Product Details

• Actors: Cécile De France, Maïwenn Le Besco, 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, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Italian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• 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 (281 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ARFPMQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,697 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #33 in	Movies & TV > Horror > Slasher Flicks
  #67 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > European Cinema > France

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Home to some of the world's best food and fashion, the French also have the wonderful habit of producing some of the world's best movies. With High Tension, French director Alexandre Aja offers up a bloody buffet of terror; a violent concoction of style over substance, with a bloody French twist. Two college girlfriends, Maria and Alex, take a weekend to study at the secluded country home of Alex's parents. Shortly after their arrival, a mysterious killer appears, and things take a shockingly terrible turn for the worse. As the horror and body count rises, Maria and Alex find themselves fighting for their lives, and it's revealed that things are not exactly as they seem. Essentially a one-act cat-and-mouse affair, High Tension is an explosive bloody thrill ride that rarely lets up. Oozing style in every color-saturated frame and boasting some intense performances, Aja mainly succeeds in sustaining an intense momentum throughout the film. The plot occasionally suffers from a thin, flimsy storyline, and the abundant graphic scenes of violence will either thrill and delight, or simply disgust. Nonetheless, this adrenalin-fueled addition to the genre gives the American slasher flick a real run for its money. High Tension is high-art horror, and comes highly recommended. --Matt Wold

Product Description
MARIE & ALEXIA ARE CLASSMATES & BEST FRIENDS. TO PREPARE FOR COLLEGE EXAMS IN PEACE & QUIET, THEY DECIDE TO SPEND A WEEKEND AT ALEXIA'S PARENTS' SECLUDED FARMHOUSE. IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT, A STRANGER KNOCKS ON THE DOOR. WITH THE 1ST SWING OF HIS KNIFE, THE GIRLS' IDYLLIC WEEKEND TURNS INTO AN ENDLESS NIGHT OF HORROR

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Look At The Cover. Don't You Just Want To See The Movie?, June 9, 2006

By	Mr. Censored (Maine) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"High Tension" tells the story of two college women who take a trip home to shut themselves off from the outside world and do some heavy duty studying. The only people around them for miles are the family members they are staying with. Everything seems fine and joyous, until a late night visitor shows up and turns the household upside down, to say the least. What ensues is an hour and half, white-kuckled chase. Alex and Marie, the college students, are on the run and must stop at nothing to free themselves from this mysterious creep's grip. High tension, indeed.

When sitting down to watch "High Tension," one thing must be known: This is a french film, which means, yes, you're going to have to put up with dubbing and subtitles. Surprisingly enough, however, this does not degrade the film experience one bit whatsoever. "High Tension," as the unrated version, is one of the goriest films of recent memory, but at the same time, it's in a tasteful way. Some scenes that would be to graphic to even imagine are left offscreen, which is far more effective. At times, our imaginations are allowed to imagine worse things than they could show. Regardless, this movie never lets up for one minute. You will be hooked in from about the first fifteen minutes. I have to say, though, without giving it away, that the end blatantly negates the rest of the movie. I was left a little letdown and disappointed with how this film ended. But, you shouldn't let that damper the mood. Simply, this is an intense film. Regardless of how it ends, the journey to get to that ending is one hell of a ride. Until it's random ending, "High Tension" is, cut and dry, a terrifying experience.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Does Dean Koontz know they ripped off his story?!, October 29, 2005

By	KatWoman "Kat" (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

I loved this movie, it was very gory and a fun more R-rated remake of Intensity....until I figured out the ending was different and it WASN'T a remake of Intensity at all AND the original creater of this great story, Dean Koontz, didn't even get credit for it! Within the first 10-15 mins, it is painfully obvious that this is a total remake of Intensity from the college friend visiting the friend's family to the guy showing up at night and killing them one by one to the friend hiding under the bed and making the room look like no one was using it to her sneaking into the truck, the daughter being the only one to live by capture, and on and on and on....for all but the last 15 mins of this movie it WAS Intensity. How disappointing that there was no credit given to Koontz...what a ripoff. A great movie that just left a bad taste in your mouth. PS Koontz, your ending was WAY better!