Haute Tension

Haute Tension is a slasher flick done right…almost. Aside from a last-minute twist ending that doesn’t really make sense when you think about it, the film does a remarkable job of keeping the level of tension high throughout. The movie kicks off with a college girl, accompanied by a friend, heading into the country for a visit with her parents. That night, an ominous serial killer (played by Phillipe Nahon) breaks into the house and kills the entire family – except for the girls (one of which he doesn’t see, and the other he kidnaps). What follows – their attempts to escape, mostly – is surprisingly effective and suspenseful, especially when you consider the film becomes virtually dialogue-free after that initial attack. Though the set-up is almost identical to that of Dean Koontz’s Intensity, director Alexandre Aja does a superb job of establishing the mood and tone of the story; the entire film takes place at night and there are barely any brightly-lit sequences. Aja makes terrific use of the widescreen format, making Haute Tension an ideal companion piece to John Carpenter’s Halloween. The only thing that prevents the film from become an all-out classic slasher is the misguided conclusion. But up until that point, Haute Tension is bloody enough and creepy enough to please horror fans – and I Stand Alone‘s Nahon makes for a delightfully sinister villain.

*** out of ****

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