christine-blu-rayPowerhouse Films, Out now

(dual format Blu-ray and DVD limited to 5,000 units)

“You better watch what you say about my car. She’s real sensitive.”

Mention the name ‘John Carpenter’ to any random passer-by and I guarantee films like Halloween or The Thing will immediately spring to their minds – possibly even Escape From New York or Assault on Precinct 13. Rarely nowadays does anyone think of Christine, Carpenter’s 1983 haunted car flick, or even consider it to be amongst his best work. Which is a shame, because it’s actually very good. As is Powerhouse Film’s two-disc dual format release.

Over the last thirty-odd years audiences have mostly forgotten about Christine. Not scary enough to be particularly well regarded by the horror fans and lacking the star-studded cast or big blockbuster budget needed to attract your average cinema-going punter, the film found itself falling through the cracks between two of Carpenter’s more critically acclaimed offerings – The Thing and Big Trouble in little China. But what can you really expect when even the director wasn’t interested in making the film in the first place?

When Carpenter’s body-horror remake of The Thing From Another World was released in 1982 it was mauled by both critics and horror fans, and for a while it looked like his career was on the rocks. As a result he was dropped as director from his next project, causing him to cast around for any directorial work he could get his hands on. As luck would have it, producer Richard Kobritz had just acquired the rights to Stephen King’s latest novel and approached the director with the idea of bringing it to the screen. Carpenter wasn’t particularly enamoured by the book, or the story (thinking that the haunted car idea had already been done with 1977s The Car), but took the job anyway as it was the only thing on the horizon.

christineThe movie follows King’s original novel quite closely, dealing with high school nerd and general loser Arnie Cunnigham and his obsession with a battered old Plymouth Fury car. Arnie’s life is not a happy one: bullied at school by the obnoxious Buddy Repperton and his gang, while at home every decision is made for him by his overbearing, forthright parents. His only friend in the world is popular jock and football quaterback Dennis Guilder, whose two aims in life it seems is to keep his friend from being carved up by the knife-wielding Repperton, and to somehow get him laid. But when Arnie spies the dilapidated hulk of Christine rusting in George LeBay’s front yard, a strange and frightening transformation begins; both for the car and for Arnie himself.

New kids on the block, Powerhouse Films, have put together an impressive little two-disc package, offering the film and all its extras together on both Blu-ray and DVD formats. The transfer itself is by no means new, sourced from the same 2K master Sony used for the German Blu-ray release a couple of years ago, but it’s impressive nevertheless, especially when considering the age and relative budget of the film (around $10 million, which was considered miniscule by the production crew, even then). The 1080 transfer is sharp, the colour rich and natural throughout, and most importantly there’s no obvious signs of degraining or DNR. The only change in quality occurs during the 1957 prologue, when Christine can be seen trundling along the factory production line. Here the film looks bleached and faded and a little brown, the grain heavier, more obvious. This, however, has to do with Carpenter’s decision to shoot the opening scene on a different film stock to the rest of the movie (Fuji film to be precise, while the rest was on Kodak) in order to give the sequence an old and dated feel. You also have a choice of watching the film in its original stereo soundtrack, or an alternative 5.1 surround sound mix. Both are perfectly acceptable, although the new 5.1 track really has some punch to it.

Extras-wise, you’ll find everything that was on Sony’s US release from last year: the director’s audio commentary, twenty-six minutes of deleted scenes, as well as the nice in-depth documentary on the making of the movie running at forty-nine minutes. Extras new to this UK edition include an option to watch the film with John Carpenter and Alan Howarth’s isolated score, trailers and TV spots, an image gallery of on-set and promotional photographs, and a twenty-four page booklet featuring articles by Jeff Billington and director Carpenter himself.

Verdict: Not a bona-fide classic like Carpenter’s The Thing or Halloween, but a criminally overlooked horror gem, nonetheless. Long overdue for a reappraisal, and this nice dual format package is a great place to start. 8/10

Scott Harrison

Click here to order Christine from Amazon.co.uk