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High Tension

High Tension could divide more moviegoers this year than any other film. I have seen many reviews from critics and friends who love it, but I am leading the brigade of those who see High Tension as the worst idea to come out of France since the metric system.

Cecile De France stars as Marie - a young college student heading out to the French countryside to study with her pal, Alex (Maiwenn Le Besco). The two will be staying at Alex's remote farmhouse home with her family, but danger lurks in the darkness. In the middle of the night, a crazy madman (Philippe Nahon) raids the house with evil intensions, and Marie may be the only person who can stop him.

Will Marie have the courage and strength to save Alex and her family?

High Tension is an almost average film until it goes way off the deep end at its conclusion, which drags the movie down to Alexander and Gigli levels of bad. Writer/director Alexandre Aja presents bloody brutality for shock value, which will bother the squeamish, but it bothered me because it seems so meaningless. Aja doesn't present the madman as anything but mad. His dialogue consists of grunts, while he hunts his prey like a rabid animal, but we don't have a psychological analysis of evil or some mystery behind why he's committing these horrible acts until it's much too late to care, which is where that ridiculous ending comes into play.

I'm sure Aja and co-writer Gregory Lavasseur we're exchanging high fives and proclaiming their brilliance at creating an ending we would never see coming (thinking they were soooo smart), but it's the worst part of the movie (proving they are soooo dumb). It's an ending with many logical holes for anyone who was paying attention and a betrayal to the audience who could have had fun figuring it out throughout the movie if some hints were thrown in (like Saw, The Sixth Sense or A Beautiful Mind). Aja does a fine job in some scenes, building tension and scaring us as Marie fights for her own survival, but a few good scenes is not a complete movie.

Editing choices are the second biggest reason High Tension stinks. Known throughout the world as the French film Haute Tension, the U.S. version has been released with some English dubbing, and some subtitles. This weird mix left me wondering if the U.S. distributor made a mistake trying to walk the tightrope between maintaining allegiance to the original, while attempting to make the film more acceptable to U.S. audiences who tend to avoid movies with subtitles. While most filmgoers in America want movies in English, we tend to make fun of badly dubbed films like the late night martial arts films that used to play on cable. In High Tension, it's jarring to see the actors' mouths move differently from the audio track, but just as unsettling are the subtitles that appear on the screen for other characters. This inconsistency (as if they couldn't afford a few more actors to read the lines in English) reminds us we are watching a movie and makes it hard to get wrapped up in the action. Of course, if High Tension makes a ton of money this weekend, I'll be proven wrong and Lions Gate Films will be mocking me for years to come.

As for the acting, the actors don't face much of a challenge. De France's main challenge is a physical one as she is required to run, leap, swing and otherwise try to fend off the madman, while Le Besco looks scared. OK, while Le Besco looks VERY scared (she must have read the script). Both achieve their goals, but nothing to write home about or remember when they show up in their next film.

High Tension is a horrible lost opportunity depending solely on its gross out factor to entertain you.

0 Waffles (Out Of 4)

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