Best movie of this year hands down!

the audience applauded

Sick Product of a Sick System

Sadly Over-hyped

"Christina's House" focuses on the titular teenage girl (Allison Lange) who has begun experiencing bizarre occurrences in her new home in the Pacific Northwest. Tensions between her overbearing father (Fred Savage) and boyfriend (Brendan Fehr) exacerbate the situation, and the arrival of an offbeat handyman (Brad Rowe) creates further rifts—but something deeper and far more disturbing lay in the depths of Christina's home.I saw this film over ten years ago and my memories of it were foggy; I recalled the opening scene well, but the rest of the film escaped me. I recently re-watched it, and was mildly surprised by it. It is a B-horror movie through and through, but retains a respectable amount of class that protects it from falling into the "utter sleaze" or "so-bad-you-can't-watch-it" category. The cinematography is nice and the writing is surprisingly attentive and compelling. It had me personally guessing until the last act, and though it is marred by some uneven pacing, the film kept my attention.The main downfall to the entire thing comes down to the performances, which range from decent to a mixture of decent and downright campy. Allison Lange has a good screen presence, but her acting in the film is hit-and-miss. Fred Savage's turn as the overbearing, perverted father is bizarre and often over-the-top, while Brendan Fehr and Brad Rowe turn in average performances. Aside from some offbeat performances, the bones of the film (no pun intended) are relatively solid. The script seems to be riffing on elements of Bob Clark's seminal Canadian thriller "Black Christmas," and the premise of the film works. Its final scene kicks it up another notch in my opinion, adding an ambiguous layer of intrigue that leaves the audience with a thorn in their side that they'll have to pull out on their own.Overall, "Christina's House" is a decent low-budget horror flick that transcends its limitations for the most part. It is not a profound film, but it is clever and at times somewhat creepy. It's a case where I definitely feel that, had the filmmakers had a bit more money (and a bit higher caliber of talent), they could have pulled off something mildly extraordinary. At the end of the day, the film is an entertaining and noble effort. 6/10.

First off, being a library loan, it was free, so it's easier to be charitable when no money was spent. But I will have to talk to the local library for content control, cause this one had no redeeming value to it.Allison Lange, playing the titular role, is the usual excuse for a teenage girl growing up in a stressful household. Of course, she is hot as hell and gives the movie the cheesy sex appeal, including some mammary gland shots and lots of skimpy revealing clothes. But she is no great actor. Even John Savage, the one big name actor, playing her angry father with hints of incest and abuse thrown in, delivers a stunningly pathetic performance. The plot is totally convoluted. You see they live in this old rental house for months, yet there is some person who lives in the attic, between the walls, basement etc who created this whole second set of rooms that of course none of the three residents of record, including her manipulative video gaming brother, ever happened on. So this fourth resident starts killing young girls, apparently for no real reason though at the end we learn that this killer was someone that her psycho mother sent to watch over her daughter. Apparently Dad moved them to rural Washington state to be near their psycho wife-mother in some asylum, but for one time, they never visited her. So there is this whole poorly executed psycho-drama routine- is Christina crazy by genetics, or maybe her father-local sheriff-obnoxious boyfriend or the weird Brad Pitt look-a-like handyman is the fourth resident and/or killer.There is one scene that really exposed the plot for being weak and pedestrian. The killer, for reasons that will never make sense, lured Christina's boyfriend's ex girl friend over to the house so the killer could do her in, why? When Christina finds the rival's body in the stream in front of their house, they call the police. So the one creepy sheriff shows up and there is one scene where he interviews all the witnesses in the house, Christina, her brother, friend and, even though he was not there when they found the body, her crummy boyfriend. So it devolves into a shouting match between between creepy sheriff and boyfriend. You'd think they would spring for some paramedics, coroner, more cops, etc since some local girl was murdered and dumped and maybe that would get the whole small town, where everyone knows and cares about each other, riled up. But no, just a stupid pointless confrontation between sheriff and boyfriend. The director could have bribed local first responder versions to play themselves for a pittance, free wings or new gear, but not even one ambulance.Nobody expects great plots or acting in such movies. But when these elements slip through the floor, along with a host of stinking red herrings, that is what constitutes a poor slasher, non psycho drama movie. Even the one authentic creepy element, the link between her psycho mom and the killer, was never even developed which could have been a real avenue of horror and drama. A better plot and acting would have made it a worthwhile genre standard,

OK here's another from my WM "Two for $11.00" bin collection DVD. For a B movie, this one was actually pretty good. Admittingly, mostly because of the hot young girl w/ the huge cans. Everything she wore was very revealing; obviously done on purpose to keep your attention (and btw, it worked). The acting was, again for a B movie, on par. The story was relatively believable, albeit misleading from the cover pic and plot synopsis on the back (its not about a haunted house), and the editing was again, fair. Pros: hot girls with revealing clothes throughout the ENTIRE movie (definant +), a couple of brief bare boobie shots (again from our main character), decent story, and characters that you found yourself loving, OK, er more like liking, and hating. Cons: Overly predictable (once you realize its not a haunted house). Crappy/unrealistic props (why does the deputy drive a 1988 Crown Vic with the old andy griffith dual light pods up top? How cheap is that Sheriffs Dept?), and its fair share of boring down time. Anyway, if you like B movies, go to your local wally world and pick up this B gem for 5.50....its definitely worth that. Thumbs up.

::SPOILER::So "Christna's House" is about a girl, Christina, who lives with her brother and dad while her mom is in a mental institution, and the house is the area where a lot of her unfortunate 17-year-old life takes place.I lost interest after an hour of the movie. Apparently some guy was living in the house and tried to kill the family after he gets some sick thoughts about how it was his family living there. I don't know. But the whole movie has been summed up so many times by other members on this site correctly...the movie bases itself around too many creepy guys in the film that you try to figure the killer out before the end. I think people might get hunches as to who it might be, but I doubt that it was obvious. It's one of those movies, too, that tags on the ending from some outside force (in this case, the insane mother).I gave it a 4/10, because for most of the movie you feel like it might keep your interest throughout the whole average film. But when Christina stops taking off clothes and her friend doesn't show up anymore, the film heads south fast. That's just a guy's look at the film. I wonder if any woman would enjoy this. (?)