[2] In the fictional Pittsburgh suburb of Libertyville, Pennsylvania in 1978, nerdy teen Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham and his friend, Dennis Guilder, notice a dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury while driving.

As Arnie restores the car, he stops wearing his eyeglasses and his acne disappears, but he also becomes withdrawn, humorless and cynical.

He reveals that LeBay's young daughter choked to death on a hamburger in Christine and that his wife subsequently committed suicide in its front seat by carbon monoxide poisoning.

When Arnie is almost finished restoring Christine, he begins dating an attractive student named Leigh Cabot.

Clarence "Buddy" Repperton, a bully who blames Arnie for his expulsion from school, learns where Christine is being kept and vandalizes the car with his gang.

Arnie, aware of Christine's ability to repair herself, pushes her through Darnell's garage until enough of the damage is undone for her to run, then drives her through the junkyard until she is fully restored.

Leigh notices Christine's dashboard lights seem to become glaring green eyes, watching her during the incident, and that Arnie only half-heartedly tries to save her.

While Arnie is visiting a college, Dennis and Leigh lure Christine to the garage and batter her to pieces using a septic tanker truck.

[3] The American Library Association named Christine the 95th most banned and challenged book in the United States between 1990 and 1999.

Several honorable adaptations have come from this thirty-year spew of celluloid... and the best of those have had few of the elements I'm best known for: science fiction, fantasy, the supernatural, and pure gross-out moments...