WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS BODYCOUNT. HIGH RISK OF SPOILERS. ENTER IF YOU DARE.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

What A Sad, Strangled Little Abode: Christina's House (1999)

Christina's House (1999)
Rating: *1/2
Starring: Brendan Fehr, Brad Rowe, Allison Lange

Little can be said about Christina's House (1999) and I can tell why; weak characters, sluggish pace, and loads of limp surprises, just one dull hybrid of teen drama and slasher tropes.

Christina, her younger brother Bobby, and their father James Tarling move to a small town fixer-upper house in order to be close to Christina's institutionalized mother, making visiting her easier. But the longer Christina stays in her new home, the more she begins to notice strange happenings around her such as objects disappearing and re-appearing, mysterious noises, and people either disappearing or found dead nearby her house. Is Christina slowly going mad and murderous? Or is there something else living with them inside the house?

Playing more like a teen thriller that seems to question the titular house owner's sanity, Christina's House (1999) unfortunate have the unwelcome grace of focusing on a rather bland lead character whose portrayal is as exciting as watching moss grow on a wet wall. Add the fact that none of the other thespians are that interesting or developed makes this supposed mystery rather lifeless, made even worse when its snail pace and monotone direction also meant bloodless murders, cheap "scares", and a whole lot of whiny uninteresting talks.

Even when the film reaches its climax, it seems to down itself deeper into a mess. Since none of the characters are all that developed, the twist that one of the casts is insane and responsible for the strange and deadly happenings feels rather too sudden, something they "fixed" by letting said character explain his side of the story through an unnecessarily long final act. Some neat ideas were thrown in such as the house being turned into an inescapable booby-trapped prison like an early version of The Collector (2009), as well as a couple of decent stalking scenes, though these did little to mend the mishaps and the end result is still a disappointing dreck.

What's sad is that Christina's House (1999) had potential to be a good movie. The ideas are there, just mishandled. Perhaps with a better director, talented casts, and additional dose of bloodletting, this might have fared better.

Bodycount:
1 girl shaken to death, neck snapped
1 female killed offcamera, later found with a missing arm
1 female killed offscreen
1 male gets a rock hammer to the temple
1 male fell through a pillar of buzzsaws, crushed by a dropped cabinet
Total: 5

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