Nothing new, horror-wise (remember The Car, a 1977 film-cheapie?), and much too long but King's blend of adolescent raunch, All-American sentiment, and unsubtle spookery has never, since Carrie, been more popcorn-readable-with immense appeal for all those fans interested in the 522-page equivalent of a drive-in horror movie.įour men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions-as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer-and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

So they determine to somehow destroy the indestructible killer-car-in a finale-showdown at Darnell's Garage, with Dennis in a tank-truck and Christine (carrying yet more corpses) on the rampage. And when even Arnie's handwriting seems to change, Leigh and Dennis become convinced that their friend has been quasi-possessed by the undead soul of evil Roland LeBay (whom they can sometimes even see at the wheel!). And assorted spooky questions arise: How does Arnie manage to restore Christine to 1958 condition so fast? How does he instantly restore her again after Christine has been savagely attacked by some high-school bullies? And who-if anyone-is driving Christine when the killer-car then starts bloodily bumping off all of Arnie's enemies? (Arnie himself is always out of town when the ghostly hit-and-runs occur.) By this time, of course, girlfriend Leigh is starting to become disenchanted with Arnie-who seems to sit idly by while Christine. After old LeBay dies, Dennis starts worrying-especially when he learns that the mean old man's wife and daughter both died in. Soon, you see, Arnie starts changing: he stands up to his college-teacher parents (manipulative Mom, weak Dad) for the first time his skin clears up he gets a sweetly beautiful girlfriend, Leigh. But everything begins to go askew on the day that Arnie falls in love at first sight with 'Christine,' a total wreck of a 1958 Plymouth Fury ('one of the long ones with the big fins') that Arnie buys for $250 from creepy old Roland D.

Football-player Dennis (the nice, if relentlessly vulgar, narrator) is a high-school senior-as is his best-friend Arnie, pimpled loner and natural victim. It's 1978 in a town outside of Pittsburgh. in a chiller that takes a nifty Twilight Zone notion and stretches it out to King-sized proportions-with teen-gab galore, horror-flick mayhem, epic foreshadowing, and endlessly teased-out suspense.

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