A Lions Gate Films release
Story - $8.50
Acting - $10.50
Directing - $10.50
Production Design - $10.50
Special Effects - $10.50
Score/Music - $10.50
*"REEL" VALUE - $10.17 = Alexandre Aja and actress Cécile de France deliver an exceptionally suspenseful and unrelenting homage to the 1970s horror classics that will leave you twitching in your seats.
SYNOPSIS:Marie (DE FRANCE) and Alexia (MAIWENN) are classmates and best friends. Hoping to prepare for their college exams in peace and quiet, they travel Alexia’s parents’ secluded farmhouse to spend a weekend in the country. In the dead of night there comes a knock on the door. It is a stranger, and with the first swing of his knife, the girls’ academic weekend is transformed into an endless night of horror. The two girls’ must know battle for survival at the hands of a sadistic psychopath.
REVIEW: Over the past six-months we’ve had to endure what Hollywood is trying to pass off as the “new wave” of horror films. And while there have been a few noteworthy efforts, such as “Cabin Fever,” there have been far more stinkers, like “The Ring Two” or “Hide and Seek.” Most of the interesting and entertaining contemporary genre films have been coming from Asia, but a few years ago Spain and Italy were serving up some shocking treats. Now, a young French director by the name of Alexandre Aja has assemble a film where the title aptly fits the overall tone of the film – HIGH TENSION.
From the editing and sound, to the effects and the acting, Alexandre clear shows he is not only a devotee of the horror genre but has earned a place among such cinematic horror masters Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Dario Argento. The key to HIGH TENSION is that Aja has a key understanding about the number and a scale of his locations, the limited number of secondary characters, and the casting of a actress who can meet the demands of the main character, Marie. Although there is only a minute cut from the American release of the film, Aja builds his special effect shoots so that the audience sees just enough and than lets their imagination take over. And just when the audience might be a bit desensitized by the level of violence in the film Aja delivers several relentless moments that take the depth of his killer’s cruelty to new lows.
The true HIGH TENSION of the film comes when the killer is stalking Alex’s family. As Marie moves about the house trying to hide from the killer, get help, and rescue the survivors, Aja creates massive amounts of tensions through a complex interplay of camera angles, sound effects, score and a brilliant performance by actress Cécile de France. These scenes are so intense they hurt!
Actress Cécile de France delivers a no-holds-barred performance that places her in the same acting league as Sigourney Weaver and Glenn Close. She transforms Marie from a meager Tomboy to a female force to be reckoned with. There are long moments in the film that have limited or no dialogue and de France’s facial expressions and body language sell all the taught tensions and horror that Aja puts her character through.
Because it is a French film, Lions Gate debate about whether to release HIGH TENSION here in the States as either subtitled or dubbed. What they come up is a nice mix of subtitles and dubbing. Most of the exposition at the beginning of the film is dubbed, and there is just a limited amounted of subtitled dialogue, especially once the action kicks into high gear. The studio ingeniously got Ms. De France to do her English lines which allows her voice to seamlessly match her subtitled sequences. Overall, I enjoyed this mix much better than a purely subtitled or dubbed film. It wasn’t as distracting or as hard to follow as an exclusively subtitled film.
HIGH TENSION is a flawed masterpiece in terms of the screenplay. In reading the director’s comments on the film, he and his co-writer originally conceived the story as taking place in the house and on the grounds of the farm. However, they expanded it a bit to included a car chase sequence between Marie and the killer. A nice touch, but it tends to become a bit confusing and questionable as they reveal a twist in the third act. It would have been much more powerful and as shocking as the climax in “SAW” had they kept the location more contained.
After a slew of dumped down horror films, Alexandre Aja takes the genre seriously and genuinely delivers HIGH TENSION in this exceptional French homage to the best of the 70s horror films. This little film packs a killer punch, and actress Cécile de France has the hustle and the muscle to go the distance. The only regret you’ll have about seeing HIGH TENSION is that pain from all the twitching and jumping in your seat.
CREW: Director - Alexandre Aja; Screenplay - Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur; Producers - Alexandre Arcady and Robert Benmussa; Executive Producer - Luc Besson; Director of Photography - Maxime Alexandre; Original Score - Francois Eudes; Art Direction - Gregory Levasseur; Stunts - Szoby Cseh and Von Totojescu; SFX Make-up Artist - Gianetto De Rossi; Digital SFX - Autre Chose and Stephane Bidault.
CAST: Marie… CÉCILE DE FRANCE; Alex… MAIWENN; The Killer… PHILIPPE NAHON; Jimmy… FRANCK KHALFOUN; Alex's Father… ANDREI FINTI; Alex's Mother… OANA PELLEA; Tom… MARCO CLAUDIU PASCU; Inspector… JEAN-CLAUDE DE GOROS; Cop… BOGDAN URITESCU; Man in his car… GABRIEL SPAHIU..
* Based on the regular $10.50 ticket prices of a Manhattan theater.
Reviewer: Joseph B. Mauceri
Score:
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