High Tension

Two students go to a country house belonging to one of their families to study. In the night a van arrives and a man who kills everyone in the house comes in. Marie hides, her friend Alex is taken, and Marie goes after them. Alexandre Aja directed. The film is counted among the works of the New French Extremity. The turn at the end is what split it in two: the killer is not the man who arrived but Marie herself. Roger Ebert gave it one star and wrote that the plot hole is large enough to drive a truck through. James Berardinelli found it intelligent and called it a triumph of the Grand Guignol. Claims of similarity to Dean Koontz's novel Intensity were raised. Koontz acknowledged the resemblance and declined to sue, saying he found the film puerile and intellectually bankrupt. The American version was cut to secure an R, losing about a minute of violence. The box office was weak: 6.8 million dollars worldwide against a 2.5 million budget. Despite 14 million dollars of American marketing, the domestic gross stopped at 3.6 million. Who it is for: viewers who like hard slashers and French horror of the 2000s. Who it is not for: anyone who needs the twist to hold up. The first half does not logically agree with the ending, and that is what gets argued about most.