John Carpenter was surprised by Christine’s success

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Like many of you fellow horror fans out there, I dig the hell out of director John Carpenter's adaptation of Stephen King's CHRISTINE. But it turns out that Carpenter himself wasn't so sure the movie was going to be a hit let alone, you know, any good.

Specifically, Carpenter admits:

I needed a job after ‘The Thing’ because nobody would hire me. So this came along and I took the job, and it turned out better than it had any right to. We discarded one element of Stephen King’s story, which was the ghost of the owner would sit in the backseat. I thought that was a bit cheesy. I don’t know, maybe I made a mistake, but it turned out okay.

Carpenter then gives some advice on how to survive Hollywood, saying:

Just getting these movies to release is a big deal. When I was a kid, I decided at one point I wanted to be a movie director, and I got to do that. A lot of very talented people never got the chance to do that. So I’m really lucky. Don’t lose yourself, no matter what happens. Keep in touch with who you are when you start because a lot of things happen to you, success and failure both.

CHRISTINE follows:

Unpopular nerd Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) who buys a 1958 Plymouth Fury, which he names Christine. Arnie develops an unhealthy obsession with the car, to the alarm of his jock friend, Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell). After bully Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander) defaces Christine, the auto restores itself to perfect condition and begins killing off Buddy and his friends. Determined to stop the deaths, Dennis and Arnie's girlfriend, Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul), decide to destroy Christine.

Carpenter directed CHRISTINE from a script by Bill Phillips based on the novel by Stephen King. Richard Kobritz produced with Larry J. Franco and Bill Phillips. Keith Gordon starred with John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, and Harry Dean Stanton. As per usual, Carpenter composed the film's score along with Alan Howarth. Columbia Pictures drove Christine head-first into a theater near you back on December 9, 1983.