Christine – Body by Plymouth, Soul by Satan – Some Facts About Cinema’s Most Haunted Car You Probably Don’t Know

Christine, terrifying car with a blood lust to kill anyone who gets in her way, a sexy hot rod made up of pure evil.

Christine is unlike any other movie killer. On the grounds that Christine is of course a car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury to be precise. The malevolent automobile that ruthlessly kills anyone who gets in her way and also has the power to regenerate when she gets damaged.
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In 1982, Stephen King sent producer Richard Kobritz a copy of his soon-to-be-published novel Christine. Kobritz loved it, immediately choosing his friend and director John Carpenter, known for his hit Halloween. Production began on April 25, 1983 and the movie opened shortly afterwards on December 9, 1983.

In the movie Arnie Cunningham is a nerdy kid at school who frequently gets picked on by high school bully Buddy. To get some more freedom in his life from his strict parent and school bullies, Arnie buys an old run-down scrapheap car. He buys it from a creepy guy and starts fixing up the car. Arnie seemingly falls in love with the car of which seems to be alive and drives Arnie in to a descent into madness where Arnie and Christine make quite the killing spree couple who wipe out anyone who gets in their way.

In order to find enough Plymouth Furys for the movie, the film-makers placed ads across the country to buy 24 1958 Plymouths, only sixteen were used for filming; other were used for parts. They bought Belvederes and Savoys along with real Furys, painting them and making changes as needed to make them all look like Christine.

Christine made more money than any other actor.  15% of the movie’s entire budget was spent just on the cars.

The car noises actually used in the film were not of any of the Furys, but actually from a 1970 428 SCJ owned by the actor who played Buddy Repperton.

All cars were stunt driven. No remote controls were used to drive Christine.  When Christine became “evil,” her windows were painted black, except a small area covered with window tint; the stunt driver had no side or rear vision.

By the movie’s wrap, only three mint condition Christines remained; they went on the road to promote the movie, and were later sold to collectors. A fourth car was saved from the wrecker and purchased by Martin Sanchez.