Student besties Alex (Maïwenn) and Marie (Cécile de France) go to Alex’s parent’s remote farmhouse to study. As the family sleeps and Marie rings the devil’s doorbell after seeing Alex's boobs, a stranger breaks into the house.
The Killer, (Phillipe Nahon) a middle-aged French Michael Myers in a grubby browny-green boiler suit has an unstoppable, supernatural strength and can remove heads and limbs with ease. Unlike Michael’s dispassionate and robotic slayings, The Killer takes a great deal of perverted pleasure in his work. He kills the whole family (including the dog) and then slings a chained up Alex in the back of his Jeepers Creepers-esque van and drives her away from the house.
He stops along the way to fill up the van, buy some booze, have a piss and axe the poor petrol station attendant in the chest. Marie, who’s also in the back of the van takes the comfort break as her chance to escape and try and phone the police. When they get cross with her because she can’t give them the address of the petrol station, she yells at them, hangs up and then takes the dead attendant’s car to follow the Killer herself.
She follows him to what looks like a weed farm in the middle of the woods for the final, brutal and bloody showdown and to rescue Alex.
From the start, Marie is set up to be our Final Girl. It’s her shoes we’re in for most of the film. She’s extremely smart, resourceful and brave. There's no daft decisions here like running up the stairs when you should be going down. She’s also not afraid to resort to extreme violence herself.
And the violence is extreme; fans of gore will love High Tension. There are moments that are genuinely stomach churning-hide-behind-the-cushion-what-the-fuck-am-I-watching. It’s nasty, over-the-top, brutal and blood-saturated.
It’s not only infamous for being part of the French New Extremity movement, but for its baffling twist ending that has divided audiences over the last 22 years between those that think it’s brilliant and those (like me) who think it ruins what’s otherwise an above average, genuinely scary home invasion film.
Content warning: stump fucking, the dog dies, the kid dies, everyone dies in a The Shining elevator shower of blood.
Final thoughts: never stop your car for someone soaked in blood and screaming ‘help me!
