Christine, o Carro Assassino

Como um filme de terror, Christine não o assustará completamente. Nem se pode fazer um filme de terror sério sobre um velho carro vermelho que se conserta após se avariar, como um Transformer. Mas vai desfrutar dum susto e também do suspense — surpreendentemente eficaz para um tema tão absurdo. Carpenter também consegue captar o encanto bizarro do tema, típico do romance de King. Aqui, um enfoque detalhado na paixão fetichista de um jovem outsider por um carro que se torna o seu ídolo e o ajuda a encontrar-se a si próprio. Aquilo em que Christine também se baseia, e o que nele funciona bem — um parâmetro narrativo que os cineastas de terror contemporâneos tendem a ignorar — são os personagens, a sua transformação, o motivo de tentar salvar um amigo, e assim por diante. (18/09/2020)

Despite being overly long, Christine was a surprisingly not boring film. Someone might say I’m contradicting myself, but that’s not quite true. The story does move pretty slowly, there are very few action scenes, they talk quite a lot (about nothing really interesting), but you can feel Carpenter, so if refuse to get bored, you won’t get bored and you will truly enjoy Christine. The main problem for me is that it is not scary, at all. That’s not that big of an issue in horror, as long as it offers some other kind of enjoyment. Unfortunately, this film is made precisely in a style that is meant to be scary, but fails miserably at that. To wrap up, I want to point out to the scene with the burning moving car, that one’s really great. (27/08/2008)

King's Christine is one of his (few) books that I didn't enjoy that much, but what John Carpenter has done with the story is admirable. It's still a B-movie, but it's a proud one. Entertaining and suspenseful, stylish from the opening credits to the very end. It doesn't matter that one might cringe at some of the scenes or the actions of some of the characters, because that's the kind of thing that fits here. Scenes like the first "self-correction" or the one in the flames are unforgettable. (28/04/2019)