After seeing HIGH TENSION, I can only think that the French have not had the exposure to Hollywood slasher films that we here in the United States have enjoyed. Why else would writers Gregory Levasseur and Alexandre Aja, who also directed, subject their audience to every one of the genres clichés from PSYCHO to Freddie? As for what may well have been intended as a diabolical twist at the end, well, anyone paying even scant attention to the first five minutes will see it coming. The only surprise is that the makers thought it would be one. The effect is like a spoof where no one is in on the joke, least of all the audience.
Our slasher fodder is a lovely American family recently relocated to a remote farmhouse in France and the older daughter’s college chum, Marie (Cecile De France), who’s there for an extended study session. Remote farmhouse, dark night, full moon, and a cornfield there for no reason other than to hearken to earlier slasher films. it’s the standard set-up. And so is the sweet moment between the two girls as Marie turns to gal-pal Alex (Maiewenn) and says that she’s so happy to have finally met her family. It’s late, they all retire to the arms of Morpheus, and that’s when the fun begins. A heavy-set man with dirty fingernails and a razor blade makes sushi of the parents and younger brother, snatches Alex to save for later, and makes off with her in his rusty old truck. Marie, in several fits of inspiration, manages to elude the killer while he’s about his business in the house and then sets off to track him down in a desperate attempt to save Alex.
If only Marie didn’t turn stupid once she’s on the killer’s trail. If only the twist actually accounted for everything that happened. If only there were some imagination at work here rather than the slash-and-bleed approach splashed across the screen in varying shades of vermillion. But no. It all falls apart and rather quickly leaving only the the annoyingly unscary near misses as Marie barely escapes with her life over and over again. These are shot as though it were a training film demonstrating the basics, but not the panache, of such endeavors. As for the dialogue which switches from badly dubbed English to subtitles, it’s just as tedious.
The biggest suspension of disbelief demanded from us is that no one in this film has a cell phone. I speak as one who does not carry one, but I find it hard to believe that none of the characters in a film set in contemporary France would be packing one. Pointing up this lapse is the moment in the film when Marie finally does find a phone and then proceeds to get into an argument with the police officer on the other end of the line. It may be representative of the French temperament, but as a cinematic moment, it begs the question of why anyone this silly ought to be saved from a grisly demise.
HIGH TENSION has been trimmed from its original European release, in order to garner an R rating rather than the kiss of death that was the original NC-17. All in all, it hardly seems to have been worth the effort.
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