Martin Oaks
April 12, 2026
8
**Requiem for her demons**
This strange and sensationally crafted film is structured as a fragmented funeral elegy told through flashbacks, though the story begins at the funeral of Lisa (played by Samantha Fox), a young woman whose life ended tragically due to drugs and excess. Before her coffin, a few attendees—those who in some way shaped or destroyed her—recall her rise and fall.
Lisa begins working as a prostitute in a seedy brothel until she is discovered by Paul (Rick Iverson), a photographer who sees in her an unusual beauty and commercial potential. Paul introduces her to the world of erotic modeling and presents her to Stephen Sweet (David Pierce), his best client and a wealthy publisher. Under Sweet's influence, Lisa's life takes a hedonistic but dark turn: what begins as a consensual, submissive relationship escalates into physical and psychological degradation when Sweet invites other men to assault and abuse her while he watches. In the midst of a self-destructive spiral, Lisa seeks refuge in Carmen (Vanessa del Rio), and together they plan and carry out revenge against Sweet. But redemption is illusory. Carmen, far from being a savior, introduces Lisa to the use of hard drugs, ultimately sealing her fatal destiny in a solitary room.
"Her Name Was Lisa" is a nihilistic cinematic exercise and one of the most bleak adult films of the late 1970s. Roger Watkins, known for his transgressive erotic horror film "The Last House on Dead End Street" (1973), brings that same oppressive and gritty atmosphere to the realm of sex cinema, achieving what many critics have called an "aggressively anti-erotic" film due to its brutal honesty about the sex industry and addiction. Watkins and Michaels capture the New York of the time as a hostile environment of neon lights and shadowy alleyways.
Samantha Fox's performance is heartbreaking, imbuing Lisa with a real vulnerability, possibly fueled by her own personal struggles at the time, which gives the film an almost unbearable documentary feel. And Vanessa del Rio delivers a magnetic and ambivalent performance that departs from her usual more frivolous image to become a fallen angel who offers both solace and death.
