Uh, huh. High Tension (2003) Split personality. The hulking, ogre-like appearance of the killer is a loose reflection of a real French serial killer, Émile Louis. Tags:Commentary CommentaryFilmmakingHome Video, "Rob is great. “We realized that the night was the real location of the movie.”. That is until a serial killer shows up and invades the home, not hesitating to kill said parents and target the two friends next. The girls are followed into the deep, dark woods by a large man in blood-soaked coveralls, who drives a battered old truck that must have been purchased used from a 1940s French crime movie. The script originally called for the killer to finger both Marie’s mouth and inside her pants. A well-crafted plot twist can take a movie from good to great —in fact, some movies are regarded as classics specifically because of twists that completely recontextualize the story. High Tension (2003) It remains curious how the first hour of the film feels lifted almost directly from Koontz’s 1996 novel, but he’s never sued them so I see no reason to get irked by any of it. I had forgotten how much I hate dubbing, especially when it's done as badly as in "High Tension." Reader, take my advice and never hang up on a 911 operator just because you get mad at them because they're so stupid they want to know where you're calling from, especially not if the slasher has picked up an axe. 9. Unfortunately, the opposite is true with High Tension. 8. Nahon was already tired of playing villains when they approached him for the film and initially passed, but they ultimately convinced him to go dark one more time. 17. Commentators: Alexandre Aja (director/co-writer), Grégory Levasseur (co-writer/art director). Main character did it. The only sequence he wasn’t in there for is the end where the car flips off the road. High Tension. Haute tension est un film réalisé par Alexandre Aja avec Cécile de France, Maïwenn. The lens flare at 26:07 silhouettes the killer’s head by complete accident. High Tension, aka Switchblade Romance (much better title) is the best horror movie I've seen come out in theaters in years. 6. That twist was trashy, insubstantial garbage, and was used at the expense of the film's own internal logic. He likes movies. High Tension movie reviews & Metacritic score: A white-knuckle journey into the heart of fear, this is the terrifying story of two girls' battle for survival at … The twist: In this French film, it turns out … After the truck leaves the deserted house, and stops at a gas station, Marie has another opportunity to get help, but blows it. In high hopes of spending a peaceful weekend, the French college students and best friends, Marie and Alexia, head to Alexia's parents' secluded cottage to study, unbeknownst to them that a deranged and utterly sadistic killer is prowling the area, slashing innocent victims for his perverse pleasure. I am tempted at this point to issue a Spoiler Warning and engage in discussion of several crucial events in the movie that would seem to be physically, logically and dramatically impossible, but clever viewers will be able to see for themselves that the movie's plot has a hole that is not only large enough to drive a truck through, but in fact does have a truck driven right through it. Alex: The problem is, he's got a girlfriend he doesn't want to … They asked the production company, Europa, “if it was possible to cut the head off” the female figure in their opening logo. 14. 3. The moment of contact took a few tries and ultimately involved “meat and sand.”, https://medium.com/media/2ffef9e738f2898d2248e3ce5797a794/href. The track is a good mix of anecdotes and detailed filming information, and if you can get beyond the two thick French accents it’s worth a listen. The last one I can remember is Gaspar Noé's I Stand Alone - I despised that movie almost throughout its entirety, until the last ten minutes or so really shifted my perspective and helped me to admire it in a whole new light. Alexandre Aja's "High Tension" is a slasher film about a madman prowling a rural area of France, chopping, slicing and crunching his way through, let's see, a body count of five or six people, including a small child that the film does not neglect to show crumpled and dead in a cornfield. As she and her friend Maria (Cecile De France) arrive at the deserted country home of Alex's family, Alex warns her: "Their French is even worse than mine." Showing all 36 items Jump to: Certification; Sex & Nudity (6) Violence & Gore (23) Profanity (1) Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking (1) Frightening & Intense Scenes (3) Spoilers (2) Certification. They acknowledge the similarity to Duel and Jeepers Creepers, but say it’s uniquely French with the added benefit of the appearance at the front of creepy facial features. Not all: There are inexplicable sections where the characters swear in French, which is helpfully subtitled. My opinion is that High Tension is great as long as you don't think about it too much. That's what it's about, anyway, until we discover it actually consists of something else altogether, something I think is not possible, given our current understanding of the laws of physics. It's lip-flap on parade. We know this because he drops a woman's severed head out the window of his truck. The gas station attendant’s murder by ax was modeled on The Shining’s similar kill, and they watched the sequence multiple times to understand the shot. Note: The film's British title is "Switchblade Romance," which, if you see the film, will seem curiouser and curiouser. And he's a good person. Soon it's lights out, although there is enough in the way of moonglow and night lights for us to watch Marie masturbate, perhaps so that we can see if it makes her lose her mind or anything. Alexandre Aja's "High Tension" is a slasher film about a madman prowling a rural area of France, chopping, slicing and crunching his way through, let's see, a body count of five or six people, including a small child that the film does not neglect to show crumpled and dead in a cornfield. MPAA: Rated R for graphic bloody killings, terror, sexual content and language. Anal 08/16/17 After all, the movie hit theaters in 2007, and casualties were high in Iraq and Afghanistan. Aja is inside the car throughout most of the chase with the killer’s truck. 20. There is a swing hanging from a tree limb, and she sways back and forth on it while she smokes, so that later we can get the standard thriller shot of the swing seat still swinging, but now suddenly empty. 28. They feel it looks exactly like southern France where the film is set. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. 25. The rest of the movie you will have to see for yourself -- or, not, which would be my recommendation. Perhaps she feels her presence is needed for the movie to continue, a likely possibility as the list of living characters shrinks steadily. View All. 22. The foot chase at the end with the giant circular saw is a tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From the point when Marie crawls out from under the bed and follows the killer downstairs, she persists in making one wrong decision after another and ignoring obvious opportunities to escape. The movie was originally shot in French, but for purposes of the dubbing one of the characters, Alex (Maiwenn) has been given an American accent. 4. As for the BEST - On the basis of a VERY gory psycho/slasher it works quite well. High Tension gives us the BEST and WORST in movie making. The glass is Alexia’s foot is a tribute to The Hills Have Eyes which is another film the pair would go on to remake. I Will Not Forget You: Barry Jenkins on The Underground Railroad, The Kind of Stuff That Opens You Up as a Human Being: Simon Baker on High Ground, The End of an Era: Norman Lloyd, 1914-2021, True/False Festival 2021: Highlights of a Virtual Event. 19. Happily. They originally planned to show the boy’s death via his brains launched toward the camera after being shot in the back of the head, but ultimately decided “it was a little bit too much.”. Find More Movie Quotes. Shiva Baby. Recently, I saw Haute tension a.k.a. They’re angry at themselves for forgetting to include Ricky the dog in the end credits. They had to settle on a mill and then modify it into a house with some of the furniture being used to hide old machinery, but some of the interiors are from other houses all together. Similarly, the public bathroom scene is modeled on Maniac. I still love this movie and hate its ending, and the commentary has done nothing to change that. I could follow the movie well until the weird twist in the end where we are shown that Marie and the killer is the same person (in Marie's body). She does have wit enough to pick up a big kitchen knife, so that we can enjoy the slasher movie cliche where such knives make the noise of steel against steel all by themselves, just by existing, and without having to scrape against anything. “It’s just a prop guy putting some water” on her. 15. https://medium.com/media/b0ea0f416ada918bd9c1a0efe489baf5/href. With Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan. 2. Aja tried at first to keep De France and Nahon separated during filming in the hopes of enhancing the antagonistic fear between them, but he quickly realized that was “really dumb.” The two actors became good friends. 16. Amazingly realistic beyond imagination. So if you ignore the fact that none of it really makes sense, just enjoy the gore and action. They’ve gotten “a few questions” about the scene showing the killer (Philippe Nahon) watching the house from his truck well before Marie (Cécile De France) even arrives, but it’s explained away by the fact that we’re seeing the story Marie is telling back at the hospital. High Tension (2003) Parents Guide Add to guide . The killer lifts up the mattress to check, but looks under the wrong end. Answer: It is impossible to know which vehicles were actually used, or even what really happened throughout the movie. 01 (x.xx) Two friends stop flirting and start fucking. The main problem with High Tension is the distinct lack of tension. For the majority of its runtime, High Tension (also known as Haute Tension or Switchblade Romance) really manages to live up to its name, and is widely considered by many as one of the most notable examples of the New French Extremity Movement. At the isolated country home, Marie gets the guest room in the attic and goes out into the Ominoise night to have a smoke. But no, they had to fuck with what could've been a skilled romp through a common premise. Logged in users can submit quotes. This is not because Marie has been shortened by the decapitator, but because she has gone back into the house. They’re angry at themselves for forgetting to include Ricky the dog in the end credits. 12. That’s not a real bathroom/shower that Marie sees Alexia in through the window. A meek pharmacist creates an alternate identity under which he plans to murder the bullying liquor salesman who has become his wife's lover. 24. Alex seems normal, but Marie is one of those goofy sorts who wanders into a cornfield for no better reason than for Alex to follow her, shouting "Marie! 2. The killer (Philippe Nahon) breaks into the house, stomps around heavily, and slaughters everyone except Alex, who he takes prisoner, and Marie, who hides under the bed -- yes, hides under the bed. They dropped the second half after realizing maybe that was going a bit too far. It has been edited down to an R, perhaps the hardest R for violence the MPAA has ever awarded, and into the bargain, Lions Gate has dubbed great parts of it into English. So is this movie. And one of them was long overdue.-4. 21. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes tells us life can be "poor, nasty, brutish and short." I thought the ending was a bit incoherent as the movie couldn't support the … The shot with blood splashing onto the camera lens was “a lucky accident.” The camera was a rental, and after production they got calls from another filmmaker wondering why the camera was “bleeding” when they positioned it in certain ways. “He was great.” 11. 5. Directed by John Berry. 26. 18. 1. This is where it confuses people a lot, but that one key part from the beginning ties it all together. No quotes approved yet for High Tension. Marie!" https://medium.com/media/1b8287f9bbfcf639236266847b90de47/href. High Tension (Switchblade Romance) Photos. ", Love Needs No Explanation in ‘History is Made at Night’, The 25 Best Marvel Cinematic Universe Action Sequences, ‘Spiral’ is a Mostly Toothless Saw of a Reboot, The Ending of ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’ Explained, The Ending of ‘The Woman in the Window’ Explained, 14 Movies to Watch If You Like ‘Spiral: From The Book of Saw’, Death Troopers Appear on the March in ‘The Bad Batch’ Episode 3, An Ode to the Texas Switch: One of Cinema’s Sneakiest Stunts, 15 Movies You Need to Watch After You See ‘Top Gun’. The killer’s truck, a Citroen H, is probably the most well-known French vehicle. I fucking hated High Tension. Directed by Alexandre Aja, High Tension focuses on two female friends who head to one of their parents' houses for a relaxing weekend. High Tension takes you on a bloody and brutal ride as a girl fights to save the life of her best friend. The producers were initially upset that the film was so dark visually. After so many times hearing "this is the movie horror fans have been waiting for" and then being horribly disappointed by Cabin Fever, The Ring, Malevolence, Darkness, The Grudge, and every single other one, I am throwing my full weight behind this one. High Tension Quotes. It's almost as if the writer decided at the last minute to add it for no better reason than he couldn't think of a way to end the movie. This is why Alexia is … We know he's up to no good the first time we see him. Since the parents hardly speak except to scream bilingually, this is not a problem. while the wind sighs on the soundtrack -- a track that beavers away with Ominous Noises throughout the movie; is there a technical term like Ominoise? Edit. “It’s a shame because it could be very funny to have her head fall in the water and put blood everywhere.” Yup, this is an Alexandre Aja commentary. (Not coincidentally, Levasseur would go on to write the remake ten years later). Read more Commentary Commentary from the archives. That being said Maiwenn is gorgeous. 23. “She’s masturbating and the killer arrives, and I think there’s an underlying link between both events.”, “I don’t think it’s so easy to stab a person, even if that person killed your family.”, “Everything was real in this scene, even he was a Romanian guy so he was easy to kill.”. “He was great.”. They originally planned to have the entire film set in the house before deciding to open up the locations. 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