Great Kills Review
Winter 2005 – Volume I, issue 2
|
Scott Meaney |
High
Tension – A
Film Review
High Tension is a film that begins
with a man masturbating into a severed head.
Seriously.
Now, more than ever before: You had me at hello! Director Alexandre Aja has crafted a nearly masterful movie. The first three-quarters of the film are
fantastically suspenseful. You will
enjoy the intro period of meeting the characters and the non-stop adrenaline
rush of the chase. Unfortunately, within
the last fifteen minutes High Tension
seems to lose it’s brain. The culprit is the cliché “twist” ending that
have become so prevalent lately. But we’ll delve more into the disappointing
ending later.
Marie and Alex are two friends
spending the night at a farmhouse with Alex’s family. (Trivia:
Alex is played by Maiwenn Le Besco. You may
remember her as “the blue opera chick” from The Fifth Element.) In the middle of the night, a mysterious killer
shows up to turn the home into a slaughterhouse. We are now taken completely into Marie’s mind
as she struggles to survive the unrelenting attacks of this bloodthirsty
trespasser. That’s all the plot detail
you get, because anything else would spoil the fun.
Unlike other recent horror
attempts, like The Grudge or Hide and Seek, there are elements of
genuine fear in High Tension. The murderer takes his time, methodically
gutting each household member with terrifying precision. His deliberate pace as
he stalks his prey shows us that he’s had a lot of practice with this. It’s
clear that this is not some supernatural beast, but a far more realistic
monster. We are genuinely afraid of this
man.
Be aware that High Tension is French. Don’t let that deter
any foreign film haters out there. There
is literally about 20 minutes of actual dialogue throughout the entire
movie. Unlike many of the recent Asian
horror flicks, scanning the subtitles does not neutralize the scares. When the actual “tension” starts, the only
thing you’ll have to read comes in quick, one-line exclamations.
Still, if the concept of
reading those few lines still seems daunting, well there’s the dubbed US cut on
the DVD. Unfortunately, this version has
been edited to avoid an NC-17 rating, so not only do you have to deal with
cheesy voice acting, but you lose some of the gore as well.
Just when everything is going
so well, High Tension stumbles in its
last fifteen minutes. Actually, it’s
more like stumbling off a mountain ─ into a pit of jagged glass. Seriously. Words cannot express how maddeningly stupid
the twist ending is. The closest way is
to remember that first mental guess you made during the opening scene. The one that you
immediately thought of since “these movies always have a twist” but then
ignored because it was simply too stupid to be the actual ending. Yes. That one. That’s the ending.
So
do yourself a favor: rent High Tension. When this movie stays on the straight and
narrow it’s one of the best thrillers ever made. To keep it that way, hit the stop button when
your DVD player inches towards the 75-minute mark. You’ll be glad you did.
If you take my advice and
ignore the ending: 4 out of 5
Watched all the way
through? 2.5 out
of 5
About the Writer
Scott Meaney hails from
“High
Tension – A Film Review” © 2005 by Scott Meaney
*All rights reserved by the author – no work
may be reprinted without the express consent of its author.