The Movie Melting Pot … ‘High Tension’ (France, 2003)

Jeremy:

Alexandre Aja’s breakout film, ‘High Tension’, was also, it seems in recent years, to have been a precursor to a new movement. Stylistic horror has become a very apparent genre in French filmmaking, and, with recent films like ‘Ils’, ‘A L’interieur’, and ‘Frontiere(s)’, the American market of filmgoers is becoming inundated with them. But, as far as can be gauged, ‘High Tension’ was the first.

The film, released in France in 2003, got a wide, American release in Summer of 2005, and made $3.6 million at the US box office. Early trailers for the film showed fans of horror a style that had not been seen for a number of years. The last 10 to 20 years of horror films had lost that gritty, dirty feel that seemed to be lost in the cookie cutter Slasher films of the early to mid ’80s. There was no dialogue in the trailer, only the moody sounds of Sonic Youth’s cover of The Carpenters’ ‘Superstar’. Casual moviegoers were probably even unaware the film was foreign. What they got, however, was a tightly crafted, very suspenseful horror film that would not soon be forgotten.

The story follows two, female college friends, Alexia and Marie, on break from school. Marie is clearly the wilder of the two, Alexia the more bucolic. They go to stay with Alexia’s family at their country farm. In the middle of the first night, a stranger enters the home, quickly killing the family with an extremely twisted ferocity and kidnapping Alexia. Marie pursues the kidnapper attempting to rescue her friend, and what follows is very intense and very scary.

Maiwenn Le Besco and Cecile De France as Alexia and Marie respectively are particularly good in their parts. Le Besco’s character is not given much weight, and her moments in the latter part of the film boil down to the actress screaming while being drenched in gallons of fake blood. The character of Marie is given much more to do, and her moments in the final act of the film are what gives ‘High Tension’ its biggest drawback.

Much has been said about this film’s ending. There is a twist that comes in the final moments of the film that basically changes everything you’ve seen before, and this twist does not work one bit. There is a list of rules that must be followed when a filmmaker is considering ending his or her movie with a “twist”.

1. The twist should add something to the film. This generally makes films with a great twist ending a “must” in terms of second viewings.
2. The film should not be completely dependent upon its twist. If you cut the twist out, the film should still work. The twist in these films generally makes the film that much better, but the film was already good to start.
3. The twist should make sense. That is, when looking back over the course of the film, usually on a second viewing, the twist should not counteract any of the events of the film.

If you look at some of the best twists in film history, you notice that all of these rules apply to them. Filmes like ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘The Usual Suspects’, and ‘Psycho’ are just a few examples of films with twist endings that follow the rulebook. ‘High Tension’ only follows one of these rules, the second one listed above, and it’s the one rules in the list that should have the caveat listed by it that says, “If your film only follows this rule, than you should cut the twist ending, because the twist might actually ruin what is already a good movie.”

The ending of ‘High Tension’ simply doesn’t make sense. If you watch it a second time, knowing where the story is taking you, you realize that it doesn’t make sense. The twist adds absolutely nothing to the rest of the film. If anything, it almost ruins the film.

Philippe Nahon, who plays the psychotic stranger, gives an amazing performance, and he brings this character to life that rivals such classic Slasher villains as Jason Voorhees and Leatherface. It is a character that could have become the staple of a franchise had the film gone in that direction. Unfortunately, the ending of ‘High Tension’ negates everything Nahon does in his performance and the character he built up throughout the film.

The film that leads up to the ending is a well-crafted thriller that established Aja, and this is a good thing. His remake of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ is one of the few recent horror remakes that arguably surpasses the original. He wrote and produced ‘P2’, which wasn’t a great horror film, but it wasn’t completely unwatchable. With ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Piranha 3D’ in his future, it looks like Aja will become one of the new breed of horror masters. It is even better for him that his brand of horror never lets itself delve into the PG-13 coma that has befallen many recent horror films. Nor does it rely too heavily or become overly dependent on being all about torture, which seems to be another staple in Hollywood horror that should be put aside. Aja makes nicely fashioned, gritty horror movies that fans of horror have long been missing from the genre.

Having said that, his breakout film nearly falls off the rails in the 11th hour. The ending of ‘High Tension’ doesn’t completely ruin it, but the film would have been better off without it. As it is, it’s best to be viewed once and once only. The parts that are good are very good, but once you find yourself flailing for any kind of discernible answers in the final few scenes, it’s time to stop the DVD, start it over, and watch the first 90 minutes again.

(2.5 stars out of 5)