Haute Tension directed by Alexandre Aja could have been a great thriller if only it didn't decide to include a twist ending which served only to sour everything that led up to it.
The first two acts lead you into thinking that you're in for a tension filled, dark and disturbing straight-forward thriller only for the film to completely betray the audience by the end, destroying what could have been one of my favourite "final girls" in all of the "New French Extremity" sub-genre.
The basic premise of the film is that two friends, Alex and Marie travel to the French countryside for a study retreat and to visit Alex's family, unaware that soon they are to become prey for a depraved serial killer. If only the script had stayed that simple, sometimes in horror the fewer twists a film has the better.
What you end up with is a fairly mixed bag, though for the most part it is a gory tension filled ride, the performances are strong and there is a certain grimy, grind-house feel to the film which works in its favour, it just doesn't hold up very well on repeated viewings because of its lacklustre ending.
However, there is a really good film buried within what we're given and by no means is Haute Tension a bad film, I would still recommend it if you're looking for something that is slightly beyond the boundaries of mainstream horror, but for me it is tainted slightly by its climax which simply doesn't work coherently with the way in which specific events unfold before the final reveal.
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