Her Name Was Christa (2020) User Reviews

All the lonely people...

[aarpcats · 6/10 · 19 November 2021]

A male colleague once told me about his many relationships with hooker and strippers by saying that they "appealed to his rich and varied fantasy life." He treated them like girlfriends, bought them expensive gifts and trips, and took care of their housing. In return, he got sex, arm candy and one way relationships where he had all the control. He wasn't really a cad. He was a sad and empty man who bought fantasy.

James L. Edwards wrote, acted and directed this movie about a man whose entire life is a dead end job and an empty house. When the man can no longer bear being alone, he takes the advice of a friend and buys a few nights with a hooker. The hooker is an intelligent young woman with a dark secret. As two broken people try to help each other, the man finds he cannot let go.

What happens in this movie has actually happened in real life, and Edwards is kind and compassionate about how he lets us into the world of his characterss. However, it is a horror movie, and not for weak stomachs.

I liked the movie a lot, in spite of the "EW!"

Freakish, so freakish

[HumbleMensa · 6/10 · 30 October 2021]

This is going to have a cult following soon enough. So absurd. So bizarre. I had to finish it...old school ...so terrible that it was okay. The actors pulled it off...and held straight faces doing so...I can't unsee a few things...but it was entertaining enough.

Forever love

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 25 May 2022]

Can love really hold on forever? Or will it rot eventually (no pun intended)? That is something that you have to figure out yourself. And if you like the slow pace this movie hands you. Because it takes quite a bit of time to get where it is heading. And that is quite the killer ending - if you excuse the pun (if one can even call it that).

It is or at least seems so sweet and innocent most of the time. But since we get clips of the future (or present, depending on how you view the timeline), we know something is off. And it is way off.

This is low budge mayhem, but it knows to shock. If you are open for that kind of stomach turning, wild and disgusting conclusion. For some that may be putting it mildly, for some it may be putting things over the top. Again it all depends on how much you can take and how easily you are offended ... and how squeamish you are. Can't answer that for you ... just remember, this is not normal.

2/10

[aaronpotts-17275 · 8 March 2020]

The breakdown of my score for Her Name Was Christa, watched . I saw these glowing "reviews", which made me excited to see this. Unfortunately, I was left confused and disappointed.

Story - 2.5: While the general idea grabbed my attention, it had no other supportive qualities to hold it up. Neither villain nor hero and a weak twist that left me disappointed. I kept wishing it had gone in an entirely different direction, which would have raised my score for the storyline.

Acting - 1.5: This is one of the 3 biggest things that hurt this movie. The only character I sort of believed was "Nick" and that actor was working with very little. He may be better in a movie with believable dialogue and direction? The lead, Steven (also the director and writer), was in EVERY scene, unnecessarily. His acting was ridiculously over the top and needed to be brought down quite a bit. It seemed a very ego-driven project to me.

Writing - 1: As I said before, this movie is extremely dialogue based, with poor acting and unrealistic writing. It seemed very lazy. When a story is told with that much dialogue and little to watch on the screen, it better be backed up with insanely good acting and something of interest to hold my attention. It did none of the above.

Cinematography - 2: Again, going back to the lazy aspect of this movie, it was apparent to me that very little went into the thought behind the "look". It was as straight forward as a 7th grade film project. Very little creativity was found in any scene.

Makeup and FX - 2.5: At least they tried. From the makeup on the lead character, down to the fading and eventual corpse of Christa, it was not sufficient. I don't want to get into spoilers, but nothing at all looked natural about the FX, with one exception (pen to the arm).

This movie was trying (and failed) to be a story which has charaters we care about, a lead actor that we are supposed to feel bad for and we are apparently, expected to be consumed by the dialogue? I had none of these feelings. It was honestly, boring, self-serving and over acted to the point that it felt comedic. Although, maybe I missed the point and it was supposed to be funny? If so, about 95% of the dialogue should be edited out. Pass on this one, too slow to be funny, too bad to be good and too disappointing to be shocking.

Watching paint dry is more fun.

[comicbkflight · 1/10 · 25 March 2020]

This was tough to get through without hitting fast forward or my head against a wall. Who wants to watch 2 bad actors talk about their favorite color for 40 minutes? Good luck finishing this debacle!

Her Name Was Christa Review

[jvtyme · 2/10 · 4 April 2020]

Her Name Was Christa is a movie full of stereotypes, self adoration, unessessarily drawn out discourse and complete lack of creative awareness. I do not typically post reviews, but, had the itch to respond to the absurdity which is praise for this movie. The only thing I found interesting about HNWC was it's failure to deliver any artistic value, talent, timing and consciousness of an authentic conversation. For those unsuspecting casulties...be warned, deception ensues.

You asked and I delivered

[movieninja-15265 · 2/10 · 2 May 2020]

So, I am FB "friends" with the lead/director of this movie and saw his endless posts to watch his first movie. I am a true supporter of not only low budget movies, but horror, particularly. I wanted to support this guy's efforts and good for him for creating a project from beginning to end. It is not easy. Unfortunately, this is where the compliments end. I had no intention of leaving a review but, he has repeatedly begged and pleaded his friends to leave an IMDB review as well as for the YT trailer. I don't find this to be a particularly desirable or fair request. But, since you pushed me, here it is! I gave it 2 out of 10 because it isn't the worst movie I have ever seen, but it was right next in line. The acting was so unnatural I felt like the bad script was jumping off the screen, which is the 1st thing to take me out of the moment. That was followed by the extremely long and totally unnecessary dialog scenes that were bad to begin with. Why the director and writer would feel the need to put himself on the screen for basically the entire movie is beyond me. However, I think that coupled with the consistent bombardment of begging and pleading on FB you can draw you to your own conclusion. This movie didn't feel like much of anything to me, which is worse than even even hating it IMO. At least even Tommy Wiseau's movie was funny to watch with friends. Good luck to him in the future. Maybe next time he will consider hiring someone who can act to be on screen for 2 hours straight. I have never seen his other acting rolls, but judging by the "Bad Movie Police" series, I will skip those too.

Watch it for the charecter development.

[vincentdeseers · 7/10 · 30 August 2021]

The movie looked like it was made on a shoe string budget, with a wushy washy story, but Both of the main charecters showed great chemistry and together had their characters develop as the movie progressed. Shianne Daye did a fantastic job with the charecter and script, James L. Edwards also did a fantastic job at portraying a 40 year lonely man.

Wanted and tried to like it.

[RHGifs · 3/10 · 2 May 2020]

Sadly this was doomed once Ariauna Albright dropped out. The role of Christa was written for her and it seemed at least that the big draw to this film would be Albright and Edwards reuniting in an attempt to re-capture the chemistry they had in 1997's Bloodletting.

Shianne Daye takes over the role as Christa and she makes an admirable effort. Unfortunately, inserting someone with little to no experience into a role with tons of dialogue written for another person isn't going to work and it doesn't here.

A ton of respect is due to Edwards and everyone involved. It seemed like they ran into an endless amount of setbacks and struggles but they were still able to power through. As much as I tried to keep that in mind while watching the movie, in the end it's just not good.

One of the saddest movies I've ever seen

[captainahab-74387 · 7/10 · 31 March 2021]

I can't help but wonder at some of the possible cinematic origins of this terribly sad film. One obvious one would be Hitchcock's Psycho, with a touch of his classic Vertigo. The most likely influence would be Roger Corman's Tomb of Ligeia based on the Edgar Allan Poe story.

Possible spoilers ahead: This movie somehow manages to be simultaneously a touching love story between two lost souls, an unsettling black comedy at times, and ultimately a tragic story of a man who lost his mind when his true love died.

Director James Edwards also portrays the lonely protagonist, and Shianne Daye is brilliant as the hooker transformed by love.

This movie is definitely not for everyone. There were times when I laughed uncomfortably and others when I wept. The characters are always played with dignity and there is an unexpected compassion for them in Edwards, direction. He manages to create a character deranged by grief and loss, who even in his most .

Grotesque actions remains an all too human being.

Recommended for viewers not afraid to take a chance with one of the strangest and most startling movies I've ever seen.

2 is being very generous

[jdurm-19620 · 2/10 · 1 May 2020]

This is what happens when a director also stars in and writes his own movie, two and half hours of "watch how great think I am". The interesting question this movie does evoke is, why would you not just hire a competent actor for the lead of Steven Booth? He was the worst actor in the movie with Christa being a close 2nd. Obviously, the ending, which I really struggled to get to, was suppose to shock and awe, but the FX were so bad, it didn't do anything except make me laugh. The FX on Christa's body in general were head scratching. The movie was very messy, amateur at best and embarrassingly written and acted. Please, all filmmakers, for the love of god, do not star in your movie, it is a really bad look. Let this movie be a lesson to everyone, just because you can memorize lines and say them in front of a camera, it doesn't mean you're an actor. Folks, don't spend the money. There are lots of indie horror movies out there that deliver, this just isn't one.

I will give it 8/10 because the story was excellent

[pilkingtonsword · 8/10 · 25 February 2021]

I believe that those on here who are mercilesly panning this movie are more than a little envious of a writer, director and lead actor who has ACTUALLY created something ( yes, of course, it contains many flaws- but then is not imperfection room for growth?) whereas they (I am willing to bet) have not created anything whatsoever. So what if the creator got excited for all of his FB ''friends'' to see this. Wouldn't YOU if you had spent time and effort actually making something?

This is my take. The story was very good. It was full of humour and pathos and actually did manage to affect one's emotional centre; even ''play with one's mind''. The slightly pathetic yet stolidly genuine lead character, Steven Booth, was convincingly portrayed by James L Edwards, as was that of the beautiful and brutally honest Candy/Christa Sullivan by Shianne Daye. The supporting characters, Nick Perkins and Raven, were respectively excellently performed by Drew Fortier and Kaylee Williams. Well done all of you, and thank you for an unusual and entertaining take on romantic horror. Yes. I would definitely classify this as belonging to the genre. I have no idea why some on here think otherwise. This movie, after all, is a shocker and not for the squeamish. I very much liked the split-screen sequences (perhaps a throw back to certain film making styles of the sixties?) My main (negative) criticism would be of the special effects used during split-screen comparison shots of Christa's body. I personally would have preferred them to have been a little more convincing, but only because the lingering opening shots of her body at the movie's start were very convincing and drew one into the picture and were still in my mind. A different use of SFX here, in my opinion, would have added to the shock-reveal, however, I do see some getting a slightly comedic tongue in cheek vibe from these sequences (similar to American Werewolf in London)

I definitely will be recommending this film to all of my film-buff friends! I believe we have the makings of a cult classic here!

Thank you.

Love is blind....

[MrGKB · 6/10 · 4 March 2020]

...though not to the demands of personal hygiene in auteur James L. Edwards' slow burn directorial debut. Cross the whipcord twist of Takashi Miike's "Audition" with the transgressions of Jörg Buttgereit's "Nekromantik" (or perhaps even the notorious "A Serbian Film") and you might well end up with this remarkably effective lo-fi shocker. "Her Name Was Christa" is destined for indie filmmaking legend if it gets the distribution and attention it richly deserves. I'll not spoil a thing; horror fans should seek this one out.

NOT A HORROR MOVIE!

[marksaunders-38161 · 1/10 · 3 May 2020]

Out of these reviews why has no one pointed out that this is NOT A HORROR MOVIE?! ***This is a romantic drama!*** WTF? Not only that but, the worst romantic drama I have ever seen lol! If you want an Ed Wood level romantic drama you've found your jam in Her Name Was Christa, except really, really, really long and boredom like you've never experienced. I mean BORING!! This guy should be in horror movie jail.

Fake ratings

[kenman_dude · 2/10 · 24 May 2020]

Horrifying acting.... no way can anyone seriously think this is good.

1/10

[manformer · 1 June 2020]

This movie is as good as a the smell of decay. This movie is a fat, cowardly, weak, old man's fantasy girlfriend come to life. There's no such thing as a Christa. I've seen romantic comedies that are more realistic than this romance shart!

Sometimes "movies we think you'll like" feels like and insult.

[suspicouslookingmole · 3/10 · 30 August 2021]

I don't know why Amazon thought I would like this but i didn't and I might never like another movie again. I feel like if half of your 2 hour runtime is a man making passionate love to a corpse, the synopsis should really mention necrophilia or something to suggest someone might have an affair with a non-living person. It's just fair warning.

The first half is a man taking questionable steps to solve his intimacy issues which isn't bad in itself but it was uninteresting. The second half is the man failing to cope with the untimely death of his new girlfriend who had previously been the sex worker he hired to spend time with him in a non-sexual capacity, and he just has a romantic time with her increasingly rotted and surprisingly slimey corpse.

I was expecting something to happen to her and for him to spiral into some sort of horror movie darkness because the title refers to her in the past tense and there are little clips of the ending of the story sprinkled throughout so I was just waiting to find out what was going to happen to her and what the protagonist was going to do. Tge what turned out to be that she overdosed and died in his bathroom from a drug addiction that we the audience and the protagonist were unaware of and the ensuing horror movie stuff is that he decides to not tell anyone and just keeps dating her dead body while imaging her still alive. The movie switches back and forth to show us what he sees-that being her alive and well and acting normally- and the reality which is that she is a decomposing corpse. There are numerous sex scenes that flip back and forth from a generic looking bald man having sex with a pretty younger woman to the same man having sex with a goo covered Halloween decoration and it's nauseating. The special effects are actually pretty impressive and I don't know what the budget was but I assume that most of it was spent on the corpse effects. This just made the rotting corpse love interest more upsetting to me but maybe that's a plus. I don't really know. I'm not saying don't watch it, if that sounds interesting then by all means but I wished that I had been warned so I am warning others.

Omg DISTURBING

[clairesimpson-73580 · 3/10 · 12 September 2021]

I never write reviews but I feel I have to with this one..it was not what I was expecting at all. The final 30 mins or so took a disturbing turn. I am not easily shocked, I love a good horror film with blood and guts but the film makers have some balls to show this..I have never seen any film like this before .. necrophilia scenes made even my strong stomach turn..I felt sick.

Not the best acting and low budget..effects were good and realistic. Watch it but be warned it is disturbingly graphic..

Talk About Squirming in Your Seat

[janellemeredith · 7/10 · 30 June 2020]

I love horrors of all kinds, especially ones dripping with blood and gore. So when I found this movie, I decided to give it a watch, not expecting much.

The film starts off fairly slow, and the actors perform not-so-well, but it's fast enough that I continued through it. I am SO glad I did. The ending (roughly an hour and a half in) is so worth the wait. I will say that it is not for the feint of heart, and the graphics as well as what is going on will make you squirm in your seat. After all of the horror and shock films I've seen, it's hard to turn my stomach, and this one did.

Why are the reviews so Inflated for this?

[waterchamp · 2/10 · 26 August 2021]

This was suggested for me on Prime, so I took the plunge. I normally love weird little B movies, but this was so bad. I immediately picked up on the fact the writer/director did not have any real knowledge of the call girl/gfe experience thing. I actually went online and checked to see if this was ten years old and recently released because it looks so outdated.

Things that made me think it was from the year 2000 include: the dating site the character uses, the lack of the internet for seeking a sex worker (I won't use the word hooker like he does over and over and over), the outfits on the "hookers", the over-plucked eyebrows on the "hookers", and the grainy quality of the film.

If the plot had to involve a sex worker, why not take the time to do rudimentary research on the subject? They get clients on the internet, not on street corners, unless they are really low on the totem pole. The whorearchy, if you will.

The acting was poor, and it distracted me. That has been covered in a lot of other reviews tho. I would skip this one if I were you.

Unique story from a low budget film

[Watchin_movies · 7/10 · 15 June 2021]

Being very familiar with low budget films & loving to support them (especially the locals), I was very surprised by this movie. It's not like the usual bodies of work that's put out there.

Obviously from the get go, you know that there's something tragic that happens at some point. There's no need for a spoiler warning there.

This isn't a straight out of the gate low budget horror movie usually produced. In fact, most of the film takes place building the main character & his situation/feelings in a love story.

But when things go sideways, I hope you've got a strong stomach. Lol This was a nice change of pace in a market of low budget films flooded with the same plots/scenarios over & over.

I also have to give props for the music/soundtrack as most of the low budget films I've seen really lack in that department.

Ewwwwww!

[gab-67599 · 2/10 · 24 April 2021]

Why, would anyone want to see a movie like this? Ya'll didn't have any better ideas to come up with!? Really!? Or was it that you had zero imagination to begin with! I gave this movie a chance, even though you could tell it was below an already low budget movie. Story kept me hanging until it got strange and then it got gross! Please avoid this movie at all cost. I mean unless someone dares you to watch a truly disgusting movie. I do not know what they were thinking when they made this, but it was an epic failure of great proportion. That much I do know.

dont knock it until you have seen the whole film

[rgspfx · 10/10 · 20 May 2020]

I can only assume that the people who gave bad reviews only watched 10 minutes of this movie. and that comment about the lead actress not having an IMDB profile picture? IMDB is not the be all end all. its a public site that anyone can go in an change anything just like wikipedia. to some people its a big deal to have an IMDB status and some people they could care less. A picture on your profile does not make you a better actress...... anyway this film is a great romantic drama with a surprise twist at he end. I personally feel its worth the wait, the makeup and special FX were on point for the ending. and that should be no surprise coming from the talented FX master Alan Tuskes who has a long list of films under his belt sure its a slow burn kind of film. but its worth the pay off. the story give you a chance to see where the main character came from and his journey to just try and find a relationship after not being in one for a long time.

Not so Pretty Woman.

[jolly-13538 · 6/10 · 22 October 2022]

The leading female actor was incredibly pretty actually but as the film progressed she did age somewhat.

I thought that this was going to be a variation on the Tart with a Heart narrative but it took a turn I was not expecting. Was it a credible plot twist? Well, not every man would have made the choice that the leading character did but he wasn't an everyman anyway so I just went with it. Enough of his life was described to make his actions seem, well, possible, I suppose. I watched the final scenes as I was cooking supper and by the time I'd finished I wasn't that hungry. I found it rather disgusting and quite shocking, actually. That's not a criticism, by the way, just a comment on the quality of the delivery of the final act.

I liked how it started, with the main character talking about recent events and as the film progressed some flesh was put on the bones of his description by little live acts. It also made me keen to watch the film to find out what happened, and how he got to be talking like that and from where he was talking.

I liked the main characters. I've met lonely, single men who haven't put a foot wrong, seemingly, but could well be hiding a dark secret. James L. Edwards acted convincingly but I was put off by the razor straight delineation of hair and prosthetic bald patch. I haven't met many prostitutes though, not during a business transaction with them anyway, so I don't know how representative of real life she may be. But, I suppose I rather hoped she was rooted somewhere in reality as I warmed to her! I thought Shianne Daye was really rather beautiful and she acted well.

I think a lot was achieved with a small budget and I look forward to seeing moth leads in other things soon.

Bad, Really, Really Bad

[aozorafreak · 1/10 · 10 January 2021]

If there's a D class movie, this would gi straight to that class immediately The acting is TERRIBLE No emotions shown in the actor's eyes Special effects are also terrible Storyline is really stupid What else can i say? This movie is terrible in every way