Movie Review: Christina's House (2000)

Synopsis: Teenager Christina Tarling is trying to adjust to life in the new home she shares with her father and younger brother but strange noises and occurrences have her worried she is suffering from the same mental illness that resulted in her mom being committed to a nearby facility. Things get worse when the body of one of her classmates is found on the property and her best friend goes missing.

Who's in it? The movie stars Allison Lange, John Savage, Brendan Fehr, Brad Rowe and Lorne Stewart.


Review: I came across this movie a few days ago and, thinking it sounded somewhat interesting (albeit not overly unique) ended up adding it to my library. My wife and I had time to watch it last night and, after seeing it, I thought the movie was better than expected.

I think the thing that really stood out for me about this film was it wasn't as easy to figure out who the bad guy was as I thought it would be. My wife ultimately had the correct guess but, even then, there were just too many suspects to be sure.

In fact, had the noises in her walls and attic not been the main plot, I think the ultra-creepy relationship between Christina (Lange) and her dad (Savage) would have been just as good. Whenever he was in the room with her, there seemed to be a bit of a pedophile vibe there and I'm not convinced that was just a misunderstanding. 

When combined with her violent boyfriend (Fehr), somewhat strange handyman (Rowe) and even her kid brother (Stewart), who just seemed like someone who could turn out to be a killer, it was difficult to know who she could trust. I even found myself wondering if maybe it would turn out to be her best friend (Crystal Buble), solely because she just went missing and there wasn't a body.

My only real complaint about the movie is I wish it would have spent a little more time on the mom (Chilton Crane). Her involvement was somewhat obvious from the time she was introduced but the movie seemed to hint there was more of a story there and never really elaborated on it. This includes her mom accusing her dad of abuse which, again, based on his overall creepiness toward his daughter, could have been true.

Final Opinion: There wasn't much about this movie that was overly unique compared to dozens of other similar films but the number of potential suspects did add just enough of a mystery to keep it interesting.

My Grade: B

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