High Tension (2003)

[slayrrr666]

"High Tension" isn't a masterful modern slasher, but it's a really good one.

**SPOILERS**

Traveling to the countryside to study, lesbian college students Marie, (Cecile De France) and Alexia, (Maiwenn)and arrive at their farmhouse during the night. Settling in for the night with Alex's Father, (Andrei Finti) and Mother, (Oana Pellea) they don't notice a truck pull up. The Driver, (Philippe Nahon) slaughters the entire family, taking Alexia with him. Leaving the scene with Marie unexpectedly in tow, they come to a rest in a gas station but he eventually gets away. With no help available from the police, Marie sets out on her own to track down the truck driver and get her revenge as well as rescue Alexia.

The Good News: There was a really pleasant thrill ride. We are immediately shaken up in our seats in the first few minutes, where we see the killer in a van parked in a field using a severed head to perform oral sex on himself before tossing the head out the window and driving off. It is a sign that clearly announces the intention to leave the boundaries of all notions of good taste well behind. One of the most impressive things about the film is the way it engages all the senses, especially sound, to create a mood of mounting dread and suspense. It's all about being haunted by the squeaks of the killer's shoes on the floor, the labored breathing as he walks up the stairs, or the dull sound his bloodied scalpel makes when he wipes it off on his overalls. They play just as important role in this as anything else in the film, and it works absolutely marvelously. The first half of the film is as good as anything out there, being this mounting and mounting of suspense through an ingenious use of having the characters survive the slaughter through the house and staying just out eye-view from the killer. There's really no way else to describe it, there's really nothing like it. Every trick in the suspense play-book is used, with hiding in the room where the killer lurks, covering their tracks, and really depending on the presence of the killer there to get most of the suspense out of the film. It is simply a fantastic series of scenes that really work and are quite powerful. That plays into the fact that this is an incredibly gory film. We get a head crushed off by a desk, an insane slit throat, an axe in the chest, a piece of glass in one's foot, a severed hand, a vicious head bashing by barbed wired stick, a messy saw blade attack, some good old fashioned stabbings, some slashings on the body and more. Even better than that is that all of the gore was practical and CGI is nowhere to be seen. The ending does have a lot going for it as well, including some really great moments. There's a really impressive car chase that ends in a really nice stunt, tons of gore inflicted on all the participants, some incredibly clever stalking scenes and just a relentless pace. Then there's the ending, which while it isn't the best one ever done, but instead it's a really clever and nicely used throughout one that does leave a lasting mark. All in all, this wasn't that bad.

The Bad News: Frankly, there's only one thing in here that really doesn't work, and that's the twist ending. In the attempt to blow the mind with the mega-twist that re-writes the logic of all that came before, instead all that is achieved is that it completely evaporates the plausibility of all that did come before it. How did that phone call get made? How did that car crash happen? What's going on in the back of the truck? Why the scene where the guy pleasures himself with a severed head? What was the gas station guy looking at? Even the little things require, essentially, that the viewer re-write the plot as he or she sees fit. That there is the reason why this doesn't work, which isn't that it's a badly done twist, just an illogical one. It's up to the viewer to decide the relevance and worthiness of it.

The Final Verdict: While not the modern masterpiece that has been ascribed to it, it's still a really creepy and incredibly entertaining film that really doesn't have that much going against it. There's still enough going for it to be worthy of a look-see, but don't expect the film to be as great as it's reputation has given it.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a mild masturbation scene and children in danger

[Bartwald]

Ha, ha... I love the way you're finishing The Good News with just "All in all, this wasn't that bad" in spite of all the awe one can sense in the whole paragraph above!

I agree with you about this one: lots of great suspense throughout but the twist doesn't make sense at all. Fine acting and some astonishing make-up, too.

[frankenjohn]

I found this to be a really blah film. There was no chacter development, it made no sense (especially ending), I didn't feel thrilled, it was rehashed material (girl gets stalked my a psychopath) and it just didn't work for me.

[slayrrr666]

admin said:

Ha, ha... I love the way you're finishing The Good News with just "All in all, this wasn't that bad" in spite of all the awe one can sense in the whole paragraph above!

I agree with you about this one: lots of great suspense throughout but the twist doesn't make sense at all. Fine acting and some astonishing make-up, too.

Funny thing about that one line you caught: I was typing at 1:30 in the morning trying to finish it because I was on a role with that paragraph, but I didn't know what I was writing other than instinct so I capped it off with a throwaway line I always use to end that section only because I was too tired to think straight and too stuborn to get some sleep. In retrospect, it would've been a lot more positive rather than that line, but I'm still happy with it.

[Bartwald]

Hey, slayrrr - it's fine, really. A nice review and one I totally agree with.

[slayrrr666]

I know, just doing like a commentary track on the review. Just a little background story I thought I'd share dealing with a specific issue.

Gkad you like it, though.

[Fenril]

I completely agree with your review. Basically it was a pretty good slasher, and that's all it set out to be.

About the twist ending: no, it doesn't make any sense if you think carefully about it, but I can see what the scriptwriter was trying to do with it:

**MAJOR SPOILER***

Basically the entire movie was narrated by Marie after the fact, and for most of it she doesn't want to admit she killed all those people because of her obsession with Alex, hence the "big scary guy". It would also explain that early scene where Marie talks about a dream where she was "chasing herself".

***END SPOILER***

So the twist would mostly be character development: Maire is THAT closeted, and by the end, obsessed.

Nevertheless, I think the killer before the twist was pretty effective because he's extremely plain, just a dangerous-looking guy who happens to enjoy killing people, thus more like a real-life serial killer (as opposed to, say, the killer in "Wolf Creek", who looked more like someone's weird uncle than a demented person).

Besides that, this movie just served the usual slasher ingredients in generous doses (and well-done): violence, gore, sex and sexual themes (you can tell this isn't an american production because of the blowjob and the masturbation scenes: very graphic and yet important to the plot), etc.

In sort: very good movie. Not the absolute best in horror by any means, just a very well-done slasher.

[slayrrr666]

There's other hints early on that indicate it's her: the killer moves away from the room after checking it out, yet conspicuously missing the one place most people normally check (under the bed, where she happens to be) the fact that the two are never on-screen at the same time other than brief glimpses during the house assault, and the big one, when Marie slips into the truck and makes a general racket in the backseat without drawing the killer's attention. More of a contrivance than just luck on her side to avoid the killer.

Then the gas station scene, which does have a lot of good suspense in it, but once the chase starts, it becomes confusingly done and not at all that clever. The fact that the two are there in the same place at the same time is the biggest offender, as she's in the backseat with the killer several inches away driving the truck; the car chase through the forest doesn't make any sense, since how would they inflict damage on each other if they were the same person. And wouldn't they have the exact same wounds on each other if they were the same person? And after killing the killer with the barbed wire bat, which should've been the ending of the movie, why does she flash into the killer's persona a couple times after stalking Alexia in the forest at the end. And more importantly, how could a 90-pound person wield a piece of furniture twice her size with enough force to lop someone's head off.

I still like the twist, I just wish it would've been done a little better. Because it's set up brilliantly, the clues are there all over the place, but once it's set in motion, there's not a lot of thought put into it.

[Fenril]

slayrrr666 said:

And after killing the killer with the barbed wire bat, which should've been the ending of the movie, why does she flash into the killer's persona a couple times after stalking Alexia in the forest at the end. And more importantly, how could a 90-pound person wield a piece of furniture twice her size with enough force to lop someone's head off.

Not to mention, where did she find that truck and all that hardware in the first place?

You know, it really isn't uncommon for ghiallo (or Euroslashers, as you wish) movies to slip in major twists that don't really make sense in retrospective, usually concerning the killer's identity. I guess it just sticks out more in this movie because everything else seemed well thought-out.

[ZapRowsdower]

I hated this movie. Bad dubbing, and not only were there plot holes big enough to drive a Greyhound bus through, but it was also very unoriginal.

SPOILERS ABOUND-And anyway, movies that use the Fight Club ending will always warrant a "fuck you" from me-SPOILERS DONE

[slayrrr666]

fenril said:

Not to mention, where did she find that truck and all that hardware in the first place?

You know, it really isn't uncommon for ghiallo (or Euroslashers, as you wish) movies to slip in major twists that don't really make sense in retrospective, usually concerning the killer's identity. I guess it just sticks out more in this movie because everything else seemed well thought-out.

That, right there, is the true reason for the distaste the twist provides. It's so thoughtlessly included into the rest of an otherwise really well thoughtout movie that it becomes a distraction in and of itself.

[Fenril]

iamthesmitty said:

I hated this movie. Bad dubbing...

You know, this is why I never watch dubbed movies; even in the best of cases, they can never get the emotions right (which is to be expected, every language has its own tricks). Bear subtitles, I say, you get used to them after a while, and at least get to hear the movie as it was meant to sound.

[ZapRowsdower]

They dubbed it over when it was in theaters... then they changed the dialogue and the nationality of the lead actress to justify the dubbing.

[slayrrr666]

The whole thing is still set in the French countryside, where does the nationality change come from?