High Tension first caught my attention the same way many movies do, by having a really great trailer. This one was well done with no dialogue really and the whole thing being told through images with Sonic Youth's cover of "Superstar" playing over it (you can watch it here). It was evocative and memorable. I had to see it. When I did, I was really enjoying it until I got to the ending and then I saw the entire film fall apart for me before my eyes. Now, 13 years later, I've decided to give the movie a second chance to see if it really was as terrible of an ending as I remembered.
Marie (played by Cecile de France) is traveling with her friend Alex (played by Maiwenn) to Alex's parent's house in the French countryside for the weekend. Upon meeting her parents and little brother, everyone settles in for a quiet evening. Later that night, the doorbell rings and Alex's father answers it to find a stranger at the door. The stranger attacks Alex's Dad, killing him and makes his way into the house. Marie is the first one to be awoken by the chaos and tries to find a phone to call for help while avoiding detection by the killer. The killer (played by Phillipe Nahon), proceeds to murder Alex's mother and then her little brother. He takes Alex and chains her up in his rusty, old truck. While the killer checks out the house one more time, Marie jumps into the back of the truck to try and free her friend but winds up getting locked in the back with her by accident (the killer is unaware she is also back there). The killer departs with both ladies in the back and it's going to be up to Marie to use all her wits to find a way out of the situation and free both herself and her friend.
The film was directed by Alexandre Aja, who also co-wrote the script with Gregory Levasseur, and made a bit of a name for himself as a horror director with this grisly little horror flick and went on to move over to America to make several films over here, including the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors, and Horns. This was sort of his breakthrough film though and for at least the first 3/4 of the film (we'll get to the ending later), it's easy to see why. High Tension is as advertised. It is a tense, suspenseful and uncompromising horror film. It's not hard to want to root for Marie and Alex to get out of their situation and hopefully turn the tables on their vile and despicable captor. I was particularly attached to Marie, who turns out to be one tough cookie, keeping her cool and working out how to get out of their predicament. She was a smart and capable heroine. I really liked her character and Cecile de France did a great job portraying her. And then we got to the ending. If you don't want to know how this film ends, you should turn back now because I'm going to spoil the hell out of it for you otherwise.
Everyone who doesn't want to be spoiled gone now? Ok, good. Here is the horribly misdirected twist the movie throws out for the last quarter of the film: Marie and the Killer are the same person. Marie has dissociative identity disorder and has kidnapped Alex because she is in love with her, or at least thinks she is. Now, there were lesbian undertones throughout the film between Marie and Alex, but somehow with this revelation that all becomes uglier and even distasteful. The ending felt like a betrayal to me as a viewer. I had spent three quarters of this movie fully invested in Marie and her attempts to rescue Alex. I cheered her on as she finally took out the killer, wailing on him with a fence post wrapped in barbed wire. But then this movie pulls out this asinine 180 on us that renders large portions of the movie completely pointless. The scene where Marie is trying to warn the cashier at the gas station about the killer and then subsequently trying to hide from him within the store? Completely pointless now. Nevermind trying to figure out what parts of the story were real and which parts were part of Marie's imagination. Suddenly, with this ill thought out twist, the entire movie becomes an aggravating and frustrating affair. If I could remake one movie, it would be this one. Dump the idiotic twist ending, make the lesbian subtext text (Alex is bringing Marie, her girlfriend, home to meet her parents), horror plot continues. The whole film would flow better and be much more rewarding in the end.
High Tension is 3/4 of an effective horror thriller with a terrible ending that not only wrecks the movie but somehow makes it uglier, repugnant and unpleasant. It really did ruin the movie for me, which is shame because for awhile it was going great. As it is though, it's a total mess. All because of that stupid ending.
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