Netflix Is Removing Stephen King Cult Classic He Slammed As “Boring”

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Netflix will soon no longer have the rights to stream one of Stephen King‘s popular movie adaptations, and the author himself probably doesn’t mind.

Directed by horror master John Carpenter, Christine adapts Stephen King’s 1983 novel about Arnie Cunningham, a shy high school student who buys a beat-up Plymouth Fury. As he restores the car, it seems to develop a life of its own, and begins to negatively influence Arnie’s personality. His friends and family desperately try to uncover the car’s mysterious past and save him from its control.

Over 40 years after its release, the movie Christine is leaving Netflix. The horror film, based on a Stephen King novel, will also no longer be available to stream for free on YouTube, with both platforms removing it on March 1st. As of today, it’s unclear where the movie will be available to stream after that date.

Starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, and Harry Dean Stanton, the film Christine didn’t achieve the same blockbuster status as other Stephen King adaptations when it came out in December 1983. While critics had mixed reactions, they were mostly positive, giving it a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They found the plot somewhat predictable, but ultimately entertaining. The movie also did reasonably well financially, earning over $21 million on a $10 million budget.

Like many films based on Stephen King’s work and directed by John Carpenter, Christine has gained a dedicated fanbase over time. However, King himself isn’t a fan, famously calling the 1983 movie “boring” and ranking it among his least favorite adaptations, alongside Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Carpenter also has mixed feelings about the film, describing it as “fun” but not one of his personal favorites for several reasons.

Unfortunately, the 1983 film Christine arrived during a period when adaptations of Stephen King’s work began to receive less positive attention. That same year, the first Cujo movie proved more divisive than John Carpenter’s previous King adaptation, and the following year, both Firestarter and Children of the Corn were largely disliked by critics. While Stand by Me briefly improved the reputation of King’s stories on film, his horror adaptations continued to struggle. Films like Maximum Overdrive, Silver Bullet, and Graveyard Shift were generally considered failures.

It’s unexpected that Christine is no longer available on streaming, especially since it only became available on Shudder in February 2025—42 years after its initial release. The film quietly left Shudder last year, suggesting Sony may want to retain more control over its distribution.

This could be related to a possible remake of Christine. Sony had been developing a new version of Stephen King’s novel with Blumhouse and Bryan Fuller (known for Hannibal) since 2021, but there haven’t been any updates recently. If the remake is moving forward, Sony might be preparing to release it on a different platform or through home media. Alternatively, the movie’s availability on Netflix may have simply ended, and Sony could be negotiating a new streaming deal for March.

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2026-02-14 17:50