Photo: Maïwenn in High tension (IMDb)
High Tension (2003)
Director: Alexandre Aja
Alexandre Films
Unavailable to stream // Available on Amazon Prime to rent for $3.99
Spoiler Warning: I highly recommend watching this film before reading the review, because a lot of the kills are just too good not to describe and there’s really no getting around it. You’ve been warned!
— Summary —
High Tension is a french film from 2003 that tells the story of two friends: Alex (Maïwenn) and Marie (Cécile De France). The film begins with Marie sitting in what appears to be a hospital room, repeating the words “I’ll never let anyone come between us again.” The scene then cuts to the two women traveling by car to visit Alex’s family in the french county side, and on the car ride over we learn little quirks about the them. Alex comes off as level-headed, responsible and caring where Marie appears to be more reckless and has a bit of an edge to her.
Once they arrive at Alex’s family home, we notice that the house is surrounded by corn fields, and that her family is eager to meet Marie. However, before we follow the women into the house, we see a total creep (aka Le Teur / Philippe Nahon) in a rusty, old van pleasuring himself with a decapitated head, then, chucking it out the window.
Alex then gives Marie a tour of the home and shows her the guest room. The family all goes to sleep and Alex is alone in her room. We watch her touch herself while everyone sleeps because what’s a horror film without a little over sexualization? The man (from the truck scene earlier) comes to the house, ringing the doorbell and waking the father. The man proceeds to enter the house and sticks the father’s head in between the banisters that line the stair case and pushes a dresser towards him—popping his head right off. He then searches around the house, going up into Marie’s room. Marie, however, is great at hiding and made sure she left no trace of her exisiting in the room. She wipes off any moisture from the sink, makes the bed and hides her belongings. The man enters the room, and is unsuccessful at finding Marie, although she’s only hiding under the bed. Once he leaves her room, he finds Alex’s mother, cutting off her hands and slitting her throat and chains Alex up and gags her. Alex’s little brother, Tom, (who is about 5 years old) runs out of the house and the man follows, eventually killing him in the corn field by shooting him. (I definitely cried).
”The man proceeds to enter the house and sticks the father’s head in between the banisters that line the stair case and pushes a dresser towards him—popping his head right off.”
All the while, we see Marie trying to find help. All of the phones are disconnected, and the only thing she can do is climb into the truck and go with the man and Alex to an unknown destination. They stop at a gas station, and Marie escapes inside the shop, seeking help from the clerk and hiding from the man. He follows in shortly after, unaware that she’s inside. We see him intimidating the clerk and eventually killing him, hunting down anyone else that could possibly be in the gas station. After an intense cat & mouse moment in the bathroom, the man leaves with Alex in the truck and Marie tries to call the police. Marie is unsuccessful with her phone call, so she takes matters into her own hands by stealing a car from the gas station and snatching up a gun that was under the counter. She then follows the man onto a wooded road where things get hectic.
Marie eventually loses sight of the truck while she’s following him, and to her surprise, she looks in her rear-view mirror and sees that he’s right behind her. He is constantly pushing against her car with the truck, eventually causing her to go off of the road and flip her car. This scene is full of build up, as Marie is trying to hunt the man down on foot and kill him. There’s plenty of twists and turns in this scene, and I honestly won’t go into it, but all you need to really know is that Marie finds him and they fight. She ends up beating the shit out of him with a wooden post strung with barbed wire.
Alex runs back to the truck to free Alex, as she’s still chained up in the back. However, (*MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) Alex refuses Marie’s help. Marie is unsure why, as she has been trying to save her this entire time and tries to explain that everything is okay now and that the man is dead. It’s then revealed that Marie had been “the man” the entire time, and that “the man” that we saw as the killer never really existed. He was a persona that Marie imagined due to her split personality disorder. We then see footage from the gas station’s security cameras that Marie was the one that killed the clerk, and it all becomes clear. Marie killed Alex’s family and kidnapped her. The movie ends with Alex trying to escape from Marie by getting into a stranger’s car. The car doesn’t start and Marie kills the driver by tearing him up with a saw through the windshield, shooting and splattering blood all over Alex. The final scene is the same as the opening: Marie in the hospital, but we see Alex there checking her.
— Thoughts —
Like the title suggests, this movie had me stressing out from beginning to end with no remorse. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. How could I not love this film? Not only was the plot and overall idea for the film captivating and easy to follow, but it explored a unique avenue of story-telling that was unexpected and refreshing. I loved the characters, specifically Alex and Marie. Their friendship seemed very pure and loving, and was presented in a way that was convincing without being too by-the-book. The way Marie’s character was portrayed by Cécile De France was believable and I found it easy to feel empathy for her. The creators did a great job of making me want to be on her side, and I feared for her and Alex throughout the duration of the film.
That plot twist was shocking and brutal, and it wasn’t something that I was expecting at all. I think that the twist was extremely necessary, because while they could have kept with the creepy-guy-in-the-truck character, it would have been just another predetorial slasher. By twisting the ending to make Marie the antagonist, the film gained depth and meaning. While it may present split-personality disorder in a not-so-textbook manor, it ultimately made the film stand out and made it better. Because we only see Marie’s perspective throughout the entire film, the twist is surprising and raises a lot of questions. I remember trying to piece it together after my first viewing and being confused about certain scenes.
“However, I think to truly understand the message of this film and enjoy it, the viewer must get over the literal scene by scene breakdown of this movie and change their viewing experience to be more general.”
However, I think to truly understand the message of this film and enjoy it, the viewer must get over the literal scene by scene breakdown of this movie and change their viewing experience to be more general. It’s easy to get confused, especially when there are scenes that depict the man and Marie in the same room. But, it’s in these scenes that we’re actually witnessing Marie’s struggle with herself. She is constantly battling the evil inside her throughout this movie, whether we knew about it or not. The man was just Marie projecting and personifying her own demons all along. So, when we see Alex cry and run away from her, I want to be upset that she isn’t excied to be free, but in all actuality, Marie was the predetor the entire time.
The kills in this film are extravagent and unnerving. Whoever wrote them was very creative and it was nice to see some outlandish kills in a predetorial, looming and ultimately, depressing film. The first of the kills in the home-invasion scene was, indeed, the most comical, but it still made my skin crawl. There were a lot of hard to watch visuals in this film, and while the viewer doesn’t see the death of Alex’s little brother the implied action is just as effective as it being right in my face. I would have to say that, really, showing him in the corn field was an unnecessary scene, but having that confirmation that—yes—he really did die, was a gut-punch.
This movie was an unexpected, gorey, uncomfortable abduction/slasher-thriller film and I really loved it. I couldn’t stop thinking about the plot for a while after viewing and I think that with another watch, the plot twist will feel smoother and less confusing. However, even with it’s minor faults, I was still impressed and in a fucked up way, enchanted by this film. I love the creative direction this film went in to give audiences a different perspective on killers. I definitely wasn’t expecting it.
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