Author | Stephen King |
---|---|
Cover artist | Craig DeCamps |
Language | English |
Genre | Horror |
Publisher | Viking |
Publication date | April 29, 1983 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Pages | 526 |
ISBN | 978-0-670-22026-7 |
Christine is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1983. It tells the story of a car (a 1958 Plymouth Fury) apparently possessed by malevolent supernatural forces. In April 2013, PS Publishing released Christine in a limited 30th Anniversary Edition. [1]
King has said that he got the inspiration for the story one night while driving when he saw the numbers on his car's odometer go from 9999.9 to 10,000, which led him to think of the idea of an odometer that ran backwards, thus making the car "younger" instead of older. [2]
Set in the fictional Pittsburgh suburb of Libertyville, Pennsylvania in 1978, nerdy teen Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham and his friend, Dennis Guilder, notice a dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury while driving. The car is being sold by Roland D. LeBay, a grouchy old man with a back supporter. Despite Dennis's reservations, Arnie buys Christine, as LeBay has named the vehicle, for $250 (equivalent to $765in 2023). While Arnie finishes the paperwork, Dennis sits inside Christine and has a vision of the car and the surroundings as they existed when the car was new, 20 years earlier. Frightened, Dennis decides he dislikes Christine.
Arnie brings Christine to a do-it-yourself garage run by Will Darnell, who is suspected of using the garage as a front for illicit operations. As Arnie restores the car, he stops wearing his eyeglasses and his acne disappears, but he also becomes withdrawn, humorless and cynical. When LeBay dies, Dennis meets his younger brother, George, who reveals LeBay's history of anger and violence. He also reveals that LeBay's young daughter choked to death on a hamburger in Christine's back seat and that his wife subsequently committed suicide in its front seat by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Dennis observes that Arnie is taking on many of LeBay's personality traits and has begun dressing like a 1950s greaser. He also sees that Arnie has become close to Darnell, acting as a courier in Darnell's smuggling operations. When Arnie is almost finished restoring Christine, he begins dating an attractive student named Leigh Cabot. His parents force him to keep Christine in an airport parking lot. Soon afterward, Clarence "Buddy" Repperton, a bully who blames Arnie for his expulsion from school, learns where Christine is being kept and vandalizes the car with help from his gang.
Arnie, aware of Christine's ability to repair herself, pushes her through Darnell's garage until enough of the damage is undone for her to run, then drives her through the junkyard until she is fully restored. He strains his back in the process and begins wearing a back brace as LeBay did. During a date with Arnie, Leigh nearly chokes to death on a hamburger and is saved only by the intervention of a hitchhiker. Leigh notices that Christine's dashboard lights seemed to become glaring green eyes, watching her during the incident, and that Arnie only half-heartedly tried to save her. Believing she and Christine are competing for Arnie's affection, Leigh vows to never get into the car again.
Several inexplicable car-related deaths occur around town. The victims include Darnell, Buddy and all but one of his accomplices in the vandalism. The police link Christine to each of the murders, but no evidence is found on the car. Rudy Junkins, a police detective, becomes suspicious of Arnie despite his airtight alibis. Christine, possessed by LeBay's vengeful spirit, is committing these murders independently and then repairing herself.
Leigh and Dennis begin a relationship while unearthing details of Christine and LeBay's past. Dennis speculates that LeBay sacrificed his daughter and wife to make Christine a receptacle for his spirit. They compare Arnie's signatures from before and after his purchase of Christine with LeBay's. Arnie stumbles upon Leigh and Dennis being intimate in Dennis' car, sending him into a rage. Soon after, Junkins is killed in a car crash. Suspecting they are next, Dennis and Leigh devise a plan to destroy the car and save Arnie.
While Arnie is visiting a college, Dennis and Leigh lure Christine to the garage and batter her to pieces using a bright pink septic tanker truck nicknamed Petunia. Dennis witnesses LeBay's spirit attempting to make him stop before the wreckage is crushed. Dennis learns that Arnie and his mother were both killed in a highway accident, while Christine had earlier killed Arnie's father. Witness accounts lead Dennis to believe that LeBay's spirit, tied to Arnie through Christine, fled the car and attempted to repossess Arnie, but Arnie fought him to a draw, resulting in the wreck.
Four years later, Dennis and Leigh have ended their relationship. He reads about a car accident in Los Angeles, in which a drive-in theater employee—the last surviving member of Buddy's gang—was killed by a car that smashed through a cinderblock wall. Dennis speculates that Christine may have rebuilt herself and is setting out to kill everyone who stood against her, saving him for last.
Christine has received the Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (1984). [3] The American Library Association named Christine the 95th most banned and challenged book in the United States between 1990 and 1999. [4] Eight months after the release of the novel, a film adaptation was also released in December, directed by John Carpenter. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $21 million at the box office. The film has since become a cult classic. [5]
While he was promoting the film adaptation of Dreamcatcher in 2003, Stephen King mentioned Christine as one of two film adaptations of his work that had "bored" him, stating: "I may just be the most adapted novelist in modern times... and I don't say that with pride so much as with a kind of stunned bemusement. Several honorable adaptations have come from this thirty-year spew of celluloid... and the best of those have had few of the elements I'm best known for: science fiction, fantasy, the supernatural, and pure gross-out moments... The books that do have those elements have, by and large, become films that are either forgettable or outright embarrassing. Others—I'm thinking chiefly of Christine and Stanley Kubrick's take on The Shining—should have been good but just... well, they just aren't. They're actually sort of boring. Speaking for myself, I'd rather have bad than boring." [6] In June 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of a remake of the film with Bryan Fuller set to write and direct the film and Jason Blum, Vincenzo Natali and Steve Hoban producing. [7]
Dreamcatcher is a 2001 science fiction horror novel by American writer Stephen King, featuring elements of body horror, suspense and alien invasion. The book, written in longhand, helped the author recuperate from a 1999 car accident, and was completed in half a year. According to the author in his afterword, the working title was Cancer. His wife, Tabitha King, persuaded him to change the title. A film adaptation was released in 2003.
A dreamcatcher is a Native American cultural object.
Cujo is a 1981 horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a rabid Saint Bernard. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982 and was made into a film in 1983. Cujo's name was based on the alias of Willie Wolfe, one of the men responsible for orchestrating Patty Hearst's kidnapping and indoctrination into the Symbionese Liberation Army. King discusses Cujo in On Writing, referring to it as a novel he "barely remembers writing at all." King wrote the book during the height of his struggle with alcohol addiction. King goes on to say he likes the book and wishes he could remember enjoying the good parts as he put them on the page.
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few surviving humans gather into factions that are each led by a personification of either good or evil and seem fated to clash with each other. King started writing the story in February 1975, seeking to create an epic in the spirit of The Lord of the Rings. The book was difficult for him to write because of the large number of characters and storylines.
Misery is an American psychological horror thriller novel written by Stephen King and first published by Viking Press on June 8, 1987. The novel's narrative is based on the relationship of its two main characters – the romance novelist Paul Sheldon and his deranged self-proclaimed number one fan Annie Wilkes. When Paul is seriously injured following a car accident, former nurse Annie brings him to her home, where Paul receives treatment and doses of pain medication. Paul realizes that he is a prisoner and is forced to indulge his captor's whims.
Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by American writer Stephen King. The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019. In November 2013, PS Publishing released Pet Sematary in a limited 30th-anniversary edition.
From a Buick 8 is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King. Published on September 24, 2002, this is the second novel by King to feature a supernatural car. According to the book's cover sleeve's inside front flap: "From a Buick 8 is a novel about our fascination with deadly things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable." The title comes from Bob Dylan's song "From a Buick 6".
Castle Rock is a fictional town appearing in Stephen King's fictional Maine topography, providing the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. Castle Rock first appeared in King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone and has since been referred to or used as the primary setting in many other works by King.
Derry is a fictional town in the U.S. state of Maine that has served as the setting for a number of Stephen King's novels, novellas, and short stories, notably It. Derry first appeared in King's 1981 short story "The Bird and the Album" and has reappeared as recently as his 2011 novel 11/22/63.
Keith Gordon is an American actor and film director.
Christine is a 1983 American supernatural horror film co-scored and directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton. The film also features supporting performances from Roberts Blossom and Kelly Preston.
Robert Prosky was an American actor. He became a well-known supporting actor in the 1980s with his roles in Thief (1981), Christine (1983), The Natural (1984), and Broadcast News (1987).
Dreamcatcher is a 2003 American science fiction horror film based on Stephen King's 2001 novel of the same name. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan and co-written by Kasdan and screenwriter William Goldman, the film stars Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis and Timothy Olyphant as four friends who encounter an invasion of parasitic aliens. It also features Morgan Freeman, Tom Sizemore and Donnie Wahlberg.
The Car is a 1977 American supernatural horror film directed by Elliot Silverstein and written by Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack and Lane Slate. The film stars James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley and Ronny Cox, along with real-life sisters Kim and Kyle Richards. It tells the story of a black unmanned self-driving mysterious car that goes on a murderous rampage, terrorizing the residents of a small town.
Taarzan : The Wonder Car, or simply called Taarzan, is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language supernatural action thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan. The film stars Vatsal Sheth, Ayesha Takia, and Ajay Devgn, while Farida Jalal, Pankaj Dheer, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Amrish Puri, Shakti Kapoor, Gulshan Grover and Mukesh Tiwari play supporting roles. Upon release, the film was a box office disaster but gained popularity among children and television audiences. It is loosely based on the American film Christine (1983). This also marked the debut of Ayesha Takia, for which she won the Filmfare Best Debut Award.
Stephen King's Desperation is a 2006 American made-for-TV horror film based on Stephen King's 1996 novel of the same name. King himself wrote the teleplay. The film was directed by frequent King collaborator Mick Garris and stars Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber and Annabeth Gish.
A Good Marriage is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by Peter Askin and written by Stephen King, based on King's novella of the same name, from the 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars. It stars Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Kristen Connolly and Stephen Lang.
Pet Sematary is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer from a screenplay by Jeff Buhler, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Stephen King. It is the second film adaptation of the novel, following the 1989 film. It is the third installment in the Pet Sematary film series. The film stars Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and John Lithgow, and follows a family that discovers a mysterious graveyard in the woods behind their new home, capable of resurrecting the dead.
Gage William Creed is a fictional character created by Stephen King who is the primary antagonist of his 1983 novel Pet Sematary. In the novel, Gage is an innocent child who is accidentally killed by a speeding tanker truck. Gage's grieving father Louis brings him back to life by burying him in the titular cemetery, which is possessed by a Wendigo. Once reanimated, Gage is controlled by the Wendigo's evil spirit and murders his mother, Rachel, and their neighbor, Jud Crandall. Gage was portrayed in the 1989 film adaptation of the novel by Miko Hughes. He was portrayed in the 2019 remake by twins Hugo and Lucas Lavoie. Gage was also portrayed in a small cameo appearance by his creator, Stephen King, in the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Shining. Gage is briefly mentioned in King's 1994 novel Insomnia, though he never makes an appearance.