Haute Tension

AKA:
High Tension (USA)
Switchblade Romance (International: English title)

Written by:
Alexandre Aja
Grégory Levasseur

Directed by:
Alexandre Aja

Made in:
France 2003

Actors:
Cécile De France .... Marie
Maïwenn Le Besco .... Alexia (as Maïwenn)
Philippe Nahon .... Le tueur
Franck Khalfoun .... Jimmy
Andrei Finti .... Le père d'Alex
Oana Pellea .... La mère d'Alex
Marco Claudiu Pascu .... Tom
Jean-Claude de Goros .... Capitaine gendarmerie
Bogdan Uritescu .... Gendarme
Gabriel Spahiu .... Homme voiture

Plot:
Two female students, Marie and Alex, set off to Alex's parent's secluded homestead in the country to relax and study. Come nightfall, Hell pulls up at the front door. Alex is now bound and gagged, taken off, with Marie eluding the intruder. Can she save her friend's life in time? Or is everything all that it seems... IMDB

Review:

**Spoiler**

The movie is good - no it is awesome! I definately recommend it.

But I don't like the 'end' .. I don't like the plot end. The actual movie itself is fantastic, but it has been done before.

It disappointed me the same way that Hide & Seek did.

Haute Tension is like Saw and Identity merged into one movie. I think it would have been better if the old, crazy man was actually an old, crazy, psycho killer man.

But maybe a lot of French didn't see Identity, and maybe they didn't expect a lot of people outside France to see Haute Tension. Because they both want you to have the same shock-surprise ending, but a movie maker can only pull that on you once until you say to yourself, "It's been done already - do something else."

But I did really, really like the movie. It is very violent, gory, and bloody. And it really lives up to its title: High Tension.

Language is in French, definately available with English subtitles. The dubbed version into English is cut!! There is some fotage missing of the father's death, because with it it is an NC-17, not a rated R. So, if you want the entire movie, make sure you see the subtitled version instead.

For acting, gore, scare appeal, and acheiving their Haute Tension:



For the movie line that I have seen more than enough times:



For the blood, gore, screams, and plot: