Product Details

• Actors: Cécile De France, Maďwenn, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun, Andrei Finti
• Directors: Alexandre Aja
• Writers: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur
• Producers: Alexandre Arcady, Andrei Boncea, Inigo Lezzi, Luc Besson, Mehdi Sayah
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Italian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 11, 2005
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (309 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ARFPN0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,488 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "High Tension" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

For much of its running time, High Tension earns its title as a gory and suspenseful tale of hot pursuit. Originally titled Switchblade Romance in England, and trimmed of its most excessive gore to avoid an NC-17 rating during its brief U.S. theatrical release, this French horror film provokes a memorable case of high anxiety from its alluring female lead (Cecile de France), but it's an otherwise brainless exercise with a ludicrous conclusion that renders the entire film null and void. It's essentially a Texas Chainsaw wanna-be, which isn't such a bad thing if you're a horror buff with an appetite for gruesome death at the hands of a brutal and nameless serial killer. Dressed in greasy coveralls and a baseball cap, and driving a rusty old delivery van, the killer indiscriminately destroys an entire family before chasing after the tomboyish Marie (de France), who is trapped in a nonsensical screenplay that won't let her go. With a high body count and buckets of bloodshed, High Tension has moments of delirious intensity, which is probably why Lion's Gate (bolstered by the success of Saw and other horror hits) deemed the film worthy of U.S. release with some (but not all) of its French dialogue badly dubbed in English. It's horror for die-hards only, and on those terms it's worth a look. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

HIGH TENSION - DVD Movie

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tension so thick you could cut it with a knife., June 9, 2006

By 

A. Estes (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Tension (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

The feature film breakout from French director Alexandre Aja is just the kind of grueling and grisly splatter-fest you won't soon forget. However, "High Tension" (or "Haute Tension," if you prefer) is more than just gore galore with a stylistic touch; it's also a psychological horror that not only plays with your mind, but alters your expectations of what a horror movie could and should be as well.

In the film, best friends and college students Alex and Marie find their vacation in a remote farmhouse owned by Alex's parents cut short when a mysterious man in a grungy overalls welcomes himself in. After the family is dispatched of and the man kidnaps Alex in his creepy Scooby-Doo van, Marie pursues him on a roadtrip that finds the carnage mounting as the tension builds, capping off in an unforgettable conclusion.

Proving to be a true master of horror, Alexandre Aja combines arresting visuals with disturbing imagery to concoct a bold piece of cinema that takes the genre to a whole new level. Among its accomplishments, this film marks the beginning of the French horror boom that eventually gave way to the director's fruitful career in the United States, directing the successful remake of The Hills Have Eyes. It's a tough film to discuss without giving too much away, but rest assured, its effects will linger for days after seeing it. It's a film that begs to be seen twice as there is so much to digest and the film leads you to believe it's something it's not the first go-round. Crammed full of suspense, gore and style, "High Tension" is the kind of film that more than lives up to its name.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting addition to the Horror Genre, March 25, 2006

By 

Amy Lynn (Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: High Tension (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

High tension is a new and interesting horror film recently released. Ive never seen anything like it before. They dont call it High Tension for nothing, thats for sure. The whole movie will have you on the edge of your seat and there is more than the fair share of shocks and suprises throughout the film. The overall atmosphere has a lonesome creepy feeling about it, full of cornfields, seclusion and quietness. Gorehounds will love this, there is tons of gore and the ending will suprise the hell out of you. There are very few horror films that can shock you in such a way where you literally jump out of your seat but this one has its moments.

Setting,France. The story surrounds Alex and Marie, 2 college students who retreat to Alex's parents isolated farm house looking to study for their college exams for the weekend. While everyone in the house settles in for the night, Marie is in bed when she starts to hear sounds and sees a truck pull up. Soon enough a homicidal maniac breaks in the home and from there its a non-stop rollercoaster ride of terror. And then the twist at the end..

This is a movie that shouldnt be missed by fans of the horror genre. It revels in its gore and has a smart edge to it.
High Tension is partially dubbed into english but for a lot of the movie you dont need subtitles. Noone says a word and the actions say it all.

Unrated version DVD Features-
16:9 Widescreen
5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital
U.S Unrated Version
DVD Introduction with Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur
Haute Horror- Making of High Tension
Building Tension
Giannetto De Rossi: The Truth, The Madness and The Magic
Selected Scenes commentary with Alexandre Aja and Cecile de France
Original French language Director's Cut
U.S. English language dubbed version
Optional English subtitles, Optional Spanish Subtitles and Trailers

Overall Highly recomended, try to get the unrated version.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce qu c'est?, November 30, 2005

By 

Dark Mechanicus JSG "Black Ops Teep" (Fortified Bunker, USSA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: High Tension (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Alejandre Aja serves up a sulphurously nasty little gut-churner of a horror flick that finally answers the age-old burning question: is there anything hotter than a buff chick wielding a buzz-saw?

A: Absolutement, non!

Now: is it possible to conjure up a pure, nightmarish gem of a horror movie, perhaps even a *perfect* horror movie, within the space of about an hour?

It is: Aja has done it with "Haute Tension", which---for its first 60 minutes, perhaps a little more---positively boils over with knuckle-splitting suspense and runs crimson with boatloads of brains, blood, and clotted gore.

While "Haute Tension" works, it works in spades. Here we have an athletic, spare, no-bullsh*t little horror flick that drives up to your house in the dead of night (while you're just getting into that "I gotta be dreaming" state of deep-groggy-helplessness), smashes your door down, stomps up your stairs, and butchers you like a squealing hog before you've even gotten your jammy-clad butt clear of the bedclothes.

"Haute Tension" is a compact, stylish, jarring, gorgeously shot, supply terrifying little tale of a happy little family and their visitor Marie (the astonishingly nubile Cecille de France, who can wield her buzz-saw on my country estate any time), enjoying a quiet, slightly rustic life in the French countryside, and what becomes of them one night when a Monster comes calling.

Is it possible to destroy that perfect film within 10 seconds?

Mais oui!---Aja does that as well, in the final reel, with a cheap, feeble "twist" plot device that basically takes everything in the flick that has gone before and tosses it into the sh*tter, effectively taking a highly disrespectful, unceremonious dump on what was---up to that point---one of the few flicks I've ever seen that came close to the raw, brutal, uncompromising horror of the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

Ah well: we do what we can with what we're given. "Haute Tension" is marvellously simple: two French chicks---Marie (the buff De France) and Alexia (Maiwenn le Besco, who for some reason sets my teeth on edge, and not in a good way) decide to spend a little quality time studying on Alexia's family farm deep in the French countryside. Relaxing, n'est-ce pas?

Their little collegial R&R is broken up in the dead of night by The Killer (the amazing Philippe Nahon), who shows up, kicks down the front door, and manages to single-handedly undo 200 years of nasty jokes about wimpy Frenchmen by unloading all sorts of hardcore a**-whuppery on the unsuspecting family within. In his first two minutes onscreen, he manages to make Michael Myers, Jason, and Freddy Krueger look like a bunch of pansies.

He also brings some much needed punishment-fits-the-crime judgement to the horror genre: be slow to answer your door at 2 in the morning? Have your block knocked off by a chest-of-drawers! Have the bad form to try and call the police? Try dialing 9-1-1 with a stump, mademoiselle!

As I mentioned, when "Haute Tension" works---and it continues to do its brutal business well even after the stupid twist---it works in spades: this is a pungent, nasty, truly scary flick. De France is astonishing to look at, but she's also an amazingly capable actress, and serves as a fitting opponent for the flick's hungry Monster in his blood-spattered, trophy-studded delivery van.

And let's save the best for last: Philippe Nahon as The Killer is just astonishing in what could easily have been a throwaway role. Nahon played The Butcher in the lose-your-dinner-horrific "I Stand Alone", and he's effectively bottled and distilled that coiled rage and translated it into "Haute Tension".

Nahon's Killer is a show-stopper: he's a kind of black hole of pure physical presence and smoldering, sadistic evil---check out that sick little smile that forms up on his fat pug while he's checking out his 'trophies' in the rear-view mirror. Gorgeous. Nahon's Killer is a nasty piece of work.

The same can be said of "Haute Tension", despite its glaring flaw: Aja has created a very simple---deliciously simple---little film that touches---Hell, presses down hard---on that deep-seated, primal fear of the Murderous Outsider barging in through our door in the wee hours of the morning and killing, raping, burning and eating everything we hold dear.

Bon appetit!

JSG