixes, replaces or rebuilds on Christine, he becomes more and more unlike himself. Eventually, the only thing he cares about at all is that car. During the time that he owns it several bad things happen involving the car itself. His new girlfriend, Leigh, who also happens to be the hottest girl at school and won’t date anyone but for some reason chooses to date Arnie, almost chokes to death in the car at the drive-in theater. Certain other people are threatened by Arnie and others that seem to be problems in Arnie’s life seem to mysteriously die violent and ugly deaths. Christine isn’t just any old car. She’s special. She’s got a history, a past, a string of pain and death in her wake. It’s almost like she’s cursed. But in the strangest of ways. She can actually rebuild herself so no damage is ever permanent. Her radio only plays old songs from the 1950s. She gets very attached to her owners, devoted in fact. If anyone tries to mess with Arnie or get in between the two of them, Christine can take care of whatever the problem is. And she can take care of Arnie. Even though throughout the movie we see Arnie get more pale and sickly looking, his eyes sunken with dark bags underneath, the change in his attitude becomes that of a cocky and indignant wretch rather than the sweet, caring and sensitive kid he started out to be. And there’s nothing anyone can do. For Arnie, to get rid of Christine, to protect anyone. Nothing. Eventually, everything comes down to a battle between Dennis and Leigh versus Arnie and Christine. A battle that neither Arnie nor Christine is willing to lose and Dennis and Leigh can’t afford to not fight. THE END Okay, so this is one of my favorite Stephen King stories. I’ve watched this movie since I was a child. I love this movie. It’s not just the idea of this cursed car avenging his owner’s mistreatment or heartache or whatever. It’s also the idea that this car has a mind of its own. It can rebuild itself. It poisons the person who owns it. It kills those who try to take the owner’s love from it. It plays songs people don’t even hear on the radio anymore. This car is evil and magic at the same time. A blessing and a curse. If you own it, you can solve all your problems in your life, but if you own it, it is sure to kill you or someone you love, at minimum someone you know. All the while seemingly living off the very essence of life inside you, draining and expelling anything good or wholesome and replacing it with anything bad or evil. Plus, for the era in which it was made, they did some fancy FX work to make this car do things that even KITT in Night Rider couldn’t do. Yes, I know what Night Rider is and yes, I know that shows my age and yes, if you don’t know what Night Rider is, you’re what I refer to as a young person. No offense. Just too many generations back for most of ya, that’s all. Anyways, this movie is a classic. Not Oscar material by any means but one of Hollywood’s best movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novels by far. A must see for any horror fan. And if any of the younger people out there think that it’s gonna suck because there’s no CGI, I promise you, it won’t. I guarantee there were good movies and graphics prior to CGI and back in these days, we still required actors, directors and special fx techs to have talent because not everything could be fixed with the computer and digital programs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s a certain respect for the pioneers of special effects; the makeup, the puppeteer work, the robotic creations, everything that went into making us believe these people really looked this way and these things really did happen. This movie gets a lot of respect from me for the things they make this car do. RATINGS 5/5 Stars
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Directed by Jason Axinn Written by Jim Cirile and Tanya C. Klein Voices for animation: William Shatner Morena Baccarin Ray Wise Dani Lennon Bill Moseley Budget NO DATA Box Office NO DATA IMDb 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes 64% Metacritic NO DATA This is an animated adult horror film that first premiered at the London FrightFest Film Festival on August 23, 2019. It was then released on Video on Demand on March 17, 2020. Before I get into my opinion, I MUST let you in on the general plot teaser on the box of the BluRay box. It reads as follows: After emerging as the sole survivor in a deadly revenge game set up by her father to his children, Miriam receives an offer from a supernatural entity to go back in time and try again. Now, Miriam must survive both her father’s blood lust and the Gamemaster’s ever-changing rules to save her siblings as she relives the worst night of her life. Sounds pretty crazy right? So, here’s the set up… Miriam gets called to her father’s place along with her siblings to have a discussion. This discussion is about how he truly feels about them. One he calls out for being a pill popper. Another for being a failed musician that gets his kicks utilizing sexual asphyxiation. He insults another for being gay even though he’s truly a genius for his father’s company. And Miriam, he just loathes for speaking out publicly against him, telling of his atrocious behavior over the years. So, Daddy has decided to get them all together and play his own little sick and twisted version of being Jigsaw, setting traps for his children and requiring things of them promising their freedom and redemption if said tasks are completed. Miriam must not survive her father, but also this supernatural entity, the Gamemaster, who is a real bitch, and her penchant for changing the rules mid-game. Though feeling set up for failure, Miriam will put forth all her effort to save herself, her siblings and win the game any way she can. The question is, with all the ever-changing rules, will her effort be enough? THE END This was a fantastic animated film to watch. I’m usually not a fan of animation but this particular film I couldn’t peel my eyes from. I was fascinated by the artwork and the detail. It was like watching a comic book in motion. The artwork wasn’t like normal animation art where they have individual frames done one at a time, each frame is photographed one at a time and then they are all run together to make an animated cartoon or film. This film was as if the comic book art was lifted from the pages itself and put in motion. So, it didn’t have that Saturday morning cartoon fluidity of movement but it was an incredible creative wonder to experience in its entirety. Also, the artist (or artists) had a brilliant knowledgeable use of color that even further brought this would be graphic novel to life on screen. The range of colors give so much life and dimension to the characters and the scenery that this truly is an actual film, animated or not. It consists of the kind of fantastic revenge story that so many horror fans love. It’s the battle between a rich and arrogant father and his disapproval and disappointment in his not-so-perfect children. The story consists of a fairly natural dialogue complete with the kind of foul language that anyone in that situation would use, so it is believable and at times flippant and amusing. The progression of the story is a great ride full of plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested, entertained and disturbed. There’s plenty of blood, gore and violence for those of us who love that stuff and it’s done very well for animation. The whole film was fast paced and stayed moving, making it so the 91-minute run time was nothing but a brief moment in time. I would suggest any horror lover, especially horror comic book and graphic novel lovers, see this. You won’t be disappointed. RATINGS 5/5 Stars Directed by Rony Patel Produced by Rony Patel Written by Rony Patel and Andrew Ericksen Starring: Atala Arce, Jake Taylor, David Harper, Jeremy Jordon, Mike Thompson, Mikael Mattsson, James McCabe, Nicholas Correnti, Natasha Missick, Lizzie Chaplin, Jazmine Jordan Budget NO DATA Box Office NO DATA IMDb 3.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes NO DATA Metacritic NO DATA Here we have a brand-new film that releases October 20, 2020, giving us limited data available on the film as you can see. It’s really a very simple and basic horror flick in the best of ways. There’s a guy and a girl, they’re in love (of course). And there’s a killer, a gross, disgusting, creepy, grisly, psychotic looking pizza delivery man. Here is the blurb: An innocent night between a young couple takes a bizarre turn when a psychotic serial killer comes knocking at the door. As the couple starts to fend for their lives, we soon learn there might be more to the lovers than meets the eye. A long fight for survival leads them into a series of unsettling encounters within the criminal underworld. Now, I have to be honest, I was surprised by how good this film ended up being. It definitely had a very Quentin Tarantino quality to the way it was filmed. You know how Tarantino goes through “chapters” and he titles them? They did that in this movie. The movie is split into “chapters” like Tarantino did for Pulp Fiction, naming them such things as “Brother”, “Chop Chop” or “Package”. It’s a nice little interlude and a good way to lead into each group of scenes. I’ve always found that transition style to be quite entertaining and at one time very original, so original in fact that I still think it sets a film apart from the normal herd. There is a strange comedic factor to the film that helps prove to viewers anything that can go wrong, will. Not to mention that there are some really strange and creepy characters in this film. There’s mystery behind this couple in love, not sure who they are or what they’ve done, some creepy dudes walking around in bathrobes. The comedic value and strange levity and oddities build and structure a dark comedic theme throughout the film. I found this to be a fun addition and felt it added to the total enjoyment of the film. It is the perfect blend of comedy and sarcasm to balance out the horror in the film, making it nicely well-rounded as a horror flick. Overall, the film had good acting, great special effects makeup, the regular special effects are good. Although the plot was a little thin and confusing, sort of unclear at times, it was still a very decent horror film. There’s a decent amount of blood and the kill scenes are done fairly well. As for the total creepiness factor…this movie gets an 8 or 9 out of 10. The sheer amount of strange and unsettling characters is just absolutely awesome because they all add to the unsettled feeling, you’re supposed to get from horror movies. Some of these people are the same kind of people that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up or give you the natural urge to cross the street to avoid them because they just FEEL wrong to you. I do think horror lovers will enjoy this flick. I know I did. And my husband, who isn’t near as into horror as I am, even liked it. So, give it a go! Think Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses crashes into Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. I think you’ll dig it! RATINGS 4/5 Stars |
AuthorThe Countess Archives
November 2023
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