Two college girls,
Marie and Alex, head off to stay with Alex’s family at their
house in the countryside to get in some intensive studying before
exams. Surrounded by cornfields and isolated, it is the perfect
place to get away from it all to concentrate. Marie already has
enough to distract her seeing as she can’t keep her mind off
the secret unrequited crush she has on Alex.
That becomes the least of Marie’s problems,
however, when a man known only as Le Tueur, or “The Killer”
(played by Philippe Nahon from Irreversible and I Stand Alone),
shows up and begins hacking up everyone in the house. It becomes
a case of cat and mouse as Marie tries to evade the killer and save
her best friend.
High Tension certainly lives up to the classification
of a “splatter” film, serving up more than its share
of blood and gore. Viewer beware as the gruesome violence in the
film recently garnered it an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. But it’s
more than just the buckets of blood. High Tension is stylish
and chilling and Le Tueur can rightfully take his place alongside
the most memorable mindless killing machines in movies.
-- Dan Krovich | 
