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High Concept
"The version of 'High Tension' that you are about to see is a dubbed English translation of the original French-language film, featuring Cecile de France's own voice in the part of Marie." Marie is a young college student who travels deep in the French countryside to a farmhouse owned by the family of a fellow student Alex (Maïwenn). No sooner have they settled in for the night than trouble shows up in the form of an overall-clad psychotic who tortures and "The new version has also been re-edited slightly, resulting in a running time that is about one minute shorter than the original." The problematic dubbing is all but forgotten once the killing starts. Even edited, High Tension is a nasty piece of work, with some particularly gruesome gore that makes me wonder what was actually cut (though not "'High Tension' was conceived as an ode to the 1970's American horror/slasher films I loved as a teenager." For the majority of its brief running time (the movie clocks in under 90 minutes), High Tension fires on all cylinders, everything coming together to produce a wonderfully slow-burn atmosphere of dreaded anticipation. Aja's able direction and Maxime Alexandre's crisp cinematography (no small accomplishment given how much of the action takes place at night/in the dark) get a great deal of support from a hauntingly dissonant score that relies as much on heavily distorted static as it does on orchestral maneuvers. As morbidly over-the-top as it can be, the film is also a perfectly conceived and executed evocation of a time before the horror genre had become seemingly hopelessly mired in the depths of mass market PG-13 mediocrity. For the most part, High Tension is vicious, brutal, and.well.tense. Unfortunately, a completely unnecessary and truly horrific (and not in the good way) narrative miscalculation late in the third act damn near derails
©2005 Ed Owens |
The story behind the burgeoning cult classic Haute Tension (now enjoying a wide U.S. theatrical release as High Tension ) is in some ways better than the film itself. Released in France over 2 years ago, High Tension quickly garnered a reputation for its over-the-top brutality and sensationalistic gore. As word of mouth (and import and bootleg DVDs) spread, so did interest in a North American distribution deal. Eventually, Lion's Gate picked up the rights, filling horror fans with the hope that High Tension would receive the release it seemed to deserve. The bumpy road leading to its recent June 10 th opening is the kind of epic tale that would have made Shakespeare proud, most of which can be summed up in the director's own words: 
murders the family before kidnapping Alex, with Marie doing her best to help and stay alive. Unfortunately, trouble sets in for the viewer much earlier, the result of a poor dubbing job that can more readily be called a hybrid version rather than a true "dubbed English translation." Rather than distract viewers with pesky subtitles, the film's distributor, Lion's Gate, decided instead to make Alex's family Americans that moved to the French countryside for reasons never fully explained (and with political implications that may not have been very well thought out). While this helps to explain why Marie flits seemingly randomly between French and English (and why damn near the entire second half of the film is in French with English subtitles), it actually makes the poor dubbing more distracting, only emphasizing the jarring transitions from English to French and back again at odd moments (as the two approach the family farm, Alex remarks that her family's French is worse than hers.an obvious addition that only calls attention to the odd disconnect between the English dialogue and the movements of the actor's lips). 
enough to hope for an unrated DVD release). Director Alexandre Aja films the macabre proceedings with an eye for composition and a feel for suspense-the film's wide aspect ratio is frequently cleverly used, as much for what's just outside the frame as for what's included (a mother's untimely demise is filmed through the slats of a closet door-not particularly original, but well-done-while the unsettling demise of a child is shown as nothing more than muzzle flashes deep within an expansive corn field). 
the entire film. The resulting aftertaste, while not enough to completely ruin the experience, is more than enough to dampen it considerably. What should have been an easy recommendation, especially for fans of the genre, has instead become one huge caveat. If you have the stomach for the brutality and the generosity to overlook its largest failing (or the presence of mind to walk out at the 1:20 mark), High Tension is a refreshing return to the exploitative form that cemented the horror genre's place in so many of our hearts.for everyone else, it's a gimmicky bit of Grand Guignol that's best avoided.