Haute Tension
Encyclopedia
Haute Tension is a 2003 French horror film
that was later released in 2004 in the United Kingdom and 2005 in the United States and Canada
. The film, directed by Alexandre Aja
, stars Cécile de France
, Maïwenn and Philippe Nahon
.
Haute Tension was picked up by independent distributor Lions Gate Entertainment
following a successful screening at the Midnight Madness section of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival
. Originally rated NC-17 in the U.S. for strong graphic violence, a few graphic shots were cut from the final version of the U.S. release to get it down to the R rating (the original NC-17 cut was released in some theaters). However, the original cut (referred to as an unrated version) is available on DVD.
All of the effects are created by renowned horror make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi, a favorite of late director Lucio Fulci
.
This is revealed to be Marie's dream (Cécile de France
). She and Alex (Maïwenn) are on their way to stay at Alex's parents' house for the weekend. When they arrive, Alex gives Marie a tour of the house before they settle down for dinner. After dinner, Marie and Alex get ready to go to bed. As Alex sleeps, Marie lies on her bed listening to music and masturbating. Marie hears a doorbell ring and Alex's father wakes to answer it. The man at the door is a serial killer
(Philippe Nahon
), who slashes Alex's father with a straight razor and decapitates him. Alex's father's head is pressed between two rails of the staircase, then the killer shoves the bookcase towards the father's head, decapitating him. The noise awakens Alex's mother, who finds her husband dead and is approached by the killer. Marie, hearing the mother's screams, quickly arranges the guest room to make it appear that no one is staying there, and hides under her bed. The killer inspects Marie's room but does not find her. Marie creeps downstairs and finds Alex chained in her bedroom. Promising to find help, she sneaks into the parents' room to find a phone. After hearing loud thuds, she hides in the closet and through the slats of the door witnesses the killing of Alex's mother as her throat is brutally slashed with a razor. Alex's younger brother runs from the house to the cornfield, pursued by the killer. Marie returns to Alex, where she witnesses the young boy's murder from a window. Marie promises to free Alex, but the killer is heard returning. Marie sneaks into the kitchen and takes a butcher knife
. Alex is dragged into the killer's truck. Marie sneaks into the truck with the butcher knife and hides there with Alex. He locks them in and drives off.
When the killer stops at a gas station, Marie gives Alex the knife and sneaks into the gas station shop for help. When the killer comes into the shop, Marie hides and she witnesses as the store clerk (Franck Khalfoun) is murdered with an axe. The killer returns to the truck and Marie takes the clerk's car keys and chases the killer down a deserted road. The killer notices Marie following him, and rams Marie's vehicle, pushing her car off the road. Exiting on foot, badly injured, Marie runs into the forest as the killer seeks her. Eventually, Marie bludgeons the killer with a fence post covered in barbed wire. As Marie inspects the body, he grabs at her throat, so Marie suffocates him with a plastic sheet and makes her way back to the truck. Alex seems terrified of Marie as she returns to the vehicle. As police investigate the gas station murders via the in-store videotape, the tape shows Marie murdering the store clerk. In retrospect, the audience is shown how the family murders really happened. Finally, the audience discovers that Marie is murderous, delusional and in love with Alex.
At the truck, Marie unties Alex. As soon as Alex is free, she threatens Marie with the knife and accuses her of butchering her family. Alex slashes Marie's face and stabs her in the stomach before running into the forest. Marie chases Alex with a concrete saw. Alex finds a road and flags down a car. As Alex is climbing into the car, Marie appears brandishing the concrete saw
and disembowels the driver. A stray piece of glass slices Alex's Achilles tendon. Alex takes a crowbar
from the car's toolbox and crawls along the road. Marie forces Alex to tell her that she loves her, and she kisses her. While engaged in the kiss, Alex plunges the crowbar into Marie's chest as Marie proclaims she'll never let anyone come between them.
The final scene shows Marie in a psychiatric hospital
room, and Alex watching her through a one-way mirror. Marie grins and reaches for Alex, aware that she is behind it.
Roger Ebert
was very negative about the film, giving it one star, saying that it 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."
version) titled "Rising Tension".
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
that was later released in 2004 in the United Kingdom and 2005 in the United States and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The film, directed by Alexandre Aja
Alexandre Aja
Alexandre Aja is a French film director who rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension .-Personal life:...
, stars Cécile de France
Cécile de France
Cécile de France is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as L'Art de la séduction and Irène , she gained international attention for her lead role in Haute Tension and Hereafter .- Career :Born in Namur, she left Belgium at the age of 17 to go to Paris where she...
, Maïwenn and Philippe Nahon
Philippe Nahon
-Biography:Nahon is best known for his roles in French horror and thriller films, including I Stand Alone, Humains, Calvaire, Irréversible, The Pack and Haute Tension, and he has been featured as a nameless butcher in three films by Gaspar Noé – Carne, I Stand Alone, and Irréversible .-Filmography...
.
Haute Tension was picked up by independent distributor Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
following a successful screening at the Midnight Madness section of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival
2003 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2003 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 4 to September 13, 2003. A total of 336 films from 55 countries were screened during the festival...
. Originally rated NC-17 in the U.S. for strong graphic violence, a few graphic shots were cut from the final version of the U.S. release to get it down to the R rating (the original NC-17 cut was released in some theaters). However, the original cut (referred to as an unrated version) is available on DVD.
All of the effects are created by renowned horror make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi, a favorite of late director Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
.
Plot
The film begins with a woman wearing a hospital gown, whispering to herself. Her back is revealed, showing sutures from injuries all over her back. The scene cuts to a woman who runs from something unknown to a road near a forest. She stops a car, screaming, begging for help, when her hand is revealed, covered in blood from a wound in her stomach.This is revealed to be Marie's dream (Cécile de France
Cécile de France
Cécile de France is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as L'Art de la séduction and Irène , she gained international attention for her lead role in Haute Tension and Hereafter .- Career :Born in Namur, she left Belgium at the age of 17 to go to Paris where she...
). She and Alex (Maïwenn) are on their way to stay at Alex's parents' house for the weekend. When they arrive, Alex gives Marie a tour of the house before they settle down for dinner. After dinner, Marie and Alex get ready to go to bed. As Alex sleeps, Marie lies on her bed listening to music and masturbating. Marie hears a doorbell ring and Alex's father wakes to answer it. The man at the door is a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
(Philippe Nahon
Philippe Nahon
-Biography:Nahon is best known for his roles in French horror and thriller films, including I Stand Alone, Humains, Calvaire, Irréversible, The Pack and Haute Tension, and he has been featured as a nameless butcher in three films by Gaspar Noé – Carne, I Stand Alone, and Irréversible .-Filmography...
), who slashes Alex's father with a straight razor and decapitates him. Alex's father's head is pressed between two rails of the staircase, then the killer shoves the bookcase towards the father's head, decapitating him. The noise awakens Alex's mother, who finds her husband dead and is approached by the killer. Marie, hearing the mother's screams, quickly arranges the guest room to make it appear that no one is staying there, and hides under her bed. The killer inspects Marie's room but does not find her. Marie creeps downstairs and finds Alex chained in her bedroom. Promising to find help, she sneaks into the parents' room to find a phone. After hearing loud thuds, she hides in the closet and through the slats of the door witnesses the killing of Alex's mother as her throat is brutally slashed with a razor. Alex's younger brother runs from the house to the cornfield, pursued by the killer. Marie returns to Alex, where she witnesses the young boy's murder from a window. Marie promises to free Alex, but the killer is heard returning. Marie sneaks into the kitchen and takes a butcher knife
Butcher knife
A butcher knife is a knife designed and used primarily for the butchering and/or dressing of animals.During the late 18th century to mid 1840s, the butcher knife was a key tool for mountain men. Simple, useful and cheap to produce, they were used for everything from skinning beaver, cutting food,...
. Alex is dragged into the killer's truck. Marie sneaks into the truck with the butcher knife and hides there with Alex. He locks them in and drives off.
When the killer stops at a gas station, Marie gives Alex the knife and sneaks into the gas station shop for help. When the killer comes into the shop, Marie hides and she witnesses as the store clerk (Franck Khalfoun) is murdered with an axe. The killer returns to the truck and Marie takes the clerk's car keys and chases the killer down a deserted road. The killer notices Marie following him, and rams Marie's vehicle, pushing her car off the road. Exiting on foot, badly injured, Marie runs into the forest as the killer seeks her. Eventually, Marie bludgeons the killer with a fence post covered in barbed wire. As Marie inspects the body, he grabs at her throat, so Marie suffocates him with a plastic sheet and makes her way back to the truck. Alex seems terrified of Marie as she returns to the vehicle. As police investigate the gas station murders via the in-store videotape, the tape shows Marie murdering the store clerk. In retrospect, the audience is shown how the family murders really happened. Finally, the audience discovers that Marie is murderous, delusional and in love with Alex.
At the truck, Marie unties Alex. As soon as Alex is free, she threatens Marie with the knife and accuses her of butchering her family. Alex slashes Marie's face and stabs her in the stomach before running into the forest. Marie chases Alex with a concrete saw. Alex finds a road and flags down a car. As Alex is climbing into the car, Marie appears brandishing the concrete saw
Concrete saw
A concrete saw is a power tool used for cutting concrete, masonry, brick, asphalt, tile, and other solid materials. It can be a small hand-held cut-off saw, a big walk-behind saw or other styles, and it may be powered by gasoline, hydraulic or pneumatic pressure, or electric motors...
and disembowels the driver. A stray piece of glass slices Alex's Achilles tendon. Alex takes a crowbar
Crowbar (tool)
A crowbar, a wrecking bar, pry bar, or prybar, or sometimes a prise bar or prisebar, and more informally a jimmy, jimmy bar, jemmy or gooseneck is a tool consisting of a metal bar with a single curved end and flattened points, often with a small fissure on one or both ends for removing nails...
from the car's toolbox and crawls along the road. Marie forces Alex to tell her that she loves her, and she kisses her. While engaged in the kiss, Alex plunges the crowbar into Marie's chest as Marie proclaims she'll never let anyone come between them.
The final scene shows Marie in a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
room, and Alex watching her through a one-way mirror. Marie grins and reaches for Alex, aware that she is behind it.
Cast
- Cécile de FranceCécile de FranceCécile de France is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as L'Art de la séduction and Irène , she gained international attention for her lead role in Haute Tension and Hereafter .- Career :Born in Namur, she left Belgium at the age of 17 to go to Paris where she...
as Marie. The protagonist, a college student who attempts to save her friend from a brutal killer before the ending reveals that she is really the murderer. Her motive seems to be her desire to be alone with Alex. Marie has created a separate persona (the psychopathic killer) in her mind who murders the victims. - Maïwenn as Alex. The object of Marie's desire. She is terrorized by her own friend.
- Philippe NahonPhilippe Nahon-Biography:Nahon is best known for his roles in French horror and thriller films, including I Stand Alone, Humains, Calvaire, Irréversible, The Pack and Haute Tension, and he has been featured as a nameless butcher in three films by Gaspar Noé – Carne, I Stand Alone, and Irréversible .-Filmography...
as The Killer. A man sexually obsessed with killing and torturing women. It is revealed that he exists only in Marie's mind. When Marie butchers, she imagines The Killer as a person outside herself. Finally, after she "kills" the alter-ego, Marie and the Killer persona appear alternately. - Andrei Finti as Alex's Father. He is killed on the first night, decapitated in a bizarre way.
- Oana Pellea as Alex's Mother. Her throat is slashed near to decapitation as she tries to use the phone to call for help. The Killer also cuts off her hand for trying to use the phone.
- Franck Khalfoun as Jimmy, the store clerk at a gas station. Marie/The Killer murders the clerk with an axe. This murder is captured on a security camera that later reveals the film's twist.
Scenes cut for an R rating
Some scenes were edited from Haute Tension for the American version to achieve an R rating by the MPAA. About two minutes of the film were cut in order to avoid the NC-17 Rating. The R-rated edition was released in American cinemas, and in a less widely circulated DVD. This section notes what was deleted from the unrated, original French film to produce the American version.- Alex's father is graphically decapitated with a bookcase, his headless neck spraying blood. In the R-rated version, the murder is edited to quickly cut away as the bookcase crushes and severs his head. Later the body is seen on the staircase without the head.
- The driver's disembowlment with the concrete sawConcrete sawA concrete saw is a power tool used for cutting concrete, masonry, brick, asphalt, tile, and other solid materials. It can be a small hand-held cut-off saw, a big walk-behind saw or other styles, and it may be powered by gasoline, hydraulic or pneumatic pressure, or electric motors...
was shortened. - When Alex's mother has her throat slashed, the scene is shortened; most of the arterial spurting, as the killer pulls back her head, is gone.
- The scene where Marie strikes the killer's face with the barbed wire pole is shortened and less explicit; Marie hits the killer fewer times, and fewer details of the killer's wounds are shown.
- Alex's younger brother is followed into a cornfield by the killer. It is implied in the American R version that the young brother is killed. In the original version, the brother is shown being shot by a shotgun blast.
Reception
Haute Tension received mixed reviews in North America. It holds a 42% rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 42 on Metacritic, classifying it as having received "mixed or average reviews."Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
was very negative about the film, giving it one star, saying that it 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."
Soundtrack
- MuseMuse (band)Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
— "New BornNew Born"New Born" is a song by English alternative rock band Muse available on the eponymous single, the album Origin of Symmetry and on the Hullabaloo Live DVD.-History:...
" - Ricchi e PoveriRicchi e PoveriRicchi e Poveri is one of the most famous Italian pop music groups in Europe and Latin America. Active since the late 1960s, they have sold over 20 million records.-Formation and early success:...
— "Sara Perché Ti Amo" - U-RoyU-RoyU-Roy , OD, is a Jamaican musician, also known as The Originator. He is best known as a pioneer of toasting.-Biography:...
— "Runaway Girl" - Félix GrayFélix GrayFélix Boutboul, most know under the pseudonym of Félix Gray , is a French singer and songwriter.He has a daughter named Marie-Charlotte, born on 7 January 1991.-Compositions:He has composed texts for various artists :...
& Didier BarbelivienDidier BarbelivienDidier Barbelivien is a French author, lyricist, songwriter and singer. Beginning in the 1970s, he wrote a number of successful songs for artists such as: Dalida, Johnny Hallyday, Michel Sardou, Daniel Guichard, Claude François, Gilbert Montagné, Sylvie Vartan, Patti Layne, Gilbert Bécaud, Enrico...
— "A toutes les filles" - François Eudes-Chanfrault — "Faustina Mauricio Mercedes"
- Scott Nickoley/Jamie Dunlap/Molly Pasutti/Marc FerrariMarc FerrariMarc Ferrari is a guitar player famous for his work in bands such as Keel, Cold Sweat, Medicine Wheel and Ferrari. He also had a role in Wayne's World, as the guitarist of Crucial Taunt and guested on Pantera's 1988 album, Power Metal. In the 1990s he wrote the column "Power Sources" for Metal...
—"I Believe" - François Eudes-Chanfrault — "Celebration A2"
- Arch Bacon — "Pillow Talk"
- François Eudes-Chanfrault — "Paris—Nice"
- Sonic YouthSonic YouthSonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
— "Superstar" - Philip GlassPhilip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
— "Opening" (The Truman ShowThe Truman ShowThe Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
) Score - François Eudes-Chanfrault — "Out of the Mundial"
Reference in other media
In the 2008 video game "Silent Hill: Homecoming", one of the unlockable weapons is a circular saw. Unlocking the saw earns an achievement (Xbox 360Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version) titled "Rising Tension".