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Post by GL on Jan 3, 2007 11:56:33 GMT -5
"High Tension" isn't a masterful modern slasher, but it's a really good one. **SPOILERS** Traveling to the countryside to study, lesbian college students Marie, (Cecile De France) and Alexia, (Maiwenn)and arrive at their farmhouse during the night. Settling in for the night with Alex's Father, (Andrei Finti) and Mother, (Oana Pellea) they don't notice a truck pull up. The Driver, (Philippe Nahon) slaughters the entire family, taking Alexia with him. Leaving the scene with Marie unexpectedly in tow, they come to a rest in a gas station but he eventually gets away. With no help available from the police, Marie sets out on her own to track down the truck driver and get her revenge as well as rescue Alexia. The Good News: There was a really pleasant thrill ride. We are immediately shaken up in our seats in the first few minutes, where we see the killer in a van parked in a field using a severed head to perform oral sex on himself before tossing the head out the window and driving off. It is a sign that clearly announces the intention to leave the boundaries of all notions of good taste well behind. One of the most impressive things about the film is the way it engages all the senses, especially sound, to create a mood of mounting dread and suspense. It's all about being haunted by the squeaks of the killer's shoes on the floor, the labored breathing as he walks up the stairs, or the dull sound his bloodied scalpel makes when he wipes it off on his overalls. They play just as important role in this as anything else in the film, and it works absolutely marvelously. The first half of the film is as good as anything out there, being this mounting and mounting of suspense through an ingenious use of having the characters survive the slaughter through the house and staying just out eye-view from the killer. There's really no way else to describe it, there's really nothing like it. Every trick in the suspense play-book is used, with hiding in the room where the killer lurks, covering their tracks, and really depending on the presence of the killer there to get most of the suspense out of the film. It is simply a fantastic series of scenes that really work and are quite powerful. That plays into the fact that this is an incredibly gory film. We get a head crushed off by a desk, an insane slit throat, an axe in the chest, a piece of glass in one's foot, a severed hand, a vicious head bashing by barbed wired stick, a messy saw blade attack, some good old fashioned stabbings, some slashings on the body and more. Even better than that is that all of the gore was practical and CGI is nowhere to be seen. The ending does have a lot going for it as well, including some really great moments. There's a really impressive car chase that ends in a really nice stunt, tons of gore inflicted on all the participants, some incredibly clever stalking scenes and just a relentless pace. Then there's the ending, which while it isn't the best one ever done, but instead it's a really clever and nicely used throughout one that does leave a lasting mark. All in all, this wasn't that bad. The Bad News: Frankly, there's only one thing in here that really doesn't work, and that's the twist ending. In the attempt to blow the mind with the mega-twist that re-writes the logic of all that came before, instead all that is achieved is that it completely evaporates the plausibility of all that did come before it. How did that phone call get made? How did that car crash happen? What's going on in the back of the truck? Why the scene where the guy pleasures himself with a severed head? What was the gas station guy looking at? Even the little things require, essentially, that the viewer re-write the plot as he or she sees fit. That there is the reason why this doesn't work, which isn't that it's a badly done twist, just an illogical one. It's up to the viewer to decide the relevance and worthiness of it. The Final Verdict: While not the modern masterpiece that has been ascribed to it, it's still a really creepy and incredibly entertaining film that really doesn't have that much going against it. There's still enough going for it to be worthy of a look-see, but don't expect the film to be as great as it's reputation has given it. Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a mild masturbation scene and children in danger
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Conan
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Post by Conan on Jan 3, 2007 11:59:20 GMT -5
I love this movie myself, and think everyone should watch it atleast twice. Nice review.
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Post by GL on Jan 3, 2007 12:04:14 GMT -5
Thanks. I loved it up until that twist.
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Conan
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Post by Conan on Jan 3, 2007 14:33:47 GMT -5
Yeah the twist was a bit of a let down, but after watching the movie a few times it did not bother me at all.
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Post by Bad Boy on Jan 3, 2007 19:52:15 GMT -5
Loved the movie, hated the ending.
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Post by GL on Jan 4, 2007 13:10:25 GMT -5
I don't mind it, and think it's not that bad, it's just illogically done and doesn't really have much thought put into it. Like I said, there's so many scenes in the end that don't make sense when thought goes into it that it just seems there because it's a last shock to end the film with.
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Post by Bad Boy on Jan 4, 2007 13:56:23 GMT -5
it's just illogically done and doesn't really have much thought put into it. And that's exactly why I hate it. lol They added a twist just for the sake of having a twist, much like the dreadful FOG remake.
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Post by GL on Jan 5, 2007 12:54:48 GMT -5
Finally, someone hates it for the same reason I do. I like it, just not in the sense of it being for the benefit of what went on in the film.
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Post by Jen on Jan 11, 2007 19:34:01 GMT -5
The ending KILLED High Tension for me, so much potential, and so many great scenes just ruined by a complete lack of attention to detail. They tried to "trick" the audience at the expense of the film, and I just hate that. Ugh...lol.
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Post by GL on Jan 12, 2007 11:12:20 GMT -5
I didn't think it was that bad. I do agree, it does drag the film down some, but it's only mistake is that it's not handled smartly. It's a nice twist, but not smartly done.
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Lazario
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Post by Lazario on Jan 22, 2008 13:37:36 GMT -5
I think High/Haute Tension is an almost complete piece of shit. I don't know what people have to smoke before watching this to like it. But it's garbage. There is nothing good about the movie whatsoever. Not a single thing.
It's basically a little French sleaze flick. Girls act like bimbos, dumb girl watches her dumb friend take a shower, the obligatory "girl masturbates" scene, a horrible murder montage, awful dialogue, and the standard Se7en-inspired series of scenes in gritty, grungy, dirty locations...
I don't get it. What the hell do people see in this movie? There's nothing special about it at all.
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Post by GL on Jan 23, 2008 11:50:28 GMT -5
I enjoy sleaze. The sleazier, the better. It appeals to the voyeur in all of us. We hate to deny it, but yet when an opportunity comes up that we can get out of, we take it up. Exploitation fare uses that as a catalist for such fare, and while some don't appreciate it, there are some rather good ones that do come along every once in a while.
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Post by Lazario on Jan 23, 2008 13:57:09 GMT -5
I enjoy sleaze. The sleazier, the better. It appeals to the voyeur in all of us. No offense, I do appreciate your perspective. But, I don't think idiotic bimbos on a farm showering and masturbating appeals to the voyeur in "all of us." Nor do I think this is one of those "magic" exploitation movies that implicates the audience in what we're seeing onscreen. This is hardly about the viewer. What it's really about is a stupid, horny French filmmaker with no respect for women and who either has hate issues with lesbians or a fetish for them. Exploitation fare uses that as a catalist for such fare, and while some don't appreciate it, there are some rather good ones that do come along every once in a while. I don't look at this as yet another bad exploitation film. I think this is just one more bad, visionless piece of garbage coming from one of the weakest decades in the history of horror filmmaking.
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Post by GL on Jan 24, 2008 11:32:03 GMT -5
I tend to think it will appeal more to heterosexual men. I'm not sure if it appeals to all, but guys like watching lesbians go at. Like I said, exploitation doesn't always appeal to all but there are some good films out there if you can get into it.
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Post by Lazario on Jan 24, 2008 15:56:39 GMT -5
I tend to think it will appeal more to heterosexual men. I'm not sure if it appeals to all, but guys like watching lesbians go at. I'm sorry - but that's a stupid thing to say. It sounds like you're talking about porn. You're certainly using a Porn Defense for a horror movie. The two film genres are very much separate- I'll have you know. And they should remain separate unless a potent piece of horror filmmaking can be produced from it. Besides, the lesbian characters in this movie don't "go at it," do they? One is given an obsession with the other from the dumbass director. A flimsy, passionless "love" for the other which goes unrequited, leading to the lesbian going psycho and killing the object of her affection's whole family and several innocent bystanders. That is why I call - stupid. Exploitation movie, or not, that is stupid. And highly offensive.
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