Well after all the fuss and excitement I heard about this film, I was very eager to see it. I don’t have an all region DVD player so I never got to view it before hand, personally I’d rather pay to see it in theaters, and so I did. Well after reading all the hype on how great “High Tension” was, and hearing it’s the best horror film ever made and so on… I have to say that yes it was a great slasher flick, but it’s not the best horror film I’ve ever seen, it’s far from it.
What “High Tension” has though is that it’s a balls to the wall horror film, it’s more realistic in the sense that it’s a film that puts the characters in a realistic perspective. There’s no comedy in the film at all, in fact the title say’s it all. There is nothing but 80-90 minutes worth of tension in this film. It’s very suspenseful, maybe over suspenseful, but never once did my eyes leave the screen. There is so much gore and violence in this film that the horror becomes unbearable at times, I don’t know how in gods name this film got an R rating, and I even heard some stuff was cut from the U.S. release. Well folks, all I have to say is, cut or not, there is still plenty of blood and gore to go around.
The acting was great, I was very impressed with Cécile De France’s performance, even my fiancée who not a big fan of horror films, loved her performance. I was impressed enough to say she was suitable to get an Oscar nod, but I don’t think that would ever happen. The rest of the cast was not half bad either, I think director Alexandre Aja deserves a lot of credit for putting this film together the way he did.
The Makeup effects were pretty far out, some of the throat cutting scenes looked a bit fake, but nonetheless plenty of blood gore and guts to go around. Also there are some great original kills in this flick, some things that many of us have probably never seen before in a horror film.
Overall “High Tension” was a good horror film, however I was thrown off a little by the ending. If it were not for me reading other reviews of the film I would have never figured it out, all I can say is pay very close attention to the first scene of the movie, then you’ll probably be able to understand the ending better.
-Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
