Haute Tension
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| Haute Tension | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for High Tension |
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| Directed by | Alexandre Aja |
| Produced by | Alexandre Arcady, Robert Benmussa |
| Written by | Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur |
| Starring | Cécile de France, Maïwenn Le Besco |
| Music by | Francois Eudes |
| Cinematography | Maxime Alexandre |
| Editing by | Baxter |
| Distributed by | Lions Gate Films (USA) |
| Release date(s) |  June 18 2003 September 24 2004  June 10 2005 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French English Italian |
| Budget | ~ €2,200,000 |
| Official website | |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Haute Tension, also referred to as Switchblade Romance in the UK and High Tension in the USA, is a French slasher film originally released in France during 2003, later released during 2004 in the UK and 2005 in the USA and Canada. The film, directed by Alexandre Aja, stars Cécile de France, Maïwenn Le Besco, and Philippe Nahon.
High Tension was picked up by independent distributor Lions Gate Films following a successful screening at the "Midnight Madness" section of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. Originally rated NC-17 in the USA, a few minor shots were cut from the final version of the US release to get it down to the R rating. This is one of the first horror films to show a circular saw to body contact on-screen.
All of the effects are created by renowned horror make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi, a favourite of late director Lucio Fulci.
There are glaring similarities between High Tension and an earlier published novel by Dean Koontz (which was also made into a movie), entitled Intensity. High Tension seems to mirror Dean Koontz's published words almost scene by scene, but then veers off into an entirely different ending.
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[edit] Synopsis
Friends Marie (De France) and Alex (Le Besco) go to visit Alex's parents in the countryside, and study in the peaceful surroundings. However, the tranquility is soon broken when, on the first night, a truck-driver (Nahon) breaks into the house. The intruder proceeds to tie up Alex and murder her family. Marie, however, manages to evade the truck-driver. When the man carries Alex into the back of his truck, Marie is forced to attempt to rescue her friend. Aja maintains a "high tension" atmosphere as Marie makes several attempts to rescue her friend whilst avoiding the attentions of the violent psychopath who is holding her prisoner.
[edit] Clues leading to "The Twist"
At the film's conclusion, viewers discover that Marie is the killer; the insane truck driver is only her split personality. Alex, in turn, is abducted by Marie because she is the latter's love interest.
"Clues" were filmed within the story to keep viewers guessing before the film's infamous "twist" is unveiled. But (according to the supplemental commentary on the DVD release), due to time and budget constraints, most of them had to be cut. However, a few of these said "clues" do exist in Haute Tension, among them:
- The back of Marie's shirt reads, in Latin, Audaces Solum, or, roughly translated, "Boldly Alone", which alludes how Marie committed the murders. However, a more apt translation is "Extremely Lonely". An alternative translation would be "Only the Brave", as in "None but the brave deserve the fair" from John Dryden's Alexander's Feast.
- Also, Marie tells Alex about her dream at the beginning of the film ("I was alone... but it was me chasing me...")
- When Marie tries to console Alex, Alex backs away in fear or cries out loudly. This scenario is repeated several times.
- When Alex's mother is bleeding her blood sprays onto a wardrobe in which Marie is hidden, however no blood gets onto Marie's face or body even though she is looking straight at her.
- When Alex's mother is murdered, her last words are, "why me?". Viewers may mistake the mother to say this out loud to no one in particular, but most likely she asks this question directly to Marie before she dies.
- When Marie is descending the stairs from her room we see a shot of her bare feet as she is climbing down the stairs. The soles of her feet are bloody just like the killer's boots.
- After realizing there's no phone outlet, Marie stares at a doll with a crack down her face, a symbol that a change of personalities or split has occurred.
- A few minutes earlier in the movie, Marie stares at a crackless doll just before she starts listening to the song Runaway Girl by U-Roy. The lyrics we can hear say 'Just another girl, that's what you are'.
- The shot of the killer's hands dispensing the bullets out the window are female hands.
- Marie strikes the killer in the exact same place she received her head injury in the car.
- The killer is aware of Alex's name, as he asks Marie 'Why do you care so much about Alex?'
- When Marie is masturbating, the killer is slowly driving up the road to the house. He arrives right around the same time Marie achieves orgasm. It symbolizes the homicidal rage from her sexual frustrations she feels with Alex.
- In the scene in the men's toilet there is a visible piece of graffiti saying (in French) 'I am alive and you are all dead', a reference to the line in Philip K Dick's novel Ubik that reveals to the Ubik characters that they are all comatose and 'living' inside the mind of one of their number.
Much like The Sixth Sense or the plot twist in The Usual Suspects, the "clues" in Haute Tension become clearer with subsequent viewings.
[edit] Scenes cut for an "R" rating
As mentioned above, some shots were removed from the US version in order to receive an "R" rating from the MPAA. The R-rated version was released in US theaters and on a less widely circulated DVD edition of the film. This section is for the differences seen in the unrated version that were excluded from the US theatrical release.
- Alex's father is graphically decapitated by a bookcase, with his neck spraying blood. In the R-rated version, the initial killing is implied rather than explicit. During a flashback sequence, it is mysteriously cut.
- The scene in which the killer takes a concrete saw to the stomach of the man driving the car was trimmed by a couple of seconds.
- When Alex's mother has her throat slashed, the scene is cut short, removing most of the arterial spurting as the killer pulls her head back. The shot of her severed hand is also removed entirely, leaving no visual indication toward exactly what happened to her during this sequence of events.
- The scene where Marie bashes the killer's face in with the barbed wire post is toned down in explicitness, with Marie hitting the killer fewer times, and with less detail of the killer's wounds being shown.
