QUOTE: "Gorehounds will undoubtedly eat up these prolonged and cringe-inducing kills, but there's not much else for the rest of us."
I fully expect that this review will serve as a ringing endorsement for some. Perhaps I am the wrong audience for a film like this, or perhaps I am over-analyzing. One thing is for sure, however. I've had more than a few bad nights of sleep because of this film. I haven't said that in years.
Because of the well publicized (at least on the Internet) twist at the end of the film, I will keep the plot synopsis brief.
College friends Marie (De France) and Alex (Maiwenn) are headed to Alex's remote farmhouse for a weekend of studying. Alex's parents greet Marie with open arms, the two friends chat for a few, and then everyone retires for the night.At some point in the night, an unsavory-looking stranger (Nahon) knocks on the door, kills Alex's father, then proceeds to slaughter the rest of the family is shocking detail. That goes for the young boy and the dog. There is no taboo in this film. Alex is bound, gagged, and thrown in the back of the stranger's rustbucket of a van. Marie manages to sneak on undetected before the stranger leaves the premises.
More shocking violence follows, both at a near-deserted gas station and in the middle of the forest. Then comes the twist, and I will let it be there for those who either don't know or actually want to see this film.
The performances help sell the material, as all involved are convincingly shocked, disturbed, and pale by the time this bloodbath ends. Philippe Nahon, who seems to have a serious penchant for being in the most disturbing films to come down the pike in recent years, delivers the most memorable performance as the near-mute killer. He is a gruff presence with seemingly heightened senses. A true killing machine.
Director Alexandre Aja is a great horror director. He's clearly done his homework in terms of late 70's/early 80's horror depravity. Aja chooses creepy locations simply by existence, and exploits them further by putting some of the most graphic and unsettling violence of recent memory onscreen. This is where High Tension trumps the Hollywood horror card. There is no comedic relief, no recognizable stars, and certainly no let-up. High Tension it is. And the average moviegoer who wanders in will most likely not be able to stomach the bloodletting found in High Tension.
But unfortunately Aja's writing skills are on life support, and that becomes readily apparent during the film's finale. After about eighty straight minutes of hacking, spraying blood, gruesome bystander murders, and the buzz of a circular saw, I was ready to pack it up, wait for morning, and wait for the chirp of birds and a ray of sunlight. But we were far from done. Aja tries to justify his onscreen massacre by throwing in one of the incomprehensible twists I have ever seen. Not only is it absurd, it virtually nullifies the preceding eighty-five minutes. We think back on the film and chuckle at all the subtle hints, but how in the world did some of these events take place?
Oh well. I was never really into this film from the getgo. I can admire the directing skill of Aja (he was hand-picked by Wes Craven to direct the upcoming remake of The Hills Have Eyes after Craven saw this film), but the rest of it is very flimsy, especially when you actually think about it. Gorehounds will undoubtedly eat up these prolonged and cringe-inducing kills, but there's not much else for the rest of us.
It should be noted that approximately one minute of footage was removed to attain a R rating here in the States. The film was originally given a NC-17 for violence by the MPAA, but this version grossed me out plenty. Regardless, editing films for rating purposes is not okay in my book, so I would have preferred that Lions Gate had released it as NC-17. If you wish to see the film uncut, the DVD can be imported from several online venders.
By : Bill Clark (http://www.fromthebalcony.com/hightension.htm)
Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating: 4
Pseudo-spoiler warning: I don't explicitly give away the film's twist here, but readers (all one of you) may be able to figure it out through my comments.
High Tension is an impossible movie. And I don't mean that in the sense that the events of the film would never happen, although their occurrence is probably unlikely; many films require us to suspend disbelief of their central ideas, and I am willing to do so. No, the film ends with a twist that I have not only had to endure far too often, but one that also makes nearly everything that happens before it literally, physically impossible. There is no way to explain it other than that things never happened as we were shown, which is misleading and dishonest. The film flat-out lies to the audience, and that I cannot forgive.
Which is a crying shame, because, for the most part, the film is a terrific little slasher picture, well-made and suitably grisly. As with all films of the genre, it's plot is simple. Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn) go to Alex's family's country home to study. While there, a man (Gaspar Noé favorite Phillippe Nahon) breaks in, kidnaps Alex and brutally murders her family. Marie accidentally stows away in the killer's truck and sets out to free her friend.
Director Alexandre Aja milks this premise for all it's worth. I am not a big fan of the genre he is working in - most slashers end up just being tiresome, off-putting series of murders - here, however, the events are truly exciting and, well, tense. The film is fast-paced, never pausing to give either its protagonist or the audience a rest. This is helped by de France's performance, which is a tour de force of hard work and physical prowess; she invests her character with gravity, so we care what happens. Like everyone else she is betrayed by the twist, but that does not devalue her skill.
Unfortunately, none of the other actors are given a chance to show off, due to Lions Gate Films' decision to dub the film into English. A result of cuts made after the (originally NC-17) film was purchased out of the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, the dubbing is a distracting mistake. It is synched as well as could be expected, but the voice work is just horrendous, flat and unnatural; it also leads to the decision to make Alex an American, which is pointless and dumb.
Luckily, however, there is very little dialogue. Most of the running length is dedicated to tense action set pieces - such as the original murders, a potentially deadly game of bumper cars between Marie and the killer or a chase through a forest - that rank among the most exhilarating of the year.
Of course, all of this good will is discarded by the twist, which, in retrospect, rids all of those sequences of their power. It also seems to reveal a disturbing facet of Aja's mind, a view of homosexuality - lesbianism in particular - as bestial and dangerous. This could just be my sensitive liberal brain playing tricks, but I doubt it; so not only is the twist hopelessly retarded, it is also offensive. Watching High Tension is akin to eating a delicious, spicy Spanish dinner and then getting a swift kick to the nads.
