Haute Tension
(Switchblade Romance)
(High Tension)

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Summary:
Mary and Alex are good college (lovers?) friends and head out to visit Alex's family in a deserted cornfield (of course), out in the heavily wooded boonies. During the night a psycho with a rusty truck and coveralls breaks in and kills the father, mother and young boy, leaving Alex chained up and frightened. Mary manages to elude discovery from the killer, and goes on a desperate mission to save her friend's life.

Review:
Horror fans have embraced this movie from all around the globe. It's soon to get an edited release here in America, and this is kind of a big deal. The gore is extreme, but there's very little screentime used showing it. There are only about 2 and a half minutes of onscreen gruesomeness, and the rest is the tension building suspense of being pursued by a sociopathic killer. Sadly, an R rating will most likely remove a memorable head crushing explosion, as well as a few other 'goodies' that I won't mention, because I don't want to give it away. Most definetely there will be an unrated American DVD release once it's out on video. So until then, if you see it in theater, keep in mind that one whole minute will probably change the face of this movie's brutality forever.

I'll give you an introduction to what you should be ready for when you see this: Within the first ten minutes, there's a faceless stranger in a rusty truck with a woman's head bobbing up and down in his lap as he says, "Oh yeah... that's good. Look me in the eyes..." and about ten seconds later he throws a severed woman's head out the driver's side window.
I am admittedly a big fan of slasher films. I enjoy a good gorefest as much as the next guy, and so when it came to the bloody goodies, I got a nice smile on my face. As a compliment to the gooey goodness, I also had a very decent supply of medium leveled tension, and respected the fact that the young child gets his early on in the film. It makes more sense that a poor child wouldn't be able to hide well enough to evade an adult, especially if he/she is scared. Having him get whacked easily was a testament to this film's brutality, and its' efforts at trying not to play along with most horror movie formulas.
Haute Tension has some gorgeous cinematography. It's well lit, flashy, with pretty reds and greens from the bloody victims and woodland exteriors. Most of it is filmed at night, but the screen doesn't become so dark that you can't see what's going on. The soundtrack is reminiscent of John Carpenter's droning synthesizer scores, and also makes good use of odd clacking sound effects, which helps build the tension. Haute Tension is a very good slasher film. The Killer in his dirty coveralls plays it heartless and disturbing. He has a great ambience, with his heavy breathing and desire to inflict pain ... great job, my friend!

The problem with this movie is the ending. I know that it's got clues and references to the way things eventually turn out with these characters from opening to close, but Jesus, man, movies have GOT to stop with this annoying formula already! This would have been a great time on every level of horror fan goodness if they didn't try so hard to give the audience one last surprise when it ended.
Much like I felt with the recently watched and respected movie A Tale of Two Sisters, it tries too hard to switch things up a bit in the final act. After watching so many damned movies with a similar - if not the exact SAME - twist in the end, I was pretty pissed off! I can't say I didn't see it coming; I did. I saw this ending coming because every review you read about this movie mentions that there's a surprise coming our way in the end. I figured I was wrong (once again) on my presumptions because it would be too easy of a route to take. I thought to myself (once again) "no, that would be pretty dumb if they did that." I'm a stinking fool for fooling myself into thinking otherwise. I've fooled me more than twice already, and now ... I really don't know what to say.
Within the last five months of starting this site, I've reviewed only a handful of movies, and a good number of them conclude with a similar theme. To all those fans of this movie who proclaim it to be 'original' and 'thought provoking' as well as claiming that things DO make sense when you watch it a second time (and I did) and call others stupid for not finding it to be a truly legendary setup...
That's when I ask these people if they've watched a lot of thriller/horror flicks in the last five years. If I mention at least 30 titles since 1999 and use them as an example for what Haute Tension brought us, and how the end lacks in originality, please tell me I have no evidence stating otherwise.

Alexandre Aja has made a fantastic first effort with Haute Tension, but the ending... well, screw that shit. I'm sick and tired of this kind of conclusion. If it was just a straight up horror slasher gorefest that didn't try to be anything more than a tension mounting frightfest, well, there'd be little to nothing to be upset with! However, seeing as how it went the route that it did, and the ending is what can often make or break a movie - especially one with a twist - I give a lot less props to this great movie because of the final seven minutes.

GRADE: C+

TRIVIA:

I haven't read Dean Koontz's book Intensity, but supposedly this movie is almost a blatant ripoff of that book for the first three quarters of its' run time. Even down to the small details of the main character trying to elude the killer's attention in her guest bedroom... such as fixing the covers, hiding the clothes bag, and the killer smudging his finger under the faucet to see if it had been used recently.

Maiwenn Le Besco (Alex) is the former girlfriend of director Luc Besson. She was the young prostitute in the opening of The Professional as well as the opera singer alien in The Fifth Element. Both are Luc Besson films, of course.

Reviewed: 2/20/05