High Tension

REVIEW
It's not the story that matters, it's how the story is told. The plotline of High Tension is familiar genre material, but director Alexandre Aja infuses the film with such high-voltage cinematic intensity that one is too busy perched on the edge of the seat to notice - or perhaps too busy covering one's eyes. This stylishly twisted French thriller is unapologetically gruesome, employing special effects from Giannetto De Rossi (Zombie) that make this one of the bloodiest films ever.

Two college girlfriends, Marie (Cecile de France) and Alex (The Fifth Element's Maiwenn), vacation at Alex's family house in the country, but their rural idyll is soon shattered by the appearance of a hulking delivery man (Irreversible's Phillippe Nahon) with a taste for serial murder. The two women are thrust into the woods for a night of hell.

Though clearly not for the squeamish, High Tension has much more to offer than just (admittedly entertaining) fountains of gore. Gorgeously filmed in widescreen, Aja's film generates suspense with great precision, right down to a controversial climax. The winner of Best Director, Actress (de France), and Effects in the prestigious Sitges festival devoted to genre cinema (the film also received the Melies award for the year's best horror film), this was called by one of that festival's jurors, "The most ferociously tense terror ride in twenty odd years... the most unrelentingly terrifying experience since Halloween." Miss this one at your own peril.

(French with English subtitles)