Her Name Was Christa

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!

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.

Writer/director James L. Edwards' Her Name Was Christa functions as a fascinating character study of Stephen (played by Edwards), an extremely lonely man who, at the urging of a co-worker, decides to seek out female companionship. Soon he's embarking on a "girlfriend experience" relationship with a call girl who goes by the name Candy, but we'll come to find out that her real name is Christa (Shianne Daye). Sure, Stephen is paying Christa for everything they do together, but their interactions are actually rather sweet. The structure of Her Name Was Christa reminded me of Takashi Miike's Audition in the way that it plays like a love story, complete with a love montage, up to the point when things go horribly wrong. The love doesn't exit the picture when things go bad here, though.

I was impressed by how well-written Edwards' dialogue is in Her Name Was Christa. Edwards also delivers a strong performance as Stephen, making him a likeable character we can understand and sympathize with even when he's making questionable decisions we can't condone. Daye is flawless in the role of Christa. She and Edwards have to carry a lot of this movie on their shoulders, and she proves to be fully capable of doing so.

While Her Name Was Christa does get very dark, disturbing, and (thanks to some special effects work courtesy of Alan Tuskes) downright disgusting, it's captivating throughout. Even when appalled I couldn't look away, and I was invested in seeing how it would all turn out for Stephen and Christa. Some viewers won't be able to handle the gross-outs found in the second half, but this movie is going to find some very appreciative fans - and it deserves to.

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!

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.