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Directed by: Alexander Aja Starring: Cécile De France, Maïwenn Le Besco This doesn't take long after the opening scene to give you what the title promises. Based loosely on Dean Koontz's "Intensity", High Tension is the story of a young woman's fight to save her best friend from a sadistic serial killer. The movie is basically a game of cat and mouse between the vile killer and the resourceful girl. However, the killer is pretty smart himself. It was neat to see a villain that was cunning and calculating, never missing a detail. The tension created by this movie was masterful. There is very little foreplay and no rest stops: once the ride starts, it doesn't stop. Everything from the sound effects to the soundtrack to the cinematography contributes to this nailbiter. The plot moves onward with you on the edge of your seat. And then, the movie gets too clever for it's own good. It is as if the original scriptwriter died two-thirds of the way through the movie and a new guy took over. The results cause so much of what was good about the first part to flounder. The clever avenue that the plot decides to explore not only fails to add anything to the movie, it basically causes you to spend the rest of the movie distracted. Had the movie ended right where the plot takes it's deadly turn, this movie would have been a 5/5 , but thanks to filmmakers who don't know how to leave a good thing alone, I have to give this a 3.5 RATING: 3.5 PROS: Extremely well done sound effects and soundtrack, excellent mastery of tension CONS: Strange plot direction ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338095/ That Dang Dad fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Jun 22, 2005 |
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Jun 21, 2005 06:57
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| # ? May 13, 2024 11:34 |
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What a horror movie should be. The "twist" ending didn't bother me, though it seems many others really hated it. Whatever, I loved it either way, and a great way to throw people off. I should mention that I saw the uncut edition about a year ago on DVD, but finally seeing it on the big screen was great. I just wish more people would go see it. So many of you guys are missing out on excellent horror. Suspense, not quick loud shocks like some other horror movies (ahem, Boogeyman, The Ring, pretty much everything made in the past 10 years). Go see it. 5/5
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Jun 21, 2005 22:40
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The twist ending left open so many plotholes that you could drive a truck through them (pun intended). Up until that point I would have considered it one of the best horror movies of the recent age, but the twist seemed so tacked on after the fact, just to keep it from being a standard run and slash movie, that it took me out of it forced me to nitpick at every little thing. I realize the girl was crazy, but there were a lot of unanswered questions. Where did she get the truck and weapons? How did she drive the gas station employee's car and wreck it, as well as driving the truck? How did she ride in the back of the truck while the guy was driving it? Did she really kill those other girls? None of these questions were answered at all, and the insanity claim was a real killer to an otherwise scary and tense movie. I do think that if we would have seen that the truck would have actually been her red car at the end that a lot of questions would have been answered right there. Pros: Aptly named, High Tension has high tension and nervousness Cons: Twist Rating: 3.5/5
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Jun 22, 2005 11:57
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The ending may not be satisfying for everyone, but it sure sated me. It also gave the movie a much creepier edge than it had originally. If you've seen The Machinist or even Total Recall, this movie is an existential crisis of sorts along these lines. We can only assume that almost everything we saw was fabricated by Marie. The conversation, her relationship with Alex, almost everything was probably invented by her psychopathic mind. When the serial killer is walking around, we can almost assuredly say that it's really her, and not the weak mental version of herself. This is alluded to in the scene where she watches Alex shower. She's suddenly not on the swing, and that's the implication that she was never even there. It may be cheap to some people, but I'm interested in how she views the world. This is apparently her view. The atmosphere is fantastic, and the cinematography built a creepy, driven pulse throughout the movie. I cringed. I screamed. I gasped. It was excellent. PLease see the uncut subbed version though. I sat in on the dubbed version and it's simply not as good. Dubbing always neuters the acting somewhat.
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Jun 25, 2005 20:13
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Great suspense, terrible last five minutes. 3.5
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Jul 13, 2005 04:38
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This could have been one of the best horror films in the last ten years. Unfortunately, a totally needless plot-twist manages to invalidate everything good about the previous hour. It's a sudden, cheap twist. To say you will feel cheated is an understatement. That said, the movie was gripping, tense, and very watchable up to that point. The best scenes in High Tension can be attributed directly to the numerous (better) films and books they were thinly ripped-off from, or 'paid homage to' as the director claims. Despite its flaw, High Tension manages to stand well above recent teen-horror offerings like Hose of Wax. It's genuinely disturbing at times - something that's unusual these days. Unfortunately, the gimmicky ending has become all too typical. Hopefully this marks the low point in the 'surprise ending' craze. As a horror movie: 3 - Wait for it on cable. As a romantic black comedy: 4.5
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Jul 17, 2005 02:52
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The movie started off very well; the villain was set up to be genuinely creepy, and his villainous deeds were both creepy, tense, and extremely gory. The sequence where the villain searches the guest bedroom for any signs of a visitor was extremely awesome, and unique in that it portrayed the villain as intelligent and cunning. From there, the story branches out into a game of cat and mouse, as another poster has said. Additionally, we get to see a bit more of the heroine. I particularly enjoyed that she was made out to be a strong, self-reliant woman, instead of the screaming princesses often seen in American cinema. You'll be very tense throughout the entire movie, until the LAMENTABLE plot twist. Easily the most irritating, disgusting, and downright wrongheaded plot-twist I have ever seen (note: I have never seen the Village). I went from respecting the heroine and respecting the movie, to nearly turning it off (I settled for muting it while listening to the last 5 minutes of the Daily Show). Someone needs to rerelease this movie without the horrible, horrible ending. I would vote this movie a 4 or 5 if a new ending was released which was as good as the rest of the movie.
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Oct 21, 2005 04:52
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| # ? May 13, 2024 11:34 |
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As others have said, the first hour and 15 minutes of the movie were fantastic. The tension was amazingly good, and up until the twist it is, in my opinion, one of the greatest slasher/thriller movies ever made. 4.5 or 5 for the bulk of the movie. The twist ending, which I admittedly did not see coming, was awful. I didn't see it coming because IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. It wouldn't have been so bad if, when the twist was revealed, the audience could say "Oh, so that's why ____ happened!" But no, it just raised many confusing questions. It really ruined the whole film for me. 1.5 for the last 5-10 minutes. Overall, I give it a 3.5. I highly recommend seeing this movie, but I was highly disappointed by the ending.
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Oct 24, 2005 05:20
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