tomelce on High Tension

Summary - Perfect 5.0 click to collapse contents

An ultra-violent claustrophobic horror that confirms Alexandre Aja’s standing as one of the most provocative and talented genre filmmakers working today, “High Tension” (or “Haute Tension” in it’s native France, “Switchblade Romance” in the UK) inserts into it’s mad, frightening 91 minutes set-pieces both original and classical as Marie (Cecile De France) battles to save herself and friend Alexia (Maiwenn) from a mysterious, violent stranger who’s interrupted a stay with Alex’s family by beginning a brutal slaughter. Fierce, visceral and appropriately tense, “High Tension” is one of the best examples of modern day horror you’ll find.

Acting - Really Great 4.5 click to expand contents

Male Stars - Really Great 4.5

Philippe Nahon is excellent as villain murderer Le Tueur.

Female Stars - Perfect 5.0

Cecile De France is brilliant, emotionally sound and thoroughly endearing as desperate-for-survival Marie, whose attempts to escape take her into increasingly compromising and dangerous situations. Maiwenn, meanwhile, is also great with less to do once the vicious killer shows up on the scene and much of the focus switches to Marie's story.

Female Costars - Great 4.0

Filling out the only notable female role beyond the leads, Oana Pellea does well for little screen time as Alex's mother and gets part in one of the movies most violent and creepy scenes.

Male Costars - Really Great 4.5

Franck Khalfoun has the most sizable supporting male part as Jimmy, a gas station attendant who crosses paths with Le Tueur and Marie and doesn't come out of it very well. While Andrei Finti and Marco Claudiu Pascu show up for a brief period as Alex's doomed father and younger brother, respectively.

Film - Great 4.0 click to expand contents

Alexandre Aja is one of the horror genre’s most promising directors and does a typically brilliant directorial job here. The dialogue spoken between the characters in Aja and Gregory Levasseur’s screenplay is appropriately thin and lacking the explanatory tone too often afforded characters in the slasher genre. The music score that comes about occasionally massively compliments the film’s overall tone, while the film itself makes for some gross and unpleasant images slightly hampered by a low-budget aesthetic.

tomelce's Review

Summary - Perfect 5.0 click to collapse contents

Acting - Really Great 4.5 click to expand contents

Male Stars - Really Great 4.5

Female Stars - Perfect 5.0

Female Costars - Great 4.0

Male Costars - Really Great 4.5

Film - Great 4.0 click to expand contents

Direction - Perfect 5.0

Dialogue - Great 4.0

Music - Great 4.0

Visuals - Great 4.0

Edge - Sordid 3.1 click to expand contents

Sex Titillating 1.7

Violence Monstrous 5.0

Rudeness Salty 2.5

Reality - Surreal 2.5 click to expand contents

Circumstantial - Surreal 2.5

Biological - Surreal 2.5

Physical - Surreal 2.5

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