Review: Her Name Was Christa

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
from the Internet

Her Name Was Christa
Directed by James L. Edwards
Buffalora Entertainment Group; RoseRed Lane Films; Flowtac Entertainment
120 minutes; 2020
www.facebook.com/HERNAMEWASCHRISTA/

In our lives, we have all met people like Steven (director James L. Edwards), who are lonely and middle aged, building a wall around themselves and acquiesces at work while living a shallow life. If I hadn’t met my wife, that could have been me. Bald headed with a “janitor’s” moustache and a bit of pudge, Steven is a telemarketer, making sales in a room full of others doing the same. He takes pride in his work, but is abused by his unappreciative boss. Mainly, Steven is lonelier than he will let on, perhaps more than he realizes, even joining an online dating service.

Steven meets the new guy at work, fast-talking Nick (Drew Fortier), a narcissistic and crude dude who is there for the moment because it was the only job at the time that would hire him. He’s young, attractive, and has latched on to Steven, convinced it is his job to get Steven laid. I have known guys like this at work, too, especially in the 1980s, but I digress…

Following Nick’s suggestion, Steven visits a girl of the night, Raven (Kaylee Williams) in a both humorous and cringingly unhappy experience with which I can sympathize. This leads to another idea by Nick: “the girlfriend experience,” where the paid party pretends to be a girlfriend to loosen things up a bit.

By a coincidence and a moment of kismet, he meets the future Christa, a corner hooker named Candy (Shianne Daye), whose favorite band is “The Velvet Underground with Nico.” Good start I would say. They set up the ground rules, and they start hanging out together. As the relationship progresses, they are sort of in a yin and yang situation. For Steven, he’s happy just to have someone to cuddle with, not necessarily looking for more, but for Candy, this confuses her since her entire life revolves around men using her for sex, and here is someone who is into something a bit emotionally deeper though he is aware of its parameters, and that is an experience she has never dealt with before, that someone would be interested in her as a companion rather than an object.

Over time, their bond becomes stronger until a series of tragic events unfold, taking the film into another level that might classify it into a horror (perhaps a psychological one). By this point, it comes out as a study of a mental breakdown that is reminiscent of a more romanticized version thematically of Decay (2015) or, if you want to stretch it a bit, Nekromantic (1987), without the “real-life” intensity, thanks of Steven’s mindset (such as it is). Oh, those crazy Akronites.

The film’s gore level picks up a notch or five, as we see the differences between what’s going on in the mind, flipping back and forth with the reality of the situation, most effectively displayed when a split screen is used. Another interesting way to approach the film, especially on a second viewing, is to realize that some conversations between two people are actually happening in one head, and the talk and motives reflect that. And this film is particularly dialogue-heavy, and while it keeps the interest in its long two hours (more on that after), it is important to remember that this is the director’s first feature, and he would show some of his humor more in upcoming releases.

The only two real complaints I have, as it were, is that it really didn’t need to be a full two hours, and could easily have about 20-30 minutes honed from it (just add it to the Deleted Scenes folder on the Blu-ray). The other is the main musical synth theme on the soundtrack, which sounds like he was trying to emulate Goblin in the 1980s, but I found it quite irritating. Loved the film, but not this aspect of it.

I am really looking forward to future films by James L. Edwards. Perhaps a nice text editorial work by a second party might be good, but he is so incredibly on the right path. His stories themselves are great, and he always seems to manage to throw in some nice twists and turns. That all makes it fun.

IMBD Listing HERE