High Tension (2003)

Synopsis 

Going to a friend’s house to study is what most students do; to get away from everything, to relax. Well, that’s not the case for Alex and Marie when they travel to Alex’s house in the middle of nowhere. An unknown killer shows up and starts raising hell with no reason in sight. Who is this mystery killer and will anyone survive this High Tension? 

Thoughts 

Now, I'm going to try and not give much away but I’m not sure how well that will go. 

This interesting French film was, well, interesting to say the least. The beginning sets the story up in a dream that Marie is having. She seems to have been beaten, injured, what have you, and is on the road looking for help. This story takes place in East Jesus Nowhere, surprising? The amount of middle-of-nowhere films I have seen are ridiculous and I just had to add this one to my list. There are more places to murder people than just the country. 

I did not enjoy this movie as much as I would like. Now, the whole “I’m in love with you, let me kill everyone and everything” bit is also WAY over done. Psycho falls in love with girl, girl clearly isn’t into them because crazy serial killer. I would like a new plot sometime in the next few years because this one is getting old. I admit they threw a little bit of a curve ball with the identity of the killer, BUT for a horror film fan like myself, I saw that “twist” coming from a mile away. 

One of the slightly good things I have to say about this movie is the makeup wasn't half bad. Some of the death scenes left you thinking: “Have we not progressed in special effects/makeup at all?” because they were downright cheesy. Don’t get me wrong, I love the horror movies from back in the day having bad effects but for 2003 and the style of the movie… they could have done better. Giannetto De Rossi was the makeup artist for this movie, love his work, but I would have changed some things. 

TIME Magazine included this movie as a part of their “10 most ridiculously violent films” list and I would have to disagree completely. Personally, this movie was like a kid show to me. For someone who gets scared easily I'd recommend this film, it will mess you up. For those who don’t and watch waaaaay too many horror films for their own good, I wouldn’t bother. 

IMDB: 6.9/10 

Rotten Tomatoes: 5.2/10 

WeFLM: 5/10 

-Angela