High Tension

Review By Michael Jaffe

This film was so fucking awesome and French and a rip off of 70s horror films, that it almost didn’t work. The plot is basic: a woman, Marie, and her friend go off into the French country side and in the middle of the night are attacked by a nameless guy in a truck who carries a shaving blade and is real creative in how he kills the family who lives in the house. Marie hides for a while and then when her friend is kidnapped by the psycho guy and then chases after them. The plot, as you can tell is thin, and the film isn’t very long, but the violence is a plenty as is the gore. The french version originally landed an NC-17 rating here in the states, and the version in theatres now has been cut down to an R rating, although it was still pretty gory. The acting is fine and the direction is cool. Alexandra Aja is obviously a big fan of 1970s american horror films, but he is still french and the french are known for art films and losing wars, and this flick is no war. The film is not so subtle, like an art film should be, but it also is gritty and violent. I cant really think of a negative of this film, but as far as being another ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, the original, it just lacks that ‘Pizzaz’ that scares the bejesus out of you. This film made you hold your breath once and a while and even had a plot twist, but just cant go balls out, and that might be the american censorship, but I give this film a 7/10 as it is one of the best films of its genre in the last half decade, but cant compete with the classics.