YMMV / Christine

• Awesome Music:
  • "Bad to the Bone" in this context, and "Harlem Nocturne" when Christine repairs herself for the first time.
  • Even in a film full of rock and roll classics, debatably it's John Carpenter's eerie synth score that stands out the most. Moochie Mix Four, Obsessed with the Car, and Show Me are some of the highlights.
  • Christine's "death" as she is crushed in a compactor: "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay", she is taunting everyone that they will never be rid of her.
• Cargo Ship: Definitely. Not merely shipping, this is one of the few canonical pairings of this nature and with both being sentient, as Christine and Arnie openly love each other to the point of mutual obsession. (Heck, Dennis says it outright on the very first page of the book.)
• Evil Is Cool: Even setting aside her supernatural powers, Christine herself is a simply gorgeous, badass classic car. In fact, the film may have made the '58 Plymouth a classic; in real life, it'd been largely forgotten by 1983.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Roland LeBay sells his used junky car. Not at all related to eBay.
  • The Japanese dub of the film, which was dubbed twice has this for Arnie's voice actors:
    • In the TV Asahi version, Arnie is voiced by Yoku Shioya, who previously voiced Cosmo Yuki, another hero who have to deal with another killer sentient machine, except replace "killer car" with "Omnicidal planet-busting giant robot".
    • In the home video version, Arnie is voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, a voice actor well-known for voicing leading male roles with many girls dying, figuratively, at his feet, like Kirito, Bell Cranell, Sora, etc. In this film, he voice a guy which is a Villain Protagonist madly in love with his Yandere car, and now they are killing people in a literal way. Likewise, a few years later, he will end voicing another main character kicking ass with his car.
• Magnificent Bastard (1983 film): Christine is portrayed in the film as an indestructible car who has had a mind of her own from the moment she came off the assembly line. With a possessive love for her new owner Arnie Cunningham, Christine plays hit songs over the radio to communicate with him, while scaring off anyone who threatens their relationship. When she's nearly destroyed by Arnie's bullies, Christine uses her healing powers to regenerate from the damage, then creatively chases down and massacres the entire gang. When Arnie's friend Dennis challenges her to a duel, Christine accepts, putting up a fierce fight against a tanker and regenerating whenever she seems about to lose. When Arnie is killed trying to stop Dennis, Christine mourns him and mounts a final attack on Dennis and Leigh to avenge his death, and even as she goes down, she taunts them that they will never be rid of her.
• Narm:
  • It takes a while before we find out exactly what Buddy did to Christine that was so horrible — and Leigh's reaction makes one think of mutilated babies and the like. It turns out he took a dump on the dashboard, which is bound to prompt an amused reaction.
  • The scene where Buddy slowly and sadistically stabs Arnie's... lunch bag, spilling yogurt out of the wounds. It's played as a serious Kick the Dog moment at the very least (and, honestly, ruining someone's lunch definitely counts) but it's really silly-looking.
• Nausea Fuel: The bullies couldn't just be satisfied with beating the hell out of Christine; they had to crap on the dashboard.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The film chooses to have Arnie driving Christine in the climax, averting his Dying Moment of Awesome in the book where he tries to fight off being possessed.
  • Which in turn leads to a Broken Base, since some consider it strengthens the coding of Christine as a toxic significant other and removes the borderline-incomprehensible and convoluted relationship between LeBay, Arnie, and Christine in favor for a much simpler and emotionally resonant dynamic between Christine and Arnie.
• Values Dissonance: Dennis' father calls Arnie a "good white boy," which goes completely unchallenged by the narration. Also Values Resonance in the sense of being an observation on racism, as it's in the context of Arnie getting a slap on the wrist for smuggling untaxed cigarettes—the implication being that if he was black he'd face a much harsher sentence.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The shots of Christine's regenerations were actually shot using mock ups that were built with more flexible materials that looked like metal which were sucked in by pumps with the film being played back in reverse to complete the effect (which was surprisingly effective).
  • This scene where Christine is on fire. The quality of the effects is what made it such a frightening scene. Kudos to stuntman Terry Leonard, who had to drive the burning car while peering out a small clear space in the darkened windshield.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The wardrobe choices for Leigh in the film look quite frumpy and aren't very flattering, making it rather surprising how much the boys drool over her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: You'd think if King wanted to sideline Dennis through injury, he could possibly use the evil car that has a motive for wanting him dead do it (especially since it's been foreshadowed throughout act one), but instead he's randomly taken out in a pointless football game (the film, at least, has the camera focus on Christine after he's hurt, suggesting she was able to somehow influence events to cause his injury).
• The Woobie: Dennis, who's been friends with Arnie since childhood, becomes this after Arnie spends more time away from Dennis after getting Christine, especially when he is recuperating in the hospital after a football injury.

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