HIGH TENSION (aka HAUTE TENSION, aka SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE)

This is another one of those heavily buzzed foreign imports that I put off watching forever. The final deciding factor, I keep seeing the trailer for a remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES which is made by these same frenchmen. So I figured I oughta investigate, see what these guys are about.

HIGH TENSION is a well made throwback kind of slasher movie, but not as good as WOLF CREEK. Similar subject matter though. Two young ladies, Marie and Alexia, go to visit Alexia’s parents out in the french boonies. While everybody’s in bed, some grunting redneck schlub (he looks like M. Emmett Walsh in an Ed Gein costume) drives up in a rusty truck, breaks in and starts killing everybody. Most of the movie – and the best part of the movie – involves Alexia being tied up and gagged in the back of the truck, while Marie chases the killer trying to save her.

So it’s the kind of energetic, non-verbal chasing that can be fun when well directed. A cat and mouse game is what they sometimes call it. The clever thing is that for alot of the game, the cat doesn’t even know the mouse is there. She keeps sneaking around just out of his eye sight until she can find a way to save her friend.

Another twist is that these two are more than just friends, if you know what I mean. If you don’t know what I mean, what I mean is Marie obviously has a crush on Alexia and Alexia doesn’t know it. I like that they leave that unspoken, it seemed like a nice idea, although the way the movie ends up it seems like a pretty backward view of gay people. I don’t know, maybe that’s how they do it in France.

There’s some pretty gruesome deaths in this one, and even a little kid dies. The first time we see the killer he’s in his truck, getting a blowjob from a severed head, then he throws it out the window like a piece of litter. So you know right away that you’re dealing with a classy movie. It didn’t piss off critics as much as WOLF CREEK did though, for two reasons. One, the look is pretty stylized, very nice photography but not realistic, and the killer reminds you of the killers in that disowned Sam Raimi/Coen brothers movie CRIMEWAVE. It’s more of a cartoon. And number two, it’s just not as good. You can’t take it as seriously when it’s not as scary. And it has a ridiculous plot twist at the end. (more…)

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