And what a great hope it is! "High Tension" (Haute Tension) is a savage, brutal horror film that grabs you by the throat from the first second, and doesn't let go for 85 vicious minutes. Expertly directed by Alexandre Aja and skillfully acted by (mainly) Cecile De France, this French import will give you chills for hours.
Plot line is two college friends Alex (Maiween) and Marie (De France) head off for a quiet weekend of studying at Alex's family home in the remote countryside. Rather than getting that much needed quiet time, a night of sheer terror ensues. One by one, the family is savagely murdered, and Alex is abducted by the killer. Add to this a plot twist that will have you stunned and you've got the best horror film to come along in two decades.
Acting? Top notch, Cecile De France is stellar in her role, Marie is exactly what you'd expect from someone who found themselves in the situation that's unfolding around her. Maiween (Le Besco, but eschews the surname creditwise) does a spectacular job of portraying her fear and terror on screen. The film's murderer (I believe Philippe Nahon, but can't verify that from the IMDb's credit listings being in French) is the slow, methodical type taking his time to ensure the job is done. Brilliantly terrifying as such precision being taken with such brutal murders seems almost inhuman.
In the US, we had a hybrid subtitled/dubbed version. The dubbing was not too distracting, but regardless of Lion's Gate feeling that 17-24 year olds don't go to movies to read, it really should have remained fully subtitled. Not much dialog throughout the film anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered much.
As we head into the heat of the summer season, it's good to see that two horror gems ("Land of the Dead" being the other) are holding the "non-Hollywood" horror banner high.
4 out of 5
Plot line is two college friends Alex (Maiween) and Marie (De France) head off for a quiet weekend of studying at Alex's family home in the remote countryside. Rather than getting that much needed quiet time, a night of sheer terror ensues. One by one, the family is savagely murdered, and Alex is abducted by the killer. Add to this a plot twist that will have you stunned and you've got the best horror film to come along in two decades.
Acting? Top notch, Cecile De France is stellar in her role, Marie is exactly what you'd expect from someone who found themselves in the situation that's unfolding around her. Maiween (Le Besco, but eschews the surname creditwise) does a spectacular job of portraying her fear and terror on screen. The film's murderer (I believe Philippe Nahon, but can't verify that from the IMDb's credit listings being in French) is the slow, methodical type taking his time to ensure the job is done. Brilliantly terrifying as such precision being taken with such brutal murders seems almost inhuman.
In the US, we had a hybrid subtitled/dubbed version. The dubbing was not too distracting, but regardless of Lion's Gate feeling that 17-24 year olds don't go to movies to read, it really should have remained fully subtitled. Not much dialog throughout the film anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered much.
As we head into the heat of the summer season, it's good to see that two horror gems ("Land of the Dead" being the other) are holding the "non-Hollywood" horror banner high.
4 out of 5