Christine (1983) KILL COUNT

[Music] welcome to the killcount where we tally up the victims in all our favorite horror movies I'm James a DS and today we're looking at Christine released in 1983 directed by John Carpenter the man who brought us Halloween and the thing christine is based on Stephen King's novel of the same name and year in fact production began just days after the novel was published with a script having already been written based on King's manuscript the rights to the story were purchased by producer Richard Cobras who had already produced a screen adaptation of another King story the miniseries version of Salem's Lot King liked it so much he gave Cobra its first rights to his stories and while the producer passed on Cujo he got excited about Christine cobras took the film to Carpenter who had just gotten reamed by critics for making the thing too graphic so he jumped at the chance to make a more character based less gory horror movie christine celebrates two of America's favorite pastimes cars and rock and roll and as we all know by now I'm not a car guy so apologies in advance for any mistakes I make in this episode though there are plenty of differences between the movie and novel a 700-page beast that I have yet to tackle both of them follow the titular car a red 1958 Plymouth Fury as she murders people because of course Stephen King would write a story about a murderous vehicle not the only time he did it either just here wait for Maximum Overdrive which is one delightful mess but Christine is not a mess it's a well crafted film that takes its story seriously with talented actors and every role in a kick-ass score by Carpenter himself I really enjoy this movie and I think it's somewhat overlooked especially since it's a product of two masters of the genre carpenter and King maybe this movie can tell us how many kills to expect when our self driving cars reach singularity and turn against their human owners let's find out [Music] the movie begins with John Carpenter's title car rev that shit up Christine nice saw that unseen car idles through the plane opening credits before we find ourselves in D town baby back when the Packard Plant was still open as George Thorogood sings about how thoroughly bad he is a line of 58 plymouth Furies roll through a chrysler assembly plant which was actually an abandoned factory that art director gamla Meno fixed up to look like a mid-century auto plant this opening scene also looks different than the rest of the movie since cinematographer Donald M Morgan shot it on fuji film to make it look softer and more aged 16 years later Morgan would go on to shoot another King connected film the rage carried two most of these cars are in buckskin beige the only colour used for the roughly 5000 theories made in real life but Christine is the title car so she's in a sexy hot red get up as she struts through the factory showing off her assets hey she said you can look brother not touch keep your hands to yourself pervert that handsy dude is played by Joe Unger by the way last seen on the kill count as Tinker in Texas Chainsaw 3 the guy who made a literal golden chainsaw one worker decides to take his union guaranteed break in Christine's front seat where he dirties the bench with his cigar not cool guy that's a good way to get mysteriously murdered and added to the kill count at least he went out with some rock and roll since from Christine's radio Buddy Holly and the crickets chirp away we fast forward to 1978 in a fictional California town with an updated version of buddy's song playing from an updated version of an automobile awkward Arnie Cunningham a big oil high school nerd has a sweet if unlikely friendship with popular footballer Dennis Gilder Arnie is played by Keith Gordon who was one of Mike Brody's forgettable friends in Jaws too while Dennis is played by john stockwell who has spent the last 20 years directing various films including 2016's countdown which starred katharine isabelle who we just saw in the 2002 TV Carrie as well as what's this WWE superstars Kane and Dolph Ziggler hell yeah it's the start of their senior year and while tennis has no problem getting I fucked by every gal in the hallway Arnie attracts a less enjoyable kind of attention namely a gang of bullies led by buddy repperton here the size of his biceps matched only by the size of his hair bunny rocks a switchblade a standard Stephen King bully accessory that has always scared the absolute shit out of me and a posse that includes this dude doc played by Stuart char know who is that goofy asshole and Friday to that somehow survived the movie I still think about that sometimes bunny breaks Arnie's glasses during dentists to get involved but that only gets him sexually assaulted by this fucker named muchi before the whole thing is broken up by shop teacher mr. Casey nobody does not respect his authority have you mean I can't turn out your pocket yeah try it you little Paul fucking I'll knock you through the wall fuck did you uh did you just bark at me some of this movie swearing was added to ensure an r-rating so it would seem more like a horror movie the language caused some critics to clutch their pearls I think New York Times called called Kristine the most foul language film in the history of english-speaking cinema but then scarface came out later that year on their way home from school Arnie eyes something that immediately captivates in an old rust bucket with a for sale sign on it in spite of Reds mileage he becomes enamored so when a snow shovel er named George lebay appears wearing a filthy old man Corps said and holding the cars keys Arne negotiates to buy the vehicle how much you want for I mean whatever it is it's not enough he's not the best negotiator the car still starts and is named Christine according to George whose brother was the previous owner having bought Christine right off the assembly line she had to smell a brand new car that's just about the finest smell in the world except maybe for pussy well mr. lebay I never the BAE's brother died six weeks ago which is why he's selling the car now and for Arnie how about 250 bucks that's equal to just about a grand in today's dollars and since Arnie's been saving up he's in arnie can't even be talked out of it by his good friend Dennis who doesn't trust the nasty old man making the sale since he goes around calling people shitters you don't know half as much as you think you do like I said I haven't read the book yet but my understanding is that one of the big changes here involves George Bobe in the movie he's a pretty minor character since Carpenter wanted to make the car the star but I think in the boat he plays a much bigger role with his decomposing spirit often hanging out and Christine's backseat or something like that I don't know it's crazy Stephen King shit you know Arnie's parents are incensed about the purchase and tell him he's not allowed to keep the car at their house so he takes it to Darnell's a local junkyard slash garage he parks it in an open spot that Christine promptly farts all over pissing off garage owner Darnell who don't take no guff from troublesome use don't interrupt me don't get you on Darnell's garage was played by an old world war two wire factory in Irwindale California it was an enormous building so half of it was used as a set for Darnell's while the other half was used as a body shop to fix all the Christine's they had the movie spent most of its budget gathering up about two dozen plymouth Furies which were then used to assemble about 17 fully working vehicles some were reinforced to slam into things some had hotrod engines so they could peel out and some were crunch cars built specifically to get crushed by time production ended only two of the cars were left intact from what I can tell they're now owned by Martin Sanchez and Bill Gibson and of them recently had some kind of Bob marriage ceremony three weeks after the purchase Christine's looking a little better due to Arnie's relentless work using parts bound around the junkyard even begins to win Darnell's respect with the old curmudgeon offering him part-time work I'll have to think about it but don't think about it too long I'll throw you out your fuckin ass at school Dennis sets his sights on an attractive new girl named leek Abbott played by Alexandra Paul unbeknownst to John Carpenter at the time Paul has an identical twin sister and together they pranked the director by having her sister tried to act out a scene late in production there's this great still of John peering up at her quizzically like who is this woman that I just saw the night before and she seems different so they shoot the scene with my sister and then I walk on the set and I go John have you fired me already Dennis sits down and tries flirting with Lee but he hands up sounding like Peter Graves and airplanes listen do you like music you like movies about gladiators she shoots him down and he gets doubly stood up that night by a sharper seeing Arnie who's basically a different character now Arnie blows off a trip to the movies with Dennis to go do work for Darnell instead Arnie's mom is worried about the changes than her son since he bought a car he's been obsessed with it and is also worried about the car itself after finding out that the previous owner died in it thanks to carbon monoxide poisoning Dennis takes this concern to george lebay who's so rich after selling kristine he's now wearing a dirty blue blazer over his corset lebay confirms that his brother killed himself in Christine's front seat after his five-year-old daughter choked to death and his wife killed herself both of those deaths also taking place inside the car but remember since we only hear about these deaths and their characters we never met during the movie they don't go on the couch so don't even start that shit with me then this goes to inspect Christine and finds that she's a regular Benjamin Button she's looking better than ever and her odometer has even gone backwards as though she had spent the afternoon in Cameron Fry's house he tries to get inside the car but Christine denies him with some appropriate music [Music] yo we should hope Christine up with bumblebee Christine's all ready for her coming-out party at the high school's big football game attracting the attention of bully and athlete alike Dennis gets distracted by Arnie kissing leek Abbott against Christine's grill and he winds up getting violently tackled by the opposing team BAM that one hurt him for realsies are you proud of yourself Christine the injury he puts Dennis in the hospital for weeks and when Arnie visits him he hears that Dennis will never be able to play football again in fact he's lucky that he's not paralyzed cheers to some job and yeah Arnie tells Dennis that he's going steady with Lee which is why they head to a drive-in theater and neck each other beneath torrential rain Lee hesitates to keep going citing an uneasy feeling about Christine that maybe kind of borders on jealousy when you can't worry about that car than you care about me Arnie convinces her back inside the car where she begins to eat the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast but since Alexandra Paul is a longtime vegetarian she faked it and just took a bite of bread there's a wiper wipeout sends Arnie outside to fix it and while he's gone Christine strikes up the band christine has yet another glow up as lead chokes on her foo which is exactly how the Bayes brothers daughter died I'm not sure how Christine is causing shit like this again since I haven't read the book yet but knowing Stephen King I'm sure it's just some kind of ambiguous evil magic christine locks the lovebirds apart so arnie can't save her but li manages to get out in time for a random dude from the car next door to Heimlich that bread burger free Arnie takes Christine back to Darnell's and fails to notice when scary bully buddy repperton and his gang sneak into the garage behind him after Arnie leaves the four of them grab some weapons and get ready to start a rendition of grease nightmare okay buddy you take a Nicki's part Buchi you can be sunny and let's say oh oh we're just smashing shit instead okay sure yeah that works too they do a real number on Christine inside and out and the next day Arnie and Leigh find the real Bubba Barney's life completely torn apart it puts him in shock and turns him into a bigger and more abrasive asshole touch me shit but I don't think Arnie has any shit or ground to stand on cuz this assholes Chokin his dad out and wearing the biggest pop collar I've ever seen that is textbook shit or behavior right there Arnie when Arnie returns to the garage to restore Christine she shows him a little secret she can do in her damn self okay show me oh she will Arnie you just keep your pants on it's a memorable sequence set to the viscount's Harlem Nocturne that was originally all off-screen carpenter and kobritz went back to film this after they had finished the rest of the movie I love how it's all done practically the car was filmed compounding itself with hydraulics and then the footage was simply played in Reverse it was an idea from special effects artist Roy Arbogast who also worked on the thing the first two jaws movies oh and look at that the rage carried to before you know it Kristine is back in action which is bad news for Moochie the bully who just got dropped off at this highway overpass for some reason Moochie here's that song from Matilda play and sees that it's coming from Christine but when he calls out for Arnie to knock it off the car starts up and comes after him in response it's the kind of dark and moody urban chase scene that carpenter excels that especially with this fantastic score in fact the latest thing that carpenters directed is a 2017 music video for this movie's main theme like a lot of his work it sounds like some modern synth waves so go check it out if you're into that after a beautifully shot chase scene the bully finds himself cornered by the killer car who sacrifices her chassis for the chase and smooshes the muches killing him by crushing him against the wall the death is investigated by state police detective Rudy Junkin played by the late Harry Dean Stanton who was last seen on the kill count did not let's see I think aliens right Junkins talks to arnie in the school parking lot complimenting his body work on christine but when he brings up mu Chi's murder arnie says he doesn't know anything about it good luck trying to get arnie to co-operate Junkins he's so deep into his spider-man 3 transformation he's already snapping his fingers his total descent into douche dome has completed that night when he finally severs ties with Lee over the phone well fuck you bitch weeks later buddy and his bro Trelawney are doing a little drinking and doing a little driving when they notice a car tailing them a bit too close for comfort buddy races off to a gas station where his pal Don works and which was constructed entirely by the filmmakers from scratch you'll see why in a second Christine follows them there and before she deals with the bullies themselves she smashes up buddy's car with that mission accomplished Christine sets her headlights on Trelawny whom she kills using the husk of buddy's car how to love this kills blatant dummy just hiding behind that wall over there no one will notice it flopping around it's fine gas begins to leak out and Don's not fast enough to escape the fire that lights up and kills him via incineration in this giant garage explosion don't let that perm catch on fire now buddy he does it but Christine is completely a flame so we get to experience the seriously awesome sight of a flaming car racing through the streets as she chases after buddy and since that gas station was all fake let's just go ahead and blow it up a few times over great it's been too long since we've had a fireball to bow to Christine chases buddy down a long and lonesome road until all of a sudden shining like a shiny demon she runs him down in the middle of the road and he said nothing cuz he was dead the latest addition to the killcam the flaming car is maybe my favorite scene in this movie so I've got to give props to stunt coordinator Terry Leonard the man who drove the car that was actually on fire he wore a Nomex flame resistant suit and needed to breathe from an oxygen tank because the fire sucked out all the air from inside the car and if you think that sounds dangerous well it gets worse Leonard had to drive inside but the windows were blackened so he really couldn't see very well Carpenter kept Christine's windows blacked out during the movie to add to the mystery of whether it's Arnie behind the wheel or Christine doing all this killing on her own pulling off this stunt with that low visibility is quite an accomplishment no matter how much Leonard tries to downplay his work it's pretty tough to see when you're going 70 miles an hour down a city street a little tough to see but I wasn't really in all that bad you know I'm trying to make it sound like a lot worse than it is it wasn't but you just got to pay a little more attention when you can't sleep Kristine returns to the garage in complete defiance of Darnell's no smoking room damn girl how much dry is he packing in that truck since he knows Arnie is elsewhere Darnell grabs his handy office shotgun to go see who's driving this smokin hot rod but when he opens the scorching door handle he finds there ain't no one inside this cream Macario guess he might as well sit in the driver's seat okay obviously a bad move especially after the radio comes on the door slammed shut and the lock depresses Christine kills Darnell by moving the seat forward and crushing him against the steering wheel that John Carpenter points out on the commentary track is visibly rubber and fade this was a much simpler kill than Darnell's book death by the way which involved Christine driving directly into his house Arnie arrives at the garage the next morning to find a bunch of cops there including detective junkie Junkins tells him that Darnell and all those bullies kill and to his credit Arne does seem taken aback at the news of his gruff boss's death Christine's doing just fine though there's not an inch of silt left honor by this time dennis is finally out of the hospital and leave comes over to talk to him about the mean lean murder car Christine she says that Arnie's no longer the man boy he once was and Dennis agrees to try to talk some sense into him one more time if that fells the two of them pledged to destroy the Plymouth to save their friend Arnie picks up Dennis and he is not in the mood for any jokes about his lady so we got the old rust bucket tonight watch me kill my car he's real sensitive he starts downing Road beers and assures Dennis that Christine can handle herself even around curves in the light it's an excellent scene wherein Dennis finally realizes that Arnie is too far gone to say cuz this dude's gone full-on George lebay oh man there is nothing finer than being behind the wheel of your own car except maybe for pushing they originally filmed this scene actually driving down the highway with the actors in a chunk of car mounted to the front of a truck but turns out trying to act in a piece of car hanging off a semis grill it's a little bit difficult all I remember thinking is I don't want to die because there were no wheels in the car so we were just suspended off this truck and I thought well if one wailed the brakes you know basically we go under the truck truckers are us and it's all over so I was just wanting it to be over so I was very happy we went back and redid the scene in the studio did it with lighting effects and that let me kind of cut-rate a lot more in the acting that I'm just oh my god get me out of here Dennis leaves the message for Arnie to meet him at Darnell's that night where he and League two hatching their plan which involves a big old bulldozer carpenters specifically wanted some old-school machinery to be used against Christine so john stockwell had to learn how to operate this thing despite coming close a few times he never messed up and hit a camera good job guy Dennis and Lee are hoping to trap Christine inside the garage but turns out that crazy car is already in there waiting for Lee only avoids Christine's bender through some impressive acrobatics and while Christine's trying to free herself from another junked car Dennis puts the dozer in a defense position Christine who now resembles a wild animal tries to charge at Li any way but the bulldozer is a good bouncer and keeps the car away or should I say it keeps Arne away cuz this time looks like the ex nerds actually behind the wheel Christine revs up and drives straight through the garages office which sends Arne through the windshield the accident leaves a giant glass shard in his side and after he pulls it out he only has enough life left to touch Christine one last time with that his light goes out and Christine's headlights go dark to honor him but you can't spend your time honoring people who died in the past when you've got killin to do in the future Christine tries once more to run down leap pimp Jesus almost the camera there to those quotes after she fails Dennis takes the opportunity to t-bone the killer car with his bulldozer he uses the heavy machinery to pin Christine down for a three-count turning off her headlights and demo derby to death she tries to heal herself mid-battle but she just can't save herself this time and while I briefly debated putting Christina on the kill count I chose not to in the end since you know she's a car at least she goes out with a swan song though Kristina's turned into a cube and taken to a junkyard where Junkins undoubtably feeling at home tells Dennison Lee that they're heroes they hear an old rock tune coming from Christine's general direction but don't worry y'all it's just a working-class Joe listening to some dude gotta eat rock and roll speaking of rock and roll there was originally another ending that featured a cameo by George Thorogood singer a bad to the bone the song that opened this movie it didn't work out though instead the movie ends with a sign that Christine still got some miles left to her signaled by the slightest little shake of her fender how many people did Christine murder and manslaughter let's find out and get to the numbers shitters seven people died in Christine and since they were all dudes we got a uniformly blue pie chart to contrast with Christine's cool red coat but they're on time of a hundred minutes that left us with a kill on average every fourteen point two nine minutes I've got the golden chainsaw for coolest kill - buddy repperton he watched a flaming car run a guy over and leave his flaming body behind I love it - almost ready for lamest kill will go to Darnell cuz who gets crushed by a car seat moving too far forward and why'd you even sit down there in the first place dude and that's it Christine came out in 1983 and with this episode I've managed to give you ten kill counts in one month which was not easy so thank you Bri Zorn and Josh for all your incredible editing I really mean it until next time I'm James a Jenice this has been the kill count thanks a lot for watching this extra kill cap I want to thank some patrons like Katrina Canfield Sean Hagen's Flavio Zamudio Martin Casper Goldsboro TSG and Jared Rams and a happy birthday to my dad it's his birthday today and he's the one who got me into Stephen King at a very young age thanks dad for the first couple of weeks in June we're just having one kill gone a week just one on Fridays all right just give me a chance to sleep but then I got something I think you're really gonna like makes everyone be good people

Channel: Dead Meat

Views: 5,297,730

Keywords: horror, dead meat, movies, scary, films, kills, kill count, body count, james a. janisse, jaj, pine commander boogie, christine, car, plymouth, fury, 1958, stephen king, steven king, john carpenter, keith gordon, john stockwell, alexandra paul, robert prosky, harry dean stanton, plymouth fury, red, christine belford, richard kobritz, DMKC, christine movie review, christine movie reaction, christine kill count, christine kill count dead meat

Id: 0CYYfSGTcyY

Length: 23min 20sec (1400 seconds)

Published: Sun May 31 2020