Aside from Stuck, I can think of few horror films that focus on death by hit-and-run. Creepshow 2 immediately springs to mind, but that is not one that I'm eager to see again. The Car with James Brolin is another example, but I just can't bring myself to watch that for the first time. I mean, come on. The thing is rated PG for crying out loud. That leaves only one that I know of: John Carpenter's Christine, based on the novel by Stephen King. (Actually, there is one more: King's own Maximum Overdrive, but the less said about that cinematic abomination, the better.)

Released in 1983, at a time when Hollywood seemed to be pushing out King adaptations faster than he could write the original novels (this one actually went into production before the novel was even published), Christine starred Keith Gordon as the perpetually picked-on nerd whose life changes -- and not for the better -- when he buys a beat-up '58 Plymouth Fury and starts devoting all his time to restoring it to its former glory. It isn't long before Christine drives a wedge between Gordon and his best friend, football player John Stockwell, and tries to eliminate her competition, girlfriend Alexandra Paul, but the car really goes off the deep end after a gang of bullies smashes it to bits.

There's no denying that the special effects in Christine are stellar, especially in the scenes where the car reconstructs itself and when it goes after the bullies. For a 25-year-old film, it holds up amazingly well in that respect. Unfortunately, the human leads aren't half as compelling (although Gordon does his best with a role that requires him to go from ultra-geeky to super-cocky as Christine's possession takes hold). The supporting cast is stocked with some great character actors, though, including Roberts Blossom as the weirdo brother of Christine's prior owner, Robert Prosky as the cantankerous owner of the garage where Gordon keeps Christine, and Harry Dean Stanton as the police detective who starts asking questions when Gordon's enemies start turning up dead. The film is also remarkably light on the blood and gore, probably because Carpenter had had his fill of it the previous year when he made The Thing. Now there's a film with cutting-edge special effects and a memorable cast of characters.