What's your favorite Stephen King adaptation?

This movie makes me so upset that Carpenter didn’t adapt more Stephen King stories. Could you imagine something like John Carpenter’s The Running Man?

Christine in many ways is like a precursor to Misery because it's a story about the danger of obsession. Stephen King was showing people that obsession is it's own monster.

This is to me the most underrated king adaptation I understand he made it at a time where his demons were at play but don't sleep on Christine and cujo. And plus carpenter trying to bounce back after both the thing and starman it's an underrated carpenter horror classic

I don't know if I agree that the Darnell stuff is unnecessary. It gives Arnie an alibi when the detective begins investigating him, as well as showing just how deep Arnie had gotten in to things. Now sure, you could cut out the entire investigation and Darnell stuff and massively shorten the novel, but I'm a King fan boy and I really like just how deep and sprawling they can be.

I just watched American Graffiti a day ago. It feels like a condensed version of Lucas' entire youth.

'Okay..... show me.' Then the high beams spear Arnie, then that bass line creeps in, low, slow, and menacing. Chills, man. Also- add 'Christine Attacks' as one of the Top 3 'Villain Musical Cues' in all of film history. Right up there with the original 1954 Godzilla (the character) theme, and Darth Vader's theme.

Christine and The Thing are my Favorite Carpenter films!

This recent run of horror deep dives has been INCREDIBLE. Some of your best work yet. Top drawer, old bean!

I like how in the movie when the dude is running from the car he literally runs right down the middle of the highway. 😂😂😂

Americana Horror sounds like a 3-parter project. Or a dedicated month, maybe? In any case, I am totally stoked for it. Although when it comes to Americana Horror, I think David Lynch comes to mind as there is a visceral uneasiness amidst his dreamlike aesthetics in both Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet. However, King's impact on this type of genre cannot be understated.

I love this movie & the soundtrack. I think “Halloween Ends” was going for what this movie was able to capture.

Definitely would enjoy Dark Tower but "It" is the top of the list for me

More novels and more King? I'm down! 👍

Draper always seems to know when I most desperately need quality content of his caliber. This is just that.

This "Americana horror" you speak of seems like it would not only relate to a lot of King's work, but David Lynch as well, especially Blue Velvet, but even with some of his other titles like Mulholland Drive, most of Twin Peaks, Lost Highway and Wild at Heart.

We would love a series of videos focusing on the Dark Tower Novels.

I enjoyed this one. Please do others on Stephen's books.

I love this. You know how to share the essence of all types of narrative media and get me engaged with the material. Thank you!

Wonderful music selection ... Makes the in-depth docu•review even more enjoyable! Keep up thee excellent work, MD ~

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. Great video! King's Christine and especially Carpenter's Christine I have always felt have been some of the most underrated of their respective genres. I think why is they're both so timeless, despite how the 80's were at the best they could be executed. They're just as relevant now as they were back when they were new 40 years ago. People are still blindly clinging onto their seductive nostalgic past for joy and comfort to avoid something they don't like today when anyone with open eyes can see there was never such a thing as "the good old days" - every era people have lived in have had good moments and simultaneously horrifying moments.

This was an amazing video and I love the music you use. Big fan of all the artists you use!

That was great, really enjoyed it. Nice use of The Midnight at the end too!

I think Carpenter adapted this book perfectly. He kept everything that was needed for the movie to make it work as a movie.

Watched this for the first time yesterday. Good timing.

Thanks for the amazing video Matt .Much ❤️ as always

What an excellent video. You really nailed something here, offering great insight into everything you tough upon. Thank you - great job!

Incredible video, Matt!!

I've been looking forward to this one. The trilogy approach with American Graffiti the genesis is a great take. I look forward to more Stephen King videos in future ☺️

One of Carpenter’s best movies.

Stephen King vs. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining could also be an excellent video.

Love the video, keep up the great work!

Common Matt Draper W video essay.

Excellently done, sir!!

Fantastic work, Mr Draper 😎

King has always been a favorite. He was my first "grown up" writer, as I pretty much went from Hardy Boys and Choose Your Own Adventure to his work. About the same time I discovered comic books and heavy metal. It, The Stand, and Misery are three favorites, and each has had a remarkable adaptation (or two). The Shining of course had a very controversial adaptation from Kubrick (though a classic in its own right). However, I think King's non horror works, and their subsequent adaptations are of particular note: Stand By Me (the Body, which also trades heavily in nostalgia), The Shawshank Redemption, and of course Green Mile. King has written far more non-horror in recent years, but those three really struck me when I was younger. Though I imagine any of his books would be fertile ground for one of your videos...

I could have gotten high and watched anything, but I'm glad I stumbled onto this, great video essay.

That scene where Arnie tells Christine, "Show me" and she reforms herself... I dunno how the actor who played Arnie and Carpenter managed to make it so hot, but they did it. Lol It is a genuinely sexy, intimate scene.

I'm so waiting for that "Americana Horror" video analysis!!

My father used to race Mopar when he was a teenager he bracket raced at lions drag strip, he always said that car was junk, although that model was banned at demo derbys due to the radiator was behind the frame and could outlast the other cars, this is my favorite adaptation of kings work not fucked up, Salem's lot is a good second

13:25 - "... a future of labor and management marching harmoniously into the future together." Sounds like someone's editor was asleep at the wheel for that part.

Great video! Stephen King is my favourite writer!

I’d definitely be interested in more videos about King

I'm looking forward to hearing you talk about Americana Horror!

A great horror novelist, by a great horror storyteller. And they're both awesome musicians too.

Of course Christine is a classic. I've turned so many of people into Carpenter/King fans by showing them this movie. Would loved to see Carpenter do a Swamp Thing movie in the 80's. Gotta say my favorite King Novels would have to be in this order: 1. Revival 2. Doctor Sleep 3. Salem's Lot 4. The Dead Zone + The Dead Zone movie fucking rules. 5. Pet Sematary + The Ramones/Starcrawler song 6. The Dark Half It really sucks that Mike Flanagan never got to make Revival at WB. I love pretty much everything he has done and was blown away by Doctor Sleep and Hill House. Anyway, great video Matt, you are clearly a man of culture!

One does have to wonder what if Lucas made more films like American Graffiti rather than make Star Wars. But that’s aside the point, Christine isn’t my favorite Carpenter movie but I enjoy it as fun horror movie. I haven’t read King’s original novel but I might give it a read. Great video as always Matt

I watched Christine when I was around 8. For a few days afterwards, I was suspicious of every random car I saw lol

Fascinating video!

I read the book before watching the movie, and it fully convinced me that the best way to adapt a King product is a 6-10 episode miniseries. There’s so much character development that happens before the car starts killing people that’s lost in the movie.

Amazing! Thanks buddy.

Glad to see Christine get some love - this was the first horror-ish movie I ever saw growing up and I still love it.

Back in 2017 and 2018, I was bringing TONS of horror films, everything from body horror to zombies to 70s and 80s giallos to Vincent Price classics and so many more. But one film I avoided was Christine, because it just sounded so fucking stupid. Eventually, I had to give in and see it simply because it was John Fucking Carpenter adapting Stephen Fucking King. By the time I got done, it was clear to me that I had just seen one of the greatest and most underrated horror films of all time.

Great video👍

Keep doing novels, it was great!

I like to think about how Christine is utterly indestructible in the movie. That has some interesting implications. Nothing can permanently defeat Christine, even if it took her centuries to reform after being ripped to pieces. Christine will outlast the human race. Christine will survive the death of the Sun. At the end of time, Christine will still be floating out in the void of empty space, 😮playing 50s tunes.

I’ve always been curious whether King liked John Carpenter’s Christine seeing he wasnt fond of some of the hollywood adaptations. Christine is my second favourite Carpenter movie behind The Thing.

Thanks Matt!

The Vikings had a saying: “A man without a boat is a man in chains." In ancient times, the sailing vessel represented freedom, and the automobile became the modern day equivalent in 20th century America.

Fantastic video.

Please more King Definitely would love to see a good analysis of The Stand from its original version thru subsequent re releases plus the almost forgotten Salem's Lot and the original story Jerusalem's Lot Plus a deep dive on the difference between French Lieutenants Woman the book and the film And the second time Meryl Streep works with De Niro in Falling In Love pretty please 🙏

Fun Fact: In the late 90's Speed Network actually featured christine in network add bumpers. The bumpers even imply that she kills a state trooper who pulled her over for speeding.

It's weird hearing the usual background music from one of my favorite KZfaqrs being used in the video of one of my other favorite KZfaqrs lol. I'm so used to hearing this music in Binging with Babish videos and hearing Matt use music closer to synthwave or outrun. I know it's all stock music that a lot of different creators use, but this is one of the times that it seems like certain songs have become associated with specific channels in my mind.

PLEASE do the Dark Tower. I go through the series at least once a year.(You could say I'm a tower junkie.) It's such an amzing story and oozes everything King. I need to hear good discussion on it. It also really deserves it. Thankee sai.

Keep making videos about novels, especially Stephen King's Novels!

Love the movie, love the novel but the ONLY one small detail I would've changed was when Darnell got in the inside should've been pristine.

I was a big fan of the book when it came out-so much so that I once owned the '58 Plymouth that was used as a Christine stand-in in the later King movie Cat's Eye-but the movie was disappointing in comparison. The book has so much more going on than just the car. There were so many well-developed characters (McCandless is hilarious) but most of all, the book perfectly encapsulates what it was like to be a high school teenager in the late 70's. Forty years later, the book is a great nostalgia trip for that era.

The one King hated the most, "The Shining". A close number two is "The Dead Zone.

As a kid when I saw Christine I was like just get off the road and go upstairs to a building boom survived

Christine is amazing and one of my favorite Carpenter films, still need to read the King novel though. Halloween Ends has a lot of similarities and homages to this film and it's great as well!

I’ve probably read the book a dozen times. I think that it was both the car and LeBay who had a supernatural influence. There was something about the car that guided LeBay to imbue it with sacrifice, and it held LeBay’s spirit as well as the spirits of its victims. You he more victims it claimed, the faster it regenerated. I hated that Carpenter eliminated LeBay’s spirit as it was the most frightening thing in the book. I understand why he went the way he did though.

I enjoyed the video very much! I like how you add both the movie and the book. I hope the remake will touch some stuff that i do feel the movie didn't touch or ad like how Arnie and Lee got together and how Arnie is being consumed by Christine that we see just a creepy shell of himself A bit off topic but any chance there will be a future plans on talking about Chainsaw Man if how movies like Quentin Tarantino and American movies in general influence CSW and about Ducktales 2017 of how they go deep with the lore of not just the original 80s cartoon but the comics as well?

every time i think about a stephen king adaptation too long i realize that stephen king wasn’t like a great writer but did have some real great ideas that somehow inspired absolutely incredible movie

I like the 80s even though I was born in that era. Awesome video by the way.

Stephen King saying that he had no bad memories of the 1950s isn't entirely truthful. In Danse Macabre, King mentions an incident in 1957 when he was ten years old watching Earth vs. The Flying Saucers in a local movie theater when the projector suddenly stopped. The theater manager walked to the front of the theater and told the audience about the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1, and a female voice in the theater cried out, "NO!" King said that it was the moment he was first introduced to fear.

Come on! When I read Stephen King vs John Carpenter, i expect it to be an actual match! Maybe in a Hell in a Cell!

Christine is a very good and clever King novel but much like a lot of Kings great early works borrows a great deal and cleverly reworks of previous ideas or combines previous plots from previous writers and filmmakers. King was literally a teacher and understood how to build on others works. A maser of reworking and updating the beat of others good writing works.

This video slaps

The past never really dying. Kind of sounds like the theme of another Stephen King story, Sometimes They Come Back.

If you’re going to be making a doc on Americana horror, may I also suggest some of the works of David Lynch. In particular, Twin Peaks.

Another movie made during the New Hollywood era of film making that in some ways resembles George Lucas’s American Graffiti is Brian De Palma’s Carrie, another story from Stephen King. There’s a scene in that movie where John Travolta’s character is cruising down main street in his car with his girlfriend, a guy driving next to him throws him a beer, which he proceeds to open and drink. That is, until a few moments later when a cop driving next to him shines a flashlight in his face and he quickly drops the opened can of beer to a avoid being pulled over and spills it all over his girlfriend. This scene is right out of something you’d see in American Graffiti.

John Travolta was awesome as The Mean Bully. my favorite character. he was cool.

I enjoyed Christine but as a big Carpenter fan it is just missing that spark that makes it truly great for me. I found out later that Carpenter saw it as a paycheck movie, and I won’t lie it kinda shows. Still even paycheck Carpenter can come up with some great moments. The rebuilding scene is a stand out.

The one thing I could never understand is why John Carpenter chose to set Christine in the year 1978 instead of 1983, when the film was released. I know that Stephen King's book was set in 1978, but the movie has nothing about it that is clearly identifiable as 1978 and could easily have been set in 1983, only five years later.

What if John Carpenter took on The Dark Tower series, or The Mist, or Salem's Lot?

Christine the Book was far better , when I read it I swore I could smell Le Bays back brace , but the Christine putting itelf back together scenes were excellent ..American Graffitti , I adore as I can relate to it as I went through the 80's version an it was Great..

Lebay didn't kill himself. He just dies. It's never stated what actually happened to him. In the movie he's said to have killed himself before arnie buys the car

Wow, they really did take a lot from this for Halloween Ends.

You should cover more king

They actually crashed a bunch of real Plymouths. As someone who likes cars it is kind of sad that so many antique vehicles were completely ruined.

I think the general consensus among Constant Readers is that Christine isn't bad but not great. That it's kind of vanilla King. I disagree. Ignoring Dark Tower, this is my favorite SK book. I would absolutely love for you to talk about Dark Tower. It exists in this weird liminal space where King fans aren't always super aware of it and fantasy fans definitely aren't. I think that's changing now because of KZfaq and that awful movie. I would absolutely love for you to talk about it. Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on the upcoming show? Do you have any casting ideas?

This John Carpenter guy, he's pretty good... I think he might be into something withe these movies...

Imagine if Carpenter had directed It .

King got in a car crash at one point didn't he? Wonder if he wrote Christine before or after that.

I like the book and the movie. But I hope they don't make a remake of Christine. I don't care for remakes, but I do the remake of the fog because the same people who made it made the first movie. And gone in 60 seconds remake was a lot better then the first one.

People remember their childhood eras with naive positivity. Except me. My childhood America had no problems whatsoever.

Wonder what’s going on with the remake of this movie?

I think Christine is my favorite Stephen King story behind Pet Sematary

I guess in the end Dennis could have moved to Mackinac Island.

Its still a great movie. Keith Gordon was amazing in this film.