Haute Tension

Director: Alexandre Aja
Screenwriters: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur

Institute History

  • 2004 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Marie is like a rubber band—taut under her tight white T-shirt, a restless traveler and longing companion to dreamy and oblivious Alex. Two plucky college girls, they're on the road to Alex's parent's country home, a converted barn nestled so snugly amongst fields of corn that there will be nothing to distract them from a weekend of study. Or will there? That night all but Marie are resting soundly when a derelict in a delivery truck begins insistently ringing and forces his way in—to shed blood. What follows is a brutally gory, beautiful suspense thriller—saturated in crimson hues and decapitation. Only at the end do you learn who wins the seductive stalking match between murderer and murdered, heroine and would-be victim.

Alexandre Aja has crafted a masterful suspense story that elevates the liturgy of French horror—it's more than un petit peu sexy—to a whole new titillating level. At the center of this chiaroscuro roadside nightmare stand commanding and nuanced performances by Maiwenn le Besco and Cécile de France. Philippe Nahon as the blood-lusting creep, borrowed from the films of Gaspar Noé, seals the deal.

Though you may want to look away from the gruesome scene, fear not. The haute tension reveals a twisted climax.

— Larin Sullivan

Screening Details

Credits

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