JustinCasey83 Alexandre Aja directs a slasher flick that is in abundance of blood,gore and violence in this French film called "High Tension".Cecile De France and Maiwenn star in this movie that tells the story of Alex and Marie's trip to rural Southern France to study when a sudden appearance of a man driving a truck started to wreck havoc to the family of Alex and puts Alex into captivity.Marie hangs on for an opportunity to save Alex.But things become awkward in the end as it was presented that Marie and the killer are one and the same.Despite the much debated possibility of Marie and the killer being the same person,the movie as a slasher flick was definitely entertaining.Viewers who love blood,gore and excessive violence will definitely enjoy this film.As far as the issue of having Marie and the killer as one and the same,I felt that it was clearly presented in the first scene but many people missed it particularly those who were furious about it.But for people who caught it,there should be no issue at all.

Desertman84 The French film "Haute Tension" a.k.a "High Tension" provides a good movie that would require probably at least two viewing to have a better understanding of the story and a nice appreciation of the movie.This slasher story that was directed by Alexandre Aja stars Cécile de France,Maïwenn and Philippe Nahon.The story involves a murders that are taking place in a French city that is committed by a serial killer.The victims that are killed are Alex's father,Alex's mother and a store keeper at a gas station.We also get to get to meet Marie,a lesbian who have great love for Alex.Violence predominates the story but nothing is what it seems.The final scene involves Alex looking over Marie over the window at a psychiatric hospital.No question that this was an extremely violent movie.The violence shown in it was definitely awkward and to the extreme.Too bad that many viewers misjudged it as a bad film.Even the late movie critic Roger Ebert gave it a 1 out of 4 rating.To have a clear understanding of the film,a viewer just needs to be attentive to it to fully understand the story.Or better yet,watch it a couple of times to appreciate its filmmakers' creativity.

missraze I knew this film would be bad when I saw 5 minutes in the little boy in a Wild Wild West cowboy costume, going "bam, bam, bam!" with a toy gun. How cliché. Was I supposed to go "awww, how cute, not the little boy!" as soon as I saw him, because the freaking writer was too lazy to develop his personality and his relationship with his family so I can build some sentiment for him? But I managed to convince myself for the 80 other minutes I sat through that the movie would be as mind-blowing as all these gimps and fools saying it would be. I downloaded the film and cut the movie off 10 minutes before it finished and now I can't wait to get my 640MB of RAM back.Well you were all wrong. I wish when the movie came out that I wasn't 12 years old and American or I would've seen the film and right away reviewed it and boycotted outside of the theaters for everyone to turn away as quickly as possible and save their ticket money for their bills instead.The deep country backdrop is ugly. It put me off it from the beginning but I kept on watching. It's lazy for a choice of scenery as well, because you see that setting so much in horror films, particularly around the time it came out. It's also cheap to use the high corn stalks as a mystery tactic when they foolishly wander in and get lost. "Oh my goodness! Will she come out alive?!" No, I didn't think that, sorry Mr. Director Guy. The secluded location of the house is annoyingly typical of a very bad idea for a tiny family of middle-aged parents, a small child and a chauvinistically thin, young daughter too incapable to defend themselves to live in, as individuals and as a unit. And now these feeble fools are in the middle of nowhere. We already know where this is gonna lead. The excuse of it being "idyllic" and a "place to get away and relax (while 'studying', the least relaxing thing ever)" doesn't work with me.But, again, I continue to squash these blatant facts like nagging cockroaches littered all over my common sense. And alas I keep watching.So never mind the weak force of the plot twist, but even without it this movie is the least heart-pounding "thriller" I've seen in a while. Because the whole time I'm vaguely wondering how this female (the daughter's friend) has survived all these attacks especially after witnessing the serial killer commit them while she's spectating in the worst hiding places ever: under the bed, in the closet, in a public bathroom stall, and in the back of THE serial killer's truck. I'm left to think this guy is the least diligent serial killer out there, which makes this whole poop-show very anti-climactic as it continues. Not good. She also took dammit forever to try and save anyone, which might play into the plot-twist, but it was still aggravating and discouraging to continue the film seeing her be so weak-minded and jelly-kneed.And here I am wanting a kickass heroine or a legendary female villain. And I get a stereotypically butch lesbian (cropped haircut, smokes, thumb ring, hoodie, and muscles) who ironically has a disappointingly weak swing and bad ideas and easy-flowing tears, so it really ruins any chances for her to succeed as the "cool tough chick" she's meant to be compared to her look, which seems like a contrived vision of the (casting) director. On top of that she's up against a stereotypically gruff man playing the serial killer. And he outsmarts her every which way she goes, which is upsetting since I was rooting for her, but it also wasn't surprising seeing how I definitely wouldn't want my life in this girl's hands, even if she didn't end up to be the bad guy. In the meantime, there was no feeling of intensity because the slue of hackneyed murders started so unprecedentedly, due to lazy screen writing. I promise: The only "conversation" the writer bothered to include in between the girls arriving and the murder was: "Did your friend get settled?"First off, to any aspiring horror writer who thinks this movie could serve as a blueprint, let alone Mr. Director Who Bit Off More Than He Could Chew By Also Being the Writer: Did her "friend" get settled? I'm sorry but if you're not running a Bed and Breakfast and are a host to a visitor who's meant to be a family friend and you're letting them stay for days in your home...I'd like to think you'd want to get to know them a bit and ask them yourself if they're settled in fine. OR even better you know them already considering your own child is bringing them for miles outside of civilisation to stay with you... But "did your friend get settled in?" is a bold and insulting indication that the writer didn't give a crap to at least show the visitor and the family and her friend having a nice character-developing and bond-creating discussion over the non-existent welcome home dinner... As far as the skip-a-beat excuse of a transition between the girls arriving and the "action": It literally goes from laughs and giggles between the girls unpacking in the bedroom literally to the doorbell ringing and kapow--foolish murder ensues. But all is well in the end because of the plot twist, right? Wrong.Ugh, whatever, just lame. This is what happens when you copy off of American Hollywood films!!!!The only thing I got from this film was a consolidation of me always telling myself: "Never open the door for a stranger." Not that they could hear me screaming it at the computer screen.

ckaz-65949 This was your standard slasher movie with a twist at the end. The movie was okay. Only continue reading if you've watched the movie. My review is more about the psychology of the story from the two writers. One of them must have had a girlfriend who was stalked by a lesbian and this movie represents that ordeal represented in a horror film. Marie is you stereo typical lesbian with short hair and a manly face. She wants to dominate and possess the more feminine Alex and goes about killing her family to achieve this. We are first to believe that the killer is some psycho madman who drives a truck and kidnaps Alex, but at the end we see who really is the psycho. The important scene is when at the house, the madman, cuts out Alex's face from a family photograph.