martinscrimm

Halle Bailey shines in the lead role of Ariel and sports a beautiful voice, but she's not enough to save a rehashed Disney tale that doesn't offer many surprises. It essentially repeats just about every plot beat and major set piece from the original 1989 Disney animated classic. There are a few moments that offer something different from the original, but these moments are few and far between and all the new musical numbers add nothing to the story or characters and simply drag the pacing down. Melissa McCarthy adds some life into the role of Ursula, but she's only in the film for probably 10 minutes. Unfortunately, this is another money-grubbing live action Disney remake that doesn't give its audience anything they haven't seen before.

Italian gialli films are an unpredictable lot. Some are drenched in style, sleaze and gore and some are nothing more than bland, uninspired police procedurals. Orgasmo is somewhere in between and I'm not really sure why some call it a giallo.

Carroll Baker plays a recently widowed American who's spending some time at her secluded villa when she catches the eye of a young drifter who sweeps her off her feet and brings her back to life in a sense. Things get complicated when his lusty sister shows up and throws a wrench in everything and Baker's life becomes a nightmare.

Orgasmo is less traditional giallo and more typical thriller with a little extra sleaze than usual. Pretty much everyone gets naked and has a sex scene at some point, but the violence and bloodletting are minimal and some aspects of the story are predictable.

I can't sit here and say that Her Name Was Christa is some sort of brilliant technical feat. It's not the most beautiful or polished movie I've ever seen in my life and some of the acting leaves a little bit to be desired, but in a world where most indie horror filmmakers are churning out uninspired slashers or bad zombie movies, this movie at least attempts to do something different and character driven.

It all starts when a lonely man meets a hooker and they develop a charming friendship, but when tragedy strikes, the man can't come to terms with his loneliness and let's just say that things escalate to a really disturbing degree.

Her Name Was Christa doesn't get to the good stuff until well past an hour into the film which will be a huge turn off to less patient viewers, but if you can sit with the characters for awhile, there's some pretty nasty stuff towards the finale of the movie that'll churn your stomach.