Netflix Is Eradicating Stephen King Cult Traditional He Slammed As “Boring”

Netflix is about to lose considered one of Stephen King’s cult basic variations, which the writer is greater than possible okay with.

Helmed by horror icon John Carpenter, Christine introduced King’s 1983 novel to life, following nerdy excessive schooler Arnie Cunningham who purchases the titular Plymouth Fury and begins restoring it from its decayed state. Nevertheless, because the automobile begins to indicate indicators of its personal life, and subtly influences Arnie to change into a extra poisonous determine, those that care about him race to search out the reality of the automobile’s historical past and find out how to save him.

Now, slightly over 40 years after the movie first hit theaters, Netflix is eradicating Christine from its library. The King horror adaptation, which has additionally been out there to stream totally free with adverts on YouTube, shall be departing each platforms on March 1. On the time of writing, the movie doesn’t have a brand new streaming dwelling set after its March 1 exit.

Led by Keith Gordon as Arnie, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton, Christine wasn’t fairly the explosive stumble on its December 1983 launch as different King variations have been. Critiques have been blended, however usually optimistic on the movie, netting a 72% approval ranking on Rotten Tomatoes as critics discovered it predictable, however pleasing sufficient. It additionally was a modest monetary success, grossing over $21 million in opposition to its $10 million manufacturing finances.

As with many King variations and Carpenter-directed movies, the years have confirmed kinder to Christine, with the film growing a cult following amongst followers of each the writer and filmmaker. Nevertheless, King is infamously not a part of such cult following, having beforehand described the 1983 movie as being “boring” and placing it alongside Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining as his least-favorite variations of his work. Carpenter additionally hasn’t been the kindest to his work on the movie, describing it as being “enjoyable,” whereas not being considered one of his favorites for a wide range of causes.

Amongst King’s horror variations, Christine additionally sadly got here amid the gradual downswing of the writer’s works on display. The identical 12 months noticed the primary Cujo adaptation see a extra divided response than Carpenter’s movie, whereas the 12 months after noticed each Firestarter and Kids of the Corn largely dismissed by critics. Although Stand by Me restored some religion in translations of King’s works as a complete on display, his horror-related titles continued to wrestle for a number of years, with Most Overdrive, Silver Bullet and Graveyard Shift all being usually panned.

Christine‘s exit from streaming comes as a stunning shift for the movie, because it solely simply lastly discovered its first streaming dwelling on Shudder in February 2025, some 42 years after it got here out. Having already quietly left the horror-driven platform someday final 12 months, it might appear that Sony may be trying to hold the rights to the undertaking slightly nearer to the chest.

This is able to make sense if the studio continues to be contemplating a remake of Christine. Sony was beforehand working with Blumhouse and Hannibal mastermind Bryan Fuller on a brand new incarnation of King’s novel going again to 2021, although phrase has been quiet since. Ought to the wheels lastly be turning for the brand new adaptation, the studio may be searching for a push to a brand new dwelling, or perhaps a new dwelling media launch to rejoice. However, it might be a easy case of the film’s rights at Netflix expiring, and the studio could already be in talks with one other platform to select it up come March.

Launch Date

December 9, 1983

Runtime

110 minutes

Director

John Carpenter

Producers

Richard Kobritz

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  Keith Gordon

  Arnie Cunningham

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  John Stockwell

  Dennis Guilder