Christine was released in 1983, and it was Carpenter’s 9th film.  It told the story of nerdish high school student Arnie Cunningham(played wonderfully by Keith Gordon), and his obsession with a evilly possessed car- which slowly but surely takes him over & alters his personality. The film was a effective through mainly bloodless horror movie, yet it was also a wonderful character study with Gordon giving a amazing performance as Arnie- as he switches from a bumbling & awkward geek, to a dark & sleek psychopath.

Over the four discs Strand takes John Carpenter & Alan Howarth’s often melancholic & darkly moody synth soundtrack, and manipulates it into: churning/ violent HNW, brooding yet caustic noise drone works, & truly hopeless/bleak ambience. In all the set contains 19 tracks spread over the four discs, and these run between just under the nine minute mark to near on the thirty six minute mark. 

All four discs are mostly very consistent, effective & rewarding in their mix of moody yet brutal car engine like churning walled noise & bleak ambience.  I won’t go onto review every track in the set here, but instead I’ll list a few of my favourite moments.  So first up there’s disc ones “Obsessed With The Car”, and this track finds Strand pulling out the soundtracks synth textures into a truly spellbinding, unreal & stark drone drift which seems to drill deep into ones inner core with such a bleak, draining yet hypnotic power.  Also on disc one there’s the just over ten mintues of “The Rape”, which finds Strand fashioning out a persistent & violently brooding mass of rumbling noise drone matter that scuttles & slowly bays with car engine like purring & intense malevolence.

On disc two we have the slow tolling & draining stark ambience of “Car Obsession Reprise”- the just over twelve and a half minute track finds you almost suspending in this bleak yet compelling slow ambient tone simmer & sustain.  On disc three we have the panicked yet broodingly tempered “Nobody’s Home/Restored"- the just under nine minute track melds together grating fan belt like screeching with billowing 'n' doomed walled noise low end drones ‘n’ pummels; before later on driving into stark ‘n’ sustained harmonic billows that have a hopeless almost throbbing guitar like distortion feel to them.

On Disc four we have “Arnie, Part one” & “Arnie, Part two”- the first one of these just over twenty minute tracks finds Strand focusing in on a series of  stark glowing drone sustains that move at a snails pace. The track oddly creates this feeling dark draining panic, which is wrapped in deep ominous dread. And the second track finds Strand amp-ing up the noise level with a mixture of: churning ‘n’ interlocking guitar drone like masses of shrill yet brooding noise matter that weaves a urgent & darkly nervy web around you. And drilling/boring bass bound ultra heavy wall noise sustains

The five CDR’s come in the house style Altar of Waste colour sleeve DVD case. The double sided sleeve features on it’s outside cover a simply yet highly effective black cover which takes in on it's front a picture of Christine lit by a blue glow, and on it's back the track listing in stark white text.  The reverse cover features a colour still from the movie  taking in a panicked/running teen been chased by Christine. Each of the four CDR discs come in effective yet simply black with stark white lettering for the discs numbers.

I really felt through-out this reinterpretation that Strand had perfectly captured the feelings of dark obsession, not fitting in, raising horror, and growing psychosis that the film covers. Yet he’s once again put his own distinctive take on the release making this a expansion on the universe created with-in the movie. So to sum up this is another very creative, moody & effective soundtrack reinterpretation by Mr Strand, which I’ve found myself returning to again & again.