"High Tension" review

High tension (2003)

Directed by Alexandre Aja
Writing credits Alexandre Aja Grégory Levasseur

Cécile De France.... Marie
Maïwenn Le Besco.... Alexia (as Maïwenn)
Philippe Nahon.... The Killer

Two girls head out to the family house in the countryside to study. What could possibly go wrong? Trouble lands at their door when a big man with a baseball cap shows up and starts to slaughter everyone. Love and friendship will be tested as the short haired girl will not let anything or anyone stand between her and her friend.

"Haute Tension" starts off as an excellent slasher/suspense flick. It has some quality gore. The dad gets to know a dresser drawer better and the mom gets ventilated. Marie witnesses all of the slaughter. We see everything through her eyes. When her friend is kidnapped, Marie goes into hot pursuit. She is ready to fight to the death. All of these scenes were excellent.

Unfortunately, "High Tension" has the dreaded "Twist Ending". Sometimes they work but this time it doesn't. The problem was that the movie, up until the last fifteen minutes, was so good! I was completely immersed with these two ladies fight for their lives. Uncompromising brutality and gore is something that has been missing from horror flicks for awhile. It's so great to run into a real horror flick again. But man that ending. It's a showoff move that ALMOST negates the rest of the movie. The good news is that the last fifteen minutes are pretty bloody so I can forgive it. "High Tension" is a good horror movie. Just be prepared to be twisted.

SCORE: 3 out of 4 twisted girls