Haute tension (2003) - film review

Best friends Marie and Alex decide to take a break in the countryside to revise for their exams.  But soon after they arrive at Alex’s family home, a remote country house, a sinister looking visitor arrives in a van.  Marie watches in horror as the stranger systematically slaughters Alex’s parents and her younger brother.  Whilst trying to rescue her friend, Marie ends up being trapped in the killer’s van as he drives off.  She manages to escape at a petrol station and makes a desperate attempt to find help so that she can save Alex, who is chained up in the back of the van.  It is hopeless.  Once the killer has disposed of the attendant at the petrol station and having failed to get any support from the police, Marie has no other choice than to go after the killer herself.  The nightmare has only just begun…

Alexandre Aja’s enthusiastic homage to the blood-soaked American slasher movies of 1980s is not a film that will appeal to every taste but for devotees of this much maligned genre it is well worth checking out.  After this, his second feature, Aja went on to direct the acclaimed remake of The Hills Have Eyes and won himself recognition as one of the most talented of the latest wave of horror movie filmmakers.  Haute tension is a far more idiosyncratic and considered work than the vast majority of slasher movies that continue to pour out of American film studios, many of which are tired sequels and bland re-makes that offer little in the way of originality or fright appeal.  The fluid camerawork has a sinister, voyeuristic feel to it, which works well with the eerie sound design to create a sustained aura of menace and slowly mounting terror.  Watching this film conveys the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare, a nightmare where terror is unbounded and any unspeakable horror can become reality. 

Alas, as is often the case with this kind of film, the tension and dramatic impact are ultimately undermined by the gory excesses which the director feels are necessary to provide the full slasher experience.  The splatter addicts will doubtless relish the periodic eruptions of manic Grand Guignol excess, but these do little for the film’s integrity and diminish it as a piece of cinema art.   Even when it is widely accepted that suggested horror is far more effective than explicit depictions of horrific images, today’s filmmakers will insist on subjecting us to the grisly sight of arms and heads being ripped off (and in doing so transform a potentially terrifying horror set-piece into a clumsy re-enactment of a Monty Python sketch).  Fortunately, a riveting central performance from Cécile De France (her best work to date) at least partly compensates for Aja’s lack of restraint in the blood splattering department and helps to restore a sense of reality to the proceedings.   Haute tension could certainly have benefited from a large dose of subtlety, but its stylish design and slick editing save the day, making it one of the most respectable entries in the slasher genre so far this decade.

© James Travers 2006

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