Saturday, September 4, 2010

High Tension (2003)

When I first saw High Tension several years back, I was totally naive to the world of French horror.  In fact, I even watched it dubbed, which I never do with foreign movies anymore, horror or otherwise.

High Tension is on sale this week for $7.99 on Blu-Ray which is obviously incredible.  I picked it up and spent an awesome afternoon with my couch and wine, revisiting this badass flick.

Alex and Marie are college students taking a break from partying and debauchery to focus on their studies with a vacation at Alex's parents' house in the country.  Although Alex seems to be quite promiscuous, Marie seems uninterested in boys.  In fact, you might say she leans more towards women.  Unrequited lesbian love is a common theme in French horror, and we see Marie watch Alex shower and then spend some "alone time" thinking about it.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly until an old truck pulls up to the house.  The creepy driver immediately kicks off a bloodbath, and kidnaps the two girls.  Dude cruises through the south of France killing people as the girls try to escape.  The twist to this movie is pretty freakin' awesome and the last scene will be burned in your memory for a while.

I would say that the problem with this movie, as with many French horror flicks, is that you never get to see it for the first time again.  Once you know the twist, you look at it in a whole different way.  This is definitely not my favorite French horror movie, but it made its mark are really being the first bloody French flick to go mainstream.

4 comments:

Scare Sarah said...

You're right about the twist. Wish I could see that again for the first time too. Amazing film.

Maynard Morrissey said...

a remarkable debut and IMO one of the best horror flicks from the 00s

Chris Regan said...

I remember watching this for the first time - it was pretty late and I put it on only meaning to watch the first half, but then couldn't stop watching until the end. Have seen it a couple of times since and I think it's so well made that there's still a lot to enjoy when you know the twist. Fantastic film.

The Scream Queen said...

@ScareSarah: Definitely. I feel that way about so many French horror flicks. Their only "flaw" is that you'll never be able to see them for the first time again.

@Maynard: Agreed.

@Chris: Definitely agree. Martyrs and Inside surpass it for me in terms of "favorites" but it's still up there as an awesome flick.