Great, great horror film. The cast was amazing and the acting was horrifing (which is a good thing). Great gore shots and very intense and scary!

9/10 (A-)

Looks good. I want to see it.

Here's my review. It was actually published in the Lexington Herald Leader

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/en ... 849972.htm

9/10 (A-) or ***1/2 (out of four)

I don't want to give my review until after I see it tonight. I want to review the version that is released here, not the version that was released overseas two years ago.

Ever since I was little, horror films have been an all time favorite of mine. I remember great memories of watching HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN 2, SCREAM and many other horror classics. My dad was strict with what I could watch when I was young, I even remember he wouldn't let me watch the teen comedy CAN'T HARDLY WAIT even though I was eleven or so when it was released. He'd always allow me to watch R rated horror movies, no matter how bad they were. That is problably the best thing he could have done for me while I was little when it comes to movies. When I heard of HIGH TENSION a few years ago (probably about three), I really wanted to see it but I was slowly forgetting about it. When I heard about it being released in the US, I was really happy but disappointed that the MPAA had rated it NC-17 which meant it probably wouldn't play near me. Then not too long ago Lions Gate announced that they made the cuts to make the film rated R, I was happy, HIGH TENSION would be getting a wide release and I'd be able to see it. The only problem was that I saw the original French version and I knew they they probably cut a lot of it out. They announced about a minute was cut, which for a film 86 minutes in length, is a long time. The review I'm giving you now is the American, dubbed and cut version.
Marie and Alex are two college kids desperate for some study time to study for their finals come up. Alex's family, who just moved to France, live up in the woods and it's very peaceful there. For one weekend, Marie and Alex go down there to get some studying done but they first night they arrive, they're greeted my a dirty, ugly, fat man who kills Alex's whole family.
Cécile De France was absolutely stunning playing Marie. She did her own dubbing for the film and that helped the movie a lot. In the film she played a French girl, so she normally spoke in French, while Alex and her family spoke in English because they just moved to France (it wasn't like that in the uncut version of the film). You could feel her sheer terror as she was hiding from the killer and you could feel her excitement when she film met him face to face. I'd go as far to say that she turned in one of the best female horror performances of all time, I'd rank her right up there with Jamie Lee Curtis in HALLOWEEN, who I thought was absolutely amazing.
Maïwenn Le Besco played the scared Alex. I thought she was great. She's a really good actress and I wish she was in more films. I wonder if she knows English, I don't think she does or else she would have done her own dubbing, I'm sure. Also, I just want to say that for most of the movie I thought she looked kind of ugly but at the end she looked really pretty, even with blood all over her face :wink: I love the final scene when the big twist is revealed, I think her acting is absolutely brilliant.
I have to say I was upset with the cuts made to the film. Much of the gore was removed from the film, though there still was enough to shock people who haven't seen the original version. Yes, the original version was gory but I don't think they needed to cut anything else. It wasn't anymore gory than KILL BILL VOLUME 1, the only difference between the two was that HIGH TENSION was much more realistic in tone than the fun VOLUME 1. No scenes were completely left out, actually there was one scene they left in the most goriest shot of the scene but still cut the scene, which makes absolutely no sense. Normally the MPAA cares much more about sexuality in a film rather than the violence, I was surprised to see all the sexuality was still attached to the film.
I absolutely hate dubbing in films. Thankfully, much of the French dialogue track is still attached to the film. Whenever Marie is not at Alex's house, it's in French. The only time it was dubbed was at the beginning when they were at the house and everybody was getting murdered. If anyone is worried about the dubbing, it really isn't that bad. I wouldn't not see this in theaters just because of that.
HIGH TENSION is an amazing film, whether you are watching the edited version or the awesome unedited version. While I do have my problems with the twist ending, I think it's a good twist. The only thing I don't like about it is that there is always something that doesn't make sense, no matter how you think of the film. HIGH TENSION is one of the best movies of the year and dare I say one of the best horror movies of all time.

9/10 (A-)

I must say that I loved High Tension up to the point where the big "twist" is revealed. It just made me angry that this film went the route of so many other films recently with Hide and Seek being the most recent I've seen where the twist just doesn't work for me. A lot of people I know love or hate this based on the twist, and while I don't hate it, it cheapened the movie for me. Like everyone else said, the acting was great all around and the gore was pretty cool.

P.S. For anyone that has seen the original version, what scenes were cut?

Here is a GREAT analysis about the ending ...

*Major Spoilers*
Okay - This is clearly the most heated thread I've ever seen on IMDB; so, obviously Aja has done something noteworthy. Either way, because I'm pretentious like that, I'll just toss my hand into this bloody ring and state what I think must be the "linear" plot-line, after having seen it. First: There was no truck. Look at it. It's a stylized, ruddy, improbable machine that would have to have been able to outperform a GTO (or whatever that thing was) while weighing, like, three tons. Couldn't happen. Plus, think about how, if Marie realy had the truck, she would have to have stowed it: are we to believe that she drove there beforehand, hid it in the cornfield, and flew back to where she left with Alex in her car? Even with the magic of crazy, it's a bit much. The explanation?
It was all done in Alex's car. Notice how Marie was curled up cozily in the back throughout the opening sequence? Foreshadowing. Plus (as my wife pointed out), the infamous "severed blowjob" scene only appeared when Marie was noting Alex's having ditched her at the club. It was a manifestation of Marie's alter-ego appearing only to the audience, but decontextualized at the moment to throw us off. That's why the head looked like Alex's. It was.Second: She didn't know Jimmy. Nor did he give a knowing wink to where she wasn't hiding. She probably did have to get gas, and he probably did notice the severe blood-stains, so she killed him. As creepy-french-ogre-man. What we saw was the unconcsious reconstruction of the events through the eyes of the Marie who didn't want to be a killer. Watch "Fight Club" - it'll make more sense after that, maybe.
Third: Just in case it seems like a "plot hole", the masturbation scene was a classic misdirection: she never re-entered the house. She saw Alex showering, and her "forbidden love"-switch was engaged, and the main psychosis began. It was her ringing the doorbell, and her killing everyone after that, and she (just like the gas station) engaged in a massive delusion, placing herself in a position of disassociation and self-pleasure (reflecting the sexual drive which engaged her delusion in the first place.) After killing everyone, she left with Alex (who *did* have the cotton in her ears, and so was taken doubly by surprise and couldn't fight her off in Alex's car, and so on and so forth. Remember how she almost fell asleep while driving after the gas station? Didn't that seem odd? That showed a psychic break in her alter-ego.
Fourth (and finally): The film was threefold: it was a brilliant horror-suspense movie wrapped in an unrequited-love story which served as the catalyst for an inner struggle story: Marie, like most deranged murderers, wanted to get caught. She knew - at least the part we followed throughout the movie - that what she was doing was sick (not to mention inefficient, courtship wise), and so was fighting herself (quite literally, in some cases).
Okay. There it is. Hopefully, everyone will agree with this interpretation, and thus the ridiculous and abusive bickering can be reduced to whether or not you liked the directorial strategy Aja employed to achieve the plot as outlined above. I told you I was pretentious.

Okay, so I finally saw it tonight, and let me just say that not only was I not disappointed in anyway, but I actually enjoyed it more this time around. Seeing it on the big screen with an amazing sound system really heightened the overall experience of the film. The dubbing wasn't as bad as I was expecting (it's actually completely dropped about half way through the movie in favor of subtitles), and the big elephant in the room (the editing) is not nearly as bad as I was expecting, either. As soon as I got home tonight I popped in my uncut DVD to compare, and i'd say there is about 30 seconds of footage missing. About three seconds on the Dad's death, about four seconds on the Mom's death, about three seconds on the gas station guy's death, about ten seconds on the barb wire bat scene, and about seven seconds on the saw scene. The saw scene actually suffers the most from the editing, as the gore spraying around is completey gone (just blood spraying in this cut), and we only see the saw dig into the guy's chest for about one second, where as in the uncut version we see it for about five seconds. Other than the saw scene, you'd be hard pressed to say a certain scene was hurt because of the editing. Most of the cuts are so minor (and just remove the truly excessive, over the top stuff) that it doesn't lessen the impact of the film at all. So all in all, the US release of Haute Tension is pretty much the same version we've all been watching the last couple of years, with just some minor tweaks here and there. It's still incredibly affective (I got chills countless times out of pure amazement, and the family massacre still packs a huge emotional punch), incredibly well made (Aja is already a complete master of the genre after one film), and still one of the best slasher films of all time in my humble opinion. A classic that shouldn't be missed by any one person, let alone a horror fan, I give High Tension an A.

makeshift...

I don't know if it's just because I saw it a week ago (and you saw it a long while ago), but it wasn't better for me the second time around. Sure, the big screen is always better (though, not in a 20% full theater...), but for some reason, I didn't enjoy it as much the second time around. Still great, but something happened...

A- for now.

The twist is horrible. Does that mean the "killer" drove that Jeepers Creepers truck and the girl drove the gas station attendants car?

Too many plot holes and very bad dubbing. They should have dumped this movie into the garbage.

D-

It is confusing at first. Actually, half the movie was all in the girl's head...

*SPOILERS*

The girl WAS the killer, jb. All the scenes where she was being "chased" by the killer was all in her head. It's like Fight Club, if you've seen it.

I know she is the one and that destroys any crediblity the plot has. Not half the movie, 90 percent of the movie was in her head.

High Tension was just terrible, and it wasn't the ending that killed it for me, but the stupid twist ending was the final nail in the coffin. It was just a been-there-done-that movie with absolutely nothing new to offer. I've seen a ton of horror movies, so this one's scares didn't get to me, and the gore was lacking. Sure, there was lots of blood, but then, been-there-done-that.

This is weird. Everyone here loves it, but all my friends hated this movie something awful.

Because they probably just like mainstream stuff :wink:

B

I liked it just fine. It had just the right amount of gore and suspense (ie. lots), and the twist didn't get on my tits as much as it seems to have others.

That or they just love good movies and this isn't one of them.. Hmmm...

Do you need to comment on everything I say about HIGH TENSION? Didn't think so!

High Tension is a great thriller, and shockingly gory. It's not really scary, but the title lives up to its name: the movie is VERY tense. The twist at the end was allright; it could've been better. But it's easily one of the year's most suspenseful films.

B+

This is hands down the best horror film of the year! For one, the actors are great. I also thought the score was brilliant. I knew the twist before going in to see the film, but when it happened I wasn't disappointed. I honestly thought the movie couldn't of ended on a better note. I thought the twist was handled brilliantly. Some directors in Hollywood need to take notes from this director, because he certainly knows how to build intensity around every scene. I also thought the settings were creepy. The farmhouse was a great setting for the opening, and I thought the gas station scene was incredibly intense. The scene in which Marie is stalking the killer in the woods or forest, that scene was amazing, and had me at the edge of my seat. I loved the gore factor. I'm a huge horror fan, and I was really enjoying it immensely. The scene where Alexia's mother is gasping for a breath, that just looked so realistic, and I was so stunned by how well the makeup was done. This movie is literally better than 90% of all horror movies here in the USA. We should be making more movies like this. I'm definitely going to watch it again. And once again I absolutely loved the twist. My only complaint was the very mediocre dubbing, but it wasn't so much of a distraction since the film barely had any dialogue. :wink:

A

Yay!! You just made me very happy Vince

I'm glad. :grin:

I just finished watching High Tension for the first time since theaters and WOW! I have to admit I was slightly disappointed when I saw it in theaters and honestly didn't think I would end up raising my rating for it, but watching this on DVD was amazing! For one, there wasn't any awful and distracting dubbing to give the movie a goofy tone. I'm amazed how different the movie seemed without the bad dubbing. It really changed the whole tone. And another major plus was that this is one slick-looking DVD transfer. I don't remember it looking so gorgeous in theaters, not like this anyway. The only real downside is that I don't have surround sound, which made a difference in theaters. Scenes with music, like the one in the beginning in the car and then the whole part with her following the killer didn't have such an impact this time, not sound-wise anyway. I remember tapping my feet to the music before but no matter how much I turned the volume up now on my TV it just wasn't the same. I probably could have surround sound though, I just don't know how to hook my speakers up to the TV. Plus I'd need an entertainment center to put everything on because I have so much stuff now that I'd have no room for the speakers by my TV without one.

Anyway, with surround sound I can only imagine this movie being more amazing, because it relies heavily on sound and I can't see it not making a huge difference.


My rating for High Tension has gone up to a 9/10 (A-). I highly recommend people that saw it in theaters and didn't care for it, or that liked it but thought it could have been better, to check it out again on DVD. Even if you hated the twist I doubt you'll find it as annoying the second time around.

Oh, and the couple of times when subtitles pop up and nobody is saying anything didn't really bother me. It's a small price to pay for an otherwise delicious DVD!

I just rented this movie today, the "Unrated Edition" wanting to see if it was in fact as brutal as it's made out to be, so I'll be reviewing it here tomorrow...