“And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”
– Corinthians 11:14 The New King James Version
“On the day I was born
George Thorogood
The nurses all gathered ’round
And they gazed in wide wonder
At the joy they had found
The head nurse spoke up
Said “leave this one alone”
She could tell right away
That I was bad to the bone”
There is a myriad of writings on how the devil has become depicted as red, with horns, a tail, and holding a trident. Some have ascribed it to the description of the Greek God Pan who was depicted as a horned man with the legs of a goat. Artists in the medieval era began painting Satan in a form we recognize today.
The modern-day pop culture look of Satan can be traced back to this cover art for Irving Berlin’s “At The Devils Ball”. A song which was released in 1913.
In John Carpenter’s Christine (1983) based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King and working off an adapted screenplay by Bill Philips, the devil appears as a Plymouth Fury. The hellfire red is a pristine paint job and the horns are tailfins.
High school is a tough place to navigate. Arnie (Keith Gordon) knows this all too well. He is just trying to get through the days. Even with his football-playing pal Dennis (John Stockwell) near Arnie is still picked on. His lunch was stolen, his glasses stepped on, threatened with a switchblade knife. This is all the first day of school. As Dennis drives them home they pass a rusted-out car for sale in a rundown lot. The car calls out to Arnie. Dennis tries to talk him out of buying the car. Arnie is deadset on buying it. A cigar-chomping man, George LeBay (Roberts Blossom, yes that is Kevin’s neighbor from Home Alone) approaches the duo. He hands Arnie the keys. George informs them that the car’s name is Christine. He goes on to tell them that his brother Roland bought Christine right off of the assembly line in Detroit in September 1957. Roland died six weeks prior and LeBay wants to sell the car, and the house and move.
Arnie now has a car that barely runs. He needs a place to begin to restore Christine. They find a home in Darnell’s garage. Darnell (Robert Prosky) informs Dennis that the car’s previous owner (Roland) killed himself in the car. “The son of a bitch was so mean you could have poured boiling water down his throat he would have pissed ice cubes” A deal is made that Arnie can work on the car in Darnell’s garage.
Dennis
What is it about that car, huh?
Arnie
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that for the
first time in my life I found something that is
uglier than me. And I know that I
can fix her up.
As the car transforms, so too does Arnie. He begins wearing a red button-down shirt, and a red jacket. Arnie’s stare gets more intense sans black-rimmed glasses. The rampage begins with those closest to Arnie. Coincidental accidents. A hard tackle on the football field leaves Dennis almost paralyzed. Arnie’s girlfriend Leigh (Alexandra Paul) almost chokes on a hamburger at the drive-in. The radio comes on and the interior of the car gets extremely bright. The “accidents” turn homicidal.
Christine is a very enjoyable movie. The kills are inventive, the special effects are top-notch. The rock and roll soundtrack is fantastic. The songs are a window into Christine’s thought process. Arnie’s meek stature turns more overbearing.
Rewatching Christine, I was struck with the notion of evil. Is it inherent or is it a choice? The guys who beat up Arnie on the first day of school destroy Christine. Arnie comes back to the garage with Leigh to see the huge heap of a wreck his car is in. If the devil ultimately takes the form of temptation this would denote that we are capable of choosing the path of good or evil. In the movie, Arnie makes that choice.
Arnie (To A Totaled Christine):
We’ll make it better, huh. They can’t hurt us anymore. Not if we work together. We’ll show those shitters what we can do.Having learned of the mystical properties of the car, he steps into the light of Christine’s headlights.
Arnie:
Ok, show me.
Arnie has now made his choice to pursue deadly retribution. His fate is sealed. Sometimes choices appear hell-fire red and every so often they appear spray-tanned orange. On the first Tuesday of this November, another choice will be made.
Robert Aaron Mitchell is a writer, videographer, filmmaker, and journalist. You can read his work at his Soldier of Cinema blog. His videos and interviews can be found over at his YouTube channel. He is the writer and director of the short film, The Bobby Diamonds Story.
