User Reviews

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.

Naw,it doesn't set the world afire,but,HEY,it does the job!It's set up like it might be one of those SCREAM clones but quickly moves off into more psychologically creepy moments.Christina,a cute teenager,starts hearing weird noises coming from the attic and walls.She starts finding odd little things around the house.A partialy eaten oreo by her window,a sandwich sitting in the kitchen her family didn't make.Is Christina losing her mind?The ending is kinda cheezy,but there are a few good suspenseful moments I liked quite a bit.I like this movie.

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,

It was a Saturday night, and with a couple of friends we went to Blockbuster and chose this movie... hoping to watch a good horror-movie (nice excuse to get closer to the girls...). Ouch! Awful! Unwatchable! Completely predictable! In the end, when the light on top of the new Christina's House lights, we all laughed... Just to let you think about it... I know much funnier ways to spend 4 dollars...

Paid $3.00 for this film about a house that is haunted with Christina, (Allison Lange), her younger brother, Bobby, (Lorne Stewart) and the father. Christina hears all kinds of noise in the house and she feels like someone is watching her in the bathroom and all over the house. There are various girls who visit the house and they mysteriously disappear, one girl was trying to sell cookies for her church charity and she is strangled with cookies falling all over the place. Brad Rowe, (Howie Rhodes) played an outstanding role as a handyman who is trying to fix the house up while all these strange things are going on. Do not recommend seeing this film, but if you get it for $1.00, enjoy.

"Christina's House" is an interesting, low budget thriller / mystery film with a good cast. Don't watch it expecting too much though, and you'll probably only want / need to watch it once, but nevertheless, it's a fun, although at times slow, watch. Allison Lange makes her film debut here, and is rather good as Christina Tarling. Yes, the film is about her house and the strange going-ons that take place soon after she and her brother (Lorne Stewart) and father James (the excellent John Savage) move in.

Christina deals with typical teenage issues, such as pressure from her boyfriend Eddy (the charming Brendan Fehr), her trouble making brother, problems between her father and boyfriend and so on. The Sheriff begins to investigate the disappearances of several teens who were all last seen at Christina's house, and in typical small-town Sheriff convention, he is not the nicest of men. Jerry Hasseman does a good job playing him. Crystal Buble is okay as Christina's friend Karen, and Brad Rowe is suitably creepy as the mysterious Howie.

The ending to the film is somewhat of a let down, and at certain points the film leaves you wanting more, or a better explanation, but overall, a good effort from all involved, and the cast are great to watch.

Christina and her father and brother have just moved into an old rundown house where things go bump in the night, especially in the attic. Strange occurrences start happening like her diary disappearing, objects and furniture being moved around the house with messages of warnings, a dead body turning up and shady characters, but no one else seems to notice and she thinks that she is losing her mind. What makes matters worse was that her mum is in a mental asylum as she has basically lost her mind, so is Christina following in the same footsteps of her mum or is there more to it than some people are letting on?

Not bad for a straight to video you ask? Ah, actually hold on. No really this is a below par film which borrows elements from every other horror film especially in the wake of "Scream", but it amazedly held my attention. I don't why but maybe it was the beautiful presence of Allison Lange as Christina… yep that was it was. Oh, surprisingly glossy production valves with some inventive camera angles and well-designed sets can't surpass a shamble of a story and script. The rag of a script is the usual dribble. While, the context of the film probably would've been better suited as an X-files episode. Anyhow, over-strained melodrama with horror elements (or clichés) comes to mind. Throw in red herrings, the usual teen antics, suspicious characters, investigating unusual happenings and a (laughable) twist and there you go. Even irrelevant sequences pop up that it could've done without and pacing was rather stodgy in parts. Oops I almost forgot, logic is pretty much thrown out the window, especially when it falls badly at the finale hurdle… the ludicrous revelation that turns into a trashy showdown that went on for too long. During this stage there was an overload of extremely bad puns and an unbelievably pitiful performance. Was there tension provided, no it's basically cheap thrills and cop-outs with a non-existed atmosphere, but a pulsating score was fair if sometimes out of place in certain scenes. Where's the splatter and fun you say, well you'll be disappointed as the deaths are too mundane and have little blood. Performances from John Savage, Brendan Fehr and Allison Lange were actually fair, well they didn't blow me away but for a film like this they were mostly reasonable with exception of one or two. These characters were the standard mould with the girl who's not ready to go all the way with her boyfriend and maybe going crazy, annoying brother, controlling father who seems to want his daughter for himself, snooping sheriff, sex-crazed boyfriend and quiet handyman. When it came to the ending, well not just some ordinary finale but a supposedly deeper ending it just didn't go down too well with me as it felt rather tact on.

For what its worth it's a dud of a knockoff, but one that had enough elements to keep me entertained. But the ending or finale climax is where it went totally downhill and I couldn't give it more than a 3.

After reading all the bad reviews about this movie, I thought at first not to rent it, but then I did. When I saw the movie, I was really surprised that it was way above slasher movies "Like final stab, Ripper: Letter from hell, frightmare, and all these new slasher crap" That acting was gooD. It was really good. Rating:9/10 The movie is rated R: For Violence , language, some sexuality, and nudity" The movie is recommended for true aduience (That knows what a horror movie really is) Don't listen to the other bad reviews because they don't have a taste of horror.

The teenager Christina (Allison Lange), her younger brother Bobby (Lorne Stewart), and their father James Tarling (John Savage) moves to a rented house in Avedon, a small town in Washington, to be close to Christina's mother Joanne (Chilton Crane), who is interned in an asylum. The house is being repaired by Howie Rhodes (Brad Rowe) and Christina has a boy friend, the bad boy Eddy Duncan (Brendan Fehr). While in the house, Christina hears noises and has a permanent feeling that another person lives there, but her father believes it is the structure being settled. When two teenagers vanishes, the weird Sheriff Mark Sklar (Jerry Wasserman) visits the Tarling family, since the last place the teenagers were seen alive was nearby their home. When a dead body is found in a river close to the house, the Sheriff investigates the place, trying to find the guilty for the crime.

"Christina's House" is low paced, low budget but it is not a bad horror movie. The screenplay plays with very few characters, maybe due to the limitation of the budget, the viewer knows that one of them is the serial killer, but there is no clue along the story indicating who the criminal is. Although quite exaggerated when the mystery is disclosed, I found the twist acceptable and I liked the open end. The character of the Sheriff is too much weird, but maybe it was intentional to include him as a possible suspect. With regard to the highlighted goof, the killer sucked the blood on the hammer, therefore the blood has not disappeared from the hammer as mentioned in IMDb. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa da Morte" ("The House of the Death")

Don't waste your time watching this as a horror movie. The only possible way to get any enjoyment from it is to treat it as a comedy. Terrible story, laughable acting and not a single original idea went into this production. Avoid disappointment, watch something else instead.

This isn't a great horror movie, but it does have something to offer, for those not expecting a classic.

It's not too violent to begin with. As a matter of fact, the first violent scene looks more like an explanation of how masters such as the Three Stooges made their brand of slapstick work without anyone actually getting hurt. It's just that it's not very convincing. I thought maybe the scene was supposed to be funny and that maybe the entire movie would be that way. But there's not that much comedy here, although there are a few laughs.

Violence does happen from time to time but it's not too bad. Toward the end, the movie does get quite bloody, including dead bodies. I found some of the final scenes quite disturbing and wondered how I would get over what I just saw.

Allison Lange is quite pretty with long blonde hair and wears a lot of revealing outfits. That's the primary appeal of the movie for me. She shows talent from time to time but isn't quite consistent. When it really counts, she comes through, and she shows a lot of courage and determination when things get really bad, after playing the screaming damsel in distress for a while.

Those who like mechanical stuff such as Rube Goldberg contraptions likely will be impressed at some of what happens toward the end. Actually, I've seen better in other movies, but it's interesting.

This doesn't really mean anything, but three of the movie's characters look familiar to me. I thought Eddy was Adam Samberg. The sheriff, when wearing sunglasses, reminded me of Richard Belzer's Detective Munch. And Christina's mom's nurse looked like Kara on "Supergirl", with the glasses.

Not a classic, but it fits the formula.

It says: "Real. Scary. Horrifying." on the cover and once I started watching this movie I instantaneously noticed what the person who had written this text meant. First of all the main character, this Christina, is very scary and horrifying. She kind of makes even the Cenobites in Hellraiser look friendly. Secondly... Well everything in this movie is horrifyingly bad. Though I have to admit Brad Rowe did an OK job as a crazy and I liked the idea of Christina's mom sending those looney killers to "observe" Christina... One thing I found amusing was that when Christina was startled awake during the night by a noise, she instantaneously searched for her journal. A truly bad movie. I feel sorry for all those people who have wasted their money on this.

I thought this would be a good movie, considering the cast, Brendan Fehr, John Savage etc, but after the first 20 minutes i started fast forwarding it, (thank god for subtitles) and the more it progressed the worse it got.

Summary: Jim (John Savage from Dark Angel) and his two teenage kids, Christina and Bobby rent a home in a small town where Jim, a carpenter (I think) acts very inadequately towards Christina, half the time I thought he would try getting it on with her! In comes the knight in shining armor Eddy (Brendan Fehr from Roswell), who is Christina's boyfriend and after a dinner with the family he realizes that Jim isn't going to let him have anything to do with his daughter. In comes Howie, a good looking carpenter, who is fixing up their home, showing up at the strangest moments, Christina takes a liking to him, but doesn't do anything with him yet leaves a very annoyed Eddy. After a young girl's body is found near their home a creepy sheriff starts sniffing around... Christina starts fearing the house she lives in due to the noises she hears all the time and just wants her father to believe her... more girls start vanishing and it gets so obvious who the killer into the first 5 minutes of the movie.

Its sad to say so much talent gets wasted in this movie, I hope whoever made it didn't spend too much on this storyline because from the bottom of my heart... it sucks. 1/10.

Ok, I thought that maybe this movie isn't as bas as the reviews here say, so I rented it. But as an earlier comment says; "after 5 minutes..." you know the quality level of this movie. This was so amateurish! I can't remember when was the last time I saw a movie THIS bad...

Six minutes into this horror flick you see what kind of movie it is when the star gets undressed for no reason. And from there on it's all down hill. The actors are trying, but bad direction makes it impossible. Too bad that "The Deer Hunter" co-star John Savage took the part as the farther. He used to be cool!

The plot is great, but the story needed a lot of work. The acting was a little over done to try and fool you and didn't. I think it was over directed. All in all, keep the plot, and throw ever thing else out and start over and you would have a great movie. Glad I didn't waste the money to see it on the big screen, if it even made it there.

If you're looking for a thrilling funny horror movie... or a movie at all, that's not it! It makes "I know what you did last summer" appear as a masterpiece! This is just a gathering of the worst trite clichès, totally predictable, it goes beyond trash so that it's not even laughable, only pitiful and boring. But but - it introduces a star for the new millennium, the Brad Pitt of poorest suburbia!!!

Just kidding, but the idea of a deluxe box-set from them of Christina's House really hits the spot for me.

I'm well aware of this movie's reputation as utter trash, and I agree with that, but there's something that keeps bringing me back to this direct-to-video house of horrors.

Acting's wooden, the story pushes the boundaries of what's considered basic and the final reveal it's, well...at least the story has a conclusion, let's leave it at that. Yet, this film it's weirdly entertaining, to the point that I watch it at least 3 times a year (as opposed to the highly regarded classics...something's clearly wrong with me, so don't hesitate to send help this way).

I'm certainly biased, as I saw this movie with all my siblings on a Halloween night, many moons ago and, since then, it has become something of a long-running joke amongst us; each time we come across platform sneakers we go "Those are some Christina's House type of shoes" or if we need to criticize a horror movie's lack of quality, we refer to this as the peak of horror cinema; no movie can hold a candle to it. Yet, I'm the only one of us who actually watches this nowadays (see? I need help).

I'd recommend it actually, not as a so-bad-it's-good movie, but just to fathom how sometimes studios are completely unaware of what they're unleashing to this world.

I highly doubt anyone else bought this, but I hope MGM enjoyed those $5.99 I had to pay for this DVD. Here's hoping for the Criterion Collection UHD announcement.

I thought this film was pretty decent as horror flicks go. First of all, the female lead (Allison Lange) is stunning. There was a twist at the end which although not exactly credible, was I felt actually quite disturbing. The action sequences were all pretty well done, and although I must admit that certain things in the film appeared to be, logistically or in terms of realism, absolutely ridicolous - if you are able to suspend belief and just enjoy it for what it is, I think it is basically an ok teen horror film with a very good looking cast.

A girl selling cookies is brought into a house and killed. Christina and her young brother Bobby come home from school into the same house. They live there with their father James Tarling. Their mother is in a nearby asylum. Eddy Duncan is Christina's boyfriend and Karen is her friend. Howie Rhodes is the handyman repairing the house. Sheriff Mark Sklar investigates the missing girl.

This is a cross between a murder mystery and a killer horror. It's flawed in both genre but it has an intriguing premise. The opening could lead to either a fine slasher movie or a fine whodunit. First, they need to hold on the house a bit longer. I had to rewind to ensure that both shots are the same house. The slasher part is not gory enough which limits its horror potential. The whodunit is undermined by the few possible suspects and the initial push for a monster in the attic. The potential never gets realized but it is interesting to contemplate.