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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 18th

"HAUTE TENSION" released in 2003

From the opening scene where a traumatized young woman in a hospital gown rocking back and forth whispering to herself, then flashes back to her stumbling through the woods (a bloody wound in her stomach and arm) looking like she's running from something/someone, you know may well think you know how French horror film Haute Tension is going to end - but, believe me, you have no idea!

Marie (Cécile de France) is invited by her best friend Alex (Maïwenn) to spend the weekend away at Alex's parents home to study. After dinner that evening, the two girls go their rooms to sleep when a man known only as the Killer (Philippe Nahon) breaks into the house and brutally murders Alex's Father (Andrei Finti) - being decapitated in the bizarrest way! - Alex's Mother (Oana Pellea) and little Brother. As Marie manages to hide from the Killer, he takes Alex captive and is dragged into his derelict truck. Desperate to save her friend, Marie pursues the Killer as he leaves a trail of more victims in his wake. As the gruesome death toll mounts, Marie and Alex come to a final confrontation with the Killer, whose revealed identity will tear the two friends apart!

Watch the Haute Tension Trailer!

Regarded as one of the New French Extremity films, Haute Tension is the second film by writer/director Alexandre Aja. Co-written with Grégory Levasseur, who is a childhood friend of Aja, the film was intended as a homage to the old-school horror films of the 70's and 80's that the two would watch together growing up. According to the director, the screenplay version of the film had the entire movie from Marie's version of events, with the final reveal occurring in the last 5-minutes when Marie is presented with the "evidence" of her crimes. However, when showing it to producer Luc Besson, he recommended that they change the ending to include revealing Marie as the killer much earlier, increasing the danger posed to Alex.

Starring Cécile de France and Maïwenn (whom Aja discovered at a stand up comedy show in France, oddly enough), Haute Tension was shot in a mere 36 days mostly on location in Romania; the only "studio filming" (which was actually just a garage), were for the scenes involving Marie and Alex in the Killer's truck. The location used for the exteriors of Alex's house was actually a dilapidated mill that the production cleaned up and dressed for the film. And then there was the bloody special effects - with an emphasis on 'bloody'! While filming the car-attack scene where the Killer disembowels the driver with a circular concrete saw, so much fake blood was involved that it splattered the front of the camera lens. Aja liked the look of it and kept it in the film. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre must not have cleaned the camera thoroughly enough as later, when the same camera was being used on another film project, fake blood oozed from the lens during the focusing of a shot!

Watch the special Behind the Scenes Video about "Haute Tensions" Make-Up Effects

Haute Tension also had it's share of controversies when it was released, ranking number ten on TIME Magazine's 10 most ridiculously violent films (among such company as Hostel, I Spit on Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust and A Clockwork Orange). There were also accusations of plagiarism when striking similarities between the plot of the film and the plot of Dean Koontz's novel Intensity were noticed by fans. Aja later admitting he had read the novel and was aware that comparisons could be made. Koontz himself stated on his website that he was aware of the Haute Tension, but would not sue "because he found the film so puerile, so disgusting, and so intellectually bankrupt that he didn’t want the association with it that would inevitably come if he pursued an action against the filmmaker." 

Koontz's comments may have been more than just a little harsh, but Roger Ebert's weren't much kinder in his review writing that Haute Tension was "poor, nasty, brutish, and short," and that it has a plot hole "that is not only large enough to drive a truck through, but in fact does have a truck driven right through it." Lisa Nesselson of Variety was more forgiving, saying that the film "deftly juggles gore and suspense," has "unnerving sound design," and "has a sinister, haemoglobin look that fits the story like a glove."

However, the final results speaks for themselves, when in 2014 (more than 10 years after Haute Tension's release) Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. Haute Tension placed at number 51 on their top 100 list! Director Alexandre Aja would go on to make The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008), Piranha 3D (2010) and Horns (2013) in the United States.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:    40%