Haute Tension - High Tension

[MacGuffin]

Quicktime Trailer:
(Warning - long download)


Windows Hi-Res (better) here.

Actors: Cecile De France (Marie), Maiwenn Le Besco (Alex), Philippe Nahon (Le tueur), Franck Khalfoun (Jimmy), Andrei Finti (Le pere d'Alex), Oana Pellea (La mere d'Alex), Marco Claudiu Pascu (Tom), Jean-Claude de Goros (Capitaine gendarmerie), Bogdan Uritescu (Gendarme), Gabriel Spahiu (Homme voiture)

Director: Alexandre Aja (Entre chiens et loups, Furia)

Screenwriter(s): Alexandre Aja & Gregory Levasseur (Entre chiens et loups, Furia)

Plot: Two female students, Marie and Alex (Cecile De France & Maiwenn Le Besco), set off to Alex's parent's secluded homestead in the country to relax and study. Come nightfall, Hell pulls up at the front door.

Alex is now bound and gagged, taken off, with Marie alluding the intruder. Can she save her friend's life in time? Or is everything all that it seems...





Fangoria reports that Alexandre Aja's French gorefest HAUTE TENSION (HIGH TENSION) had received an NC-17 rating, and that instead of going for cuts or an unrated release, U.S. distributor Lions Gate is sticking with the tag. Now, Lions Gate president Tom Ortenberg has explained the decision, telling Variety, "We are looking to do our part in destigmatizing the rating. Without getting into the argument about which films should fall under it or not, we at Lions Gate would like there to be an adult rating that does not have a stench associated with it."

Ortenberg goes on to say that "To go unrated can marginalize a film by making it feel too independent," and notes that while the company made minor trims to last year's drama THE COOLER to lower its rating from NC-17 to an R, editing HAUTE TENSION to R suitability would constitute "gutting" the movie. The story also reveals that Lions Gate is planning an August release for TENSION. "To a degree, we're going into uncharted waters," Ortenberg concludes of the NC-17 release. "We're feeling our way."

[Weak2ndAct]

Oooooh snap!  Mac, you should seriously use the search function.  Look for a PM in your inbox

http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=4262&highlight=haute+tension

Anyone else catch this French horror movie? It's been making the festival rounds and Lions Gate is distributing. In France, it's called 'Switchblade Romance.'

This has to be one of the most violent movies I've seen in a long time (well, except maybe Kill Bill, but this is way smaller and more 'real'). The premise: a girl drives out to the country with her best friend, and they stay at the BF's family's home. And in the middle of night, a serial-killer-of-sorts shows up and starts to slaughter everyone. Yes, that's it. There's 20 minutes of set-up and then 70 minutes of pure unadulterated violence/suspense. And it just goes on and on. The movie made me feel exhausted... but in a good way.

It's really well made and tense. And for you Gaspar Noe fans, Phillipe Nahon (the lead in 'I Stand Alone,' and in the opening of 'Irreversible') is the silent killer. I have serious mixed feelings about the last ten minutes, but I won't ruin anything for y'all. That aside, if you like the gore, check this one out.

Gah, what the fuck is the MPAA doing?  I haven't seen the 'Passion' yet, but I HIGHLY doubt this movie tops that level of insanity.  Sure, it's bloody as hell, but damn...

EDIT: Dyslexia errors.

[modage]

this seems insane.

[Pedro]

fucking intense looking.  this is gonna be awesome

[Chest Rockwell]

I didn't really find The Passion all that bad...

[RegularKarate]

This showed at SXSW and while I didn't see it, the overall word on it is "Boooooooooooo"

[Banky]

i like the poster

[bonanzataz]

This showed at SXSW and while I didn't see it, the overall word on it is "Boooooooooooo"

well, people from texas are stoopit.

and people at film festivals usually hate horror.

and i MUST see this movie ASAP!

[Ghostboy]

This is one of the worst movies I've seen in ages. It makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the remake) look masterful in comparsison. It had some decent gore and nice photography, but I didn't really care because the script was just so...well, I didn't think it was tense, and there were very few scares, and the reason for this is because they practically give the ending away at the very beginning with one of the most blatant and obvious lines of dialogue imagineable. And even though the twist is inexecusably tired, seeing as how it's already been done to death in Secret Window and Identity and, to an extent, Blair Witch 2, it's pulled off SO BADLY that you end up just feeling insulted when it's all over.

It's also homophobic in a Basic Instinct kind of way, although greatly amplified.

If this was a straightforward brutal slasher flick, like I Spit On Your Grave or something, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Anyway, I just felt like ranting about it.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[Pwaybloe]

Are they still willing to release this as NC-17?

[cron]

man i love that sonic youth cover.

[edison]

This flick blew.

Big waste, it just goes nowhere. I dl'ed it and it didnt have subtitles, which really didnt matter because there is bascially no talking throughout, and whatever talking i did miss i could pretty much figure out (well except for that line Ghostboy said was "blatant and obvious"; what was that line GB?). If you like blood, then this is for you but dont expect much else. But as some have said before, the result is nothing new. This really could have been somthing cool, but its a bore.

[bonanzataz]

This showed at SXSW and while I didn't see it, the overall word on it is "Boooooooooooo"

well, people from texas are stoopit.

and people at film festivals usually hate horror.

and i MUST see this movie ASAP!

je suis une douche-bag.
ugh, this movie was so repulsively banal and french. all it had going for it were gore scenes, of which there were FAR too few and which will be trimmed down for the US release. and for a movie called 'high tension,' where the fuck was it? take a look at this article.

When the lovably depraved individuals at Lions Gate Films acquired Alexandre Aja's French horror flick Haute Tension they excitedly announced it'd receive domestic theatrical distribution with an NC-17 rating.  Ballsy, as I've said once before.  But appropriate.  Appropriate for the mood of the film and it respects the material.

Last week we had a reader calling himself Jinx drop us a line from a theater road show where he ran into some Lions Gate reps who told him Tension (retitled for release here in the States to High Tension) was being trimmed for an R-rated release so it could naturally get wider exposure - one of the key reasons everyone tries to avoid an NC-17 these days, more theater play.  We didn't want to run with this news like our asses were on fire until we heard more, so, we contacted LGF.

What we received back was a statement from director Aja himself who tells us, "The version of 'High Tension' that you are about to see is a dubbed English translation of the original French-language film, featuring Cecile de France's own voice in the part of Marie. The new version has also been re-edited slightly, resulting in a running time that is about one minute shorter than the original.  'High Tension' was conceived as an ode to the 1970's American horror/slasher films I loved as a teenager; so it is a source of great satisfaction to me that American audiences will now be able to experience the film on the same visceral level as French audiences, without the distraction of subtitles. Every filmmaker hopes that his or her work will be seen by the largest audience possible. Now, as an English language film, 'High Tension' has the opportunity to travel to U.S. theaters. I want to thank Lions Gate Films for making this possible."

Actress Cecil de France (Around the World in 80 Days) stars in Tension as a Marie, a woman who is forced to pursue her best friend's kidnapper after a brutal home invasion.  Tension, which opens in theaters June 3rd, also stars actress Maiwenn (The Fifth Element, The Professional).  Aja is currently prepping a remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes for Dimension Films.

http://www.horrorchannel.com/dread/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=983

[pete]

dude, lion's gate is the new miramax.