High Tension (2005)
 

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DVD DESCRIPTION:
Marie and Alexia are classmates and best friends. Hoping to prepare for their college exams in peace and quiet, they decide to spend a weekend in the country at Alexia's parents secluded farmhouse. But in the dead of night, a stranger knocks on the front door. And with the first swing of the knife, the girls' idylic weekend turns into an endless night of horror..

STORY: 5 out of 5:

ACTORS QUALITY: 5 out of 5: The 2 girls did an awsome job

VIOLENCE: 5 out of 5: Extreme murder

GORE: 5 out of 5: Extreme

SPECIAL EFFECTS: 4 out of 5: I thought one part was overdone

LOVE: 1 out of 5

FINAL THOUGHTS: What an awsome movie...Go get this one today...If you can handle foriegn horror than its for you....It had me glued to the tv the whole time, I didnt want to get up for nothing....

OVERALL SCORE: 5 out of 5

this one i got a few days before they advertised it on the tv.

if you are wondering, i found it online.

and it is spooky and chilling.

Good Movie - A worthy addition to your collection.

*The gore (5/5?), while good and well executed (no pun intended), isn't as extreme as many other films (think Bad Taste, Street Trash,Cannibal Holocaust/Ferox, etc...) but ranks up there with Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer and the like, and with the exception of one particular death scene (which I won't mention due to the spoilage factor) are average IMO.

Terrible movie. Decent premise, shite execution, totally nonsensical ending that's become a complete and utter cliché in contemporary film.

The "schizophrenic" explanation to the preceding events may be becoming more popular these days, but as films like Haute Tension have shown us this can still be a very effective and unpredictable move.

Similar revelations in Fight Club and American Psycho work well (just don't read the books first! er... or this post :p)

I'm more concerned about the "they're really dead!" theme, since The Sixth Sense was glaringly bloody obvious (main reason: Bruce Willis in the title role - his presence reeked of something afoot right from the start that the director desperately tried to conceal until the end) - though The Others wasn't so!

I didn't think that was the case with American Psycho.

Similar, in that the movie portrays a series of events that are not happening strictly as we are shown they are.

But American Psycho has several interpretations.

I really liked this movie to. I thought it was very good. I saw it in theatres but i havnt bought it yet. I plan on picking it up pretty soon though.

Little misinterpretation, I see what you're saying now.

I liked this film a lot - but i also found the ending to be annoying. Not so much because it uses a cliched move to the schizophrenic - but because I felt cheated. This was not a film like Sixth Sense where everything actually fits together if you only know the ending - parts of High Tension just don't make sense - (e.g., the scene where Killer Man is abusing a decapitated head while Maria is driving with her friend).

I mentioned this to a friend who pointed out that at the very very beginning of the film - Maria is in the hospital and someone says "are we recording? " So, the whole story (and hte DVD extras confirm this) is maria recounting the events to the doctors and police (in an original cut of the film, the "reveal" didn't happen until the very end and then Maria is confronted with the videotape from the gas station).

Anyway, on another note, another friend mentioned to me that the whole lesbian-lust-kills-whole-family is part of french culture - there was a notorious murder in the 30s when two sisters (also incestuous lovers) killed their employers and then gave no reason for the killings - this became a point of obsession for the french psychoanalytic community at the time (and since).

hmmm

I think it stays on the right side of liberty taking on the part of the writer/director; there will always be plotholes for the cynics who want to denounce films like this, but on the other hand they do not present too much of a problem for the more open-minded viewer, where visual metaphors and cinematic imagination/representation are not seen so much as cheats or impossible, actual situations.

i don't entirely disagree - but - i think all the visual acuity fails if the film fails to fulfill its obligation. i'm willing to suspend my disbelief for anything (i mean, really, anything) but the film also has a narrative responsibility to reward my suspension. (now, in fairness, i'm thinking of 'narrative' films - not art films like some of David Lynch's stuff that seems more meant to be a creative experience than actually provide a coherent narrative).

i don't think this makes me 'closed-minded' but a demanding viewer.

Perhaps the "schizoid-film" is still in its experimential stage, then.

Decades ago, plotting and narrative were simpler... more obvious, more straightforward. This pleased the people of these times.

Today's audiences seem ready for anything - but are they really? Maybe the visual suggestions in the likes of Haute Tension that do not take "reality" for granted are ahead of their time, even though they could reflect an increasingly unstable population as we struggle to control our brains and cope with modern life. Maybe this style is the shape of films to come as "reality" becomes less and less meaningful?

Speaking of David Lynch, what's Lost Highway about - (5000 word max.)?

:D

its a good point - i think of films like Jacob's Ladder and can't actually say what it was about (many threads that don't provide a single coherent point) - but i loved that film. the experience worked for me. a film like high tension, which i liked in ways, left me feeling, for want of a better term, 'cheated.' but i don't really know why?

I appreciate many open-ended films - like American Psycho (which i thought was very smart) - but not HT. i guess i'm still trying to figure out why.

no problem - i can do it in 1 - "stuff"

LOL

i got this as a coming home gift from my horror crew buddies and i loved it...those scitsofrenic movies always amaze me...never get old...its worth your money.

Films LIKE Haute Tension, maybe, but not Haute Tension its self. The "oh, the skinny blonde girl and the fat killer guy were the same person" thing felt completely tacked on, like the writer just pulled something out of his ass at the last second and made it seem like it was deep or something. It wasn't at all effective, and just because it was unpredictable doesn't mean it was good. For the schizophrenic gimmick to actually work, it has to make sense within the context of the movie as a whole, not just get stuck on the end of the movie.

i agree completely (although, after watching the DVD making-of bit, it seems the ending was always planned - but that they chopped away the pieces in the film that might have suggested it, which i think was a big mistake.

BTW, i loved Jorgen's Perfect Human and the 5 Obstructions is one of my absolute favorite films.

I remember reading a Dean Koontz book a few years ago (I can't remember the title), and the storyline in High Tension is almost identical, dare I say even ripped off straight from the book. Did anyone else read this or remember the book?

The Koontz book is Intensity - read it and judge, but remember many of the most exciting films have plagarised (some more blatantly than others).

This is a very considered and insightful review of Haute Tension:-

http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/491/491016p1.html

Zero, clean pm box!!!:p

yeah great job spoiling it for me... =/ whatever.

schizo stuff is ok.. i liked identity, and that movie was sachizo... nicely done, cant wait to get high tension

Is there a dubbed version? It's featured on my OnDemand right now, but it's French with American sub-titles.

Yea, I just watch High Tension for the first time..I don't know if it was like what was seen in theaters according to some of these posts. I watch the UNRATED special edition and it had the reveal earlier. Also to respond to the person above, the entire film was dubbed in english, except for certain parts which i thought was rediculous. Like every once and a whille some parts were just put in french with subtitles, then back to dubbing. The entire gas station scene was in subtitles. Then some parts which could have been easily dubbed, such as when shes talking in the corn feild, u cant even seee her lips, but yet they decided to subtitle that part.

And as far as the ending, it was horrible. I thought this movie was amazing up until the whole schizo thing, it WAS completley just thrown on. And it didn't even make sense. Such as the abusing the decapitated head in the begining, what-the-fuck? This film was fucking amazing till that bullshit ending, and it completly ruined the entire movie.

After watching the film, I realized one thing that was missing in the way I watch films. Immersing oneself completely when the film begins up until the end has always been sort of -the- goal.

But Zero puts into words what I needed: to be a demanding viewer. To not merely absorb the film in its entirety, but to chew it as well.

It has always been something of a feat to get my husband to watch films that people rave about in forums: Session 9, The Descent, and now High Tension. But at the end of it, he says he doesn't regret having seen this one. Which is not to say he liked it.

Unlike me, you see, he doesn't just take the film in. He always questions and analyzes. A demanding viewer! He doesn't remember details. He remembers the film as a whole concept.

Overall, I felt the same. Deceived. Here lies -- what I feel is -- the difference of this particular film from other schizophrenia themed films like The Machinist and Fight Club. The narrative is coherent. There is a prevalent sense within its elements. High Tension suffers from deficiencies in both.

Following the abovementioned theme, High Tension fails because it provides no subtle clues, apart from Maria dreaming about running after herself, of her condition. And as abundant in gore as it was -- which impressed me in some instances -- the execution and style left it much too blatant and crude.

"Pornographic," my husband said.

i thought this was funny its from dean koontz newsletter, in which haute tension is addressed.
----------------
THE RIP-OFF MOVIE

Many readers have been writing to inform Dean that a recent movie, which we aren't going to promote by naming it, ripped off the first half of INTENSITY. Initially, the director of this bloody and inept film denied having read the book, but later acknowledged that part of it might have been "inspired" by INTENSITY. In the past, Dean has been aggressive about plagiarism and has succeeded in every action he has taken against every plagiarst. In this case, a win appeared inevitable, but he decided to ignore the offense because he found the film so puerile, so disgusting, and so intellectually bankrupt that he didn't want the association with it that would inevitably come if he pursued an action against the filmmaker. Maybe the lesson is that if you're going to steal from dean's work, you better make your version as disgusting and misanthropic, as full of loathing for humanity, as you can, then you might get away with it.

I'm VERY glad others think this movie is overrated and overhyped. I was really in to it until the ending. It was definately not a bad idea for a twist, they just could have done alot better making everything leading up to the twist fit in with the actual twist.


I've seen people try to analyze it and make everything fit together but.... it just doesnt.

it was overhyped and overrated because it was different.
some people appreciate different..

especially reviewers who have to sit through tons and tons of shit ..sifting for the odd peanut.

it was a good fresh exploitation film... not the best - not the worst .. just something that felt fresh and was well acted.

i can appreciate that ..

parents want to watch it, and are wondering. how bad is the language and sex. does anyone remember, i don't feel like watching it again right now to find out.

One scene with nudity in it I think and one scene where a guy is molesting a severed head but you can't see it because it's in a truck. The language is coarse but not that bad and half if it is subtitled. Oh, there's a masturbation scene too but she's fully clothed.

Could not have worded it better. I can't believe I originally thought it was good. The gore is ok, but its just... not that big a deal.

i dont see everyones problem with it. i though it was fucking excellent. The scenes in the house were so creepy and well done. i loved it. the ending was kind of a downside though.

spook rating: ZERO. It was just... blah. The kills were alright, but it felt like more of a drama actually to me. I did somewhat like the climax, when the girl stole that cool old car and started following the man, and then the fighting with the ripsaw at the end.

Movie would have been perfect, if it ended <SPOILER>
right after the chick kills the fat ass and screams into the night.

It would have left you with an uneasy/fucked up feeling.

A) This could really happen
and
B) There would be no happy ending. The nightmare is over, but her life would have never been the same.

it was a solid film .. it wasnt the best - it was far from the worst.

have you guys looked on the horror shelf of the local video store lately ?
It's not like we have a lot to choose from ..

I dont understand when people get all over a good new release that's about 100X better then the other 90% of horror showing up in the stores.

no no. either way, i love the flick.

But if it ended on a TCM note.
The movie would have gone from good..to MINDBLOWING.


Just an all out slasher/revenge flick. totally fucked up.

give me decent acting, music and effects and i'm happy.

not a lot of that available in horror these days ... especially the acting.

i miss the older days - like the 70's when good actors were used in horror films .. before the onset of home video.

now we get useless nobodies that cant act for shit .. and a soundtrack composed and performed on some geek friends computer using free music software- and edited by someone without the slightest concept of pacing and flow.

thats why i still prefer the saminess of the japanese horror invasion ... they are way better made then most of the crap coming out of north america.

I think we have a few decent actresses in scare flicks today, but not many. Jamie Lee Curtis is of course the best horror actress, but I think that, for today, Neve Campbell is still the new scream queen.

Scream 3 (2000) .... Sidney Prescott
Scream 2 (1997) .... Sidney Prescott
Scream (1996) .... Sidney Prescott
The Craft (1996) .... Bonnie
The Dark (1994) .... Jesse Donovan


ok ... define "today"

today as in, i'll say 1990 and up. I really can't think of an actress whose done a BETTER job than her, can you? *in only horror movies, not everything else.