High Tension Lives up to Its Name

Title

High Tension (2003) (aka Haute tension)

Directed by

Alexandre Aja

Writing Credits

Alexandre Aja
Grégory Levasseur

Selected Cast

Cécile De France .... Marie
Maïwenn Le Besco .... Alexia (as Maïwenn)
Philippe Nahon .... The Killer
Franck Khalfoun .... Jimmy
Andrei Finti .... Alex's Father
Oana Pellea .... Alex's Mother
Marco Claudiu Pascu .... Tom
Jean-Claude de Goros .... Police Captain
Bogdan Uritescu .... Gendarme
Gabriel Spahiu .... Homme voiture

Review

High Tension is the story of a sexually twisted serial killer that terrorizes a family in a farmhouse in the French countryside and captures a young woman. Her friend goes on a desperate chase to rescue her before she is killed.

The studio is playing down the fact that High Tension is a French film. Americans know that French films are generally weak, pretentious, and dull, and the studio knew that they could get this film into the mainstream with some good English dubbing and a few minor script adjustments.

The results of this adaptation are amazing. High Tension is an original, horrifying, and thrilling film that excels in almost every area. The dubbed dialog is the films weakest point, but the French probably did not want to spend the time and money for parallel bilingual shooting (a device that is rarely used in film).

High Tension’s greatest element is creativity. Due to excellent writing, the story is unique, inventive, and bound to hold almost the attention of almost any horror fan.

The directing on High Tension is masterful. Fast pacing and skillful storytelling maintains a nearly constant level of anxiety throughout the film.

If you watch High Tension, pay very close attention to every detail. The ending will confuse you if you do not take the entire plot into account.

Rating (1-10)

8

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