Warning: This review contains a spoiler.
A young woman named Alexia travels with her friend Marie to her families secluded country home for study break. But what should be a relaxing and productive time away soon becomes a visceral tale of horror when a blood thirsty psychopath invades the family home and lays waste to Alexia's family. Alexia is then kidnapped and carried away in the killers truck. But Marie manages to evade the murderer and sets out on a mission to rescue her friend.
High Tension is very much as the title suggests; tense and suspenseful. In this regard the film is a big success and a good watch. Its violence is brutal, realistic, unrelenting, and uncompromising. It is a horror film without camp, fun, or comic relief. But at the same time its focus is on the story; the violence is a vehicle for the story rather than being the story in itself as with many modern "torture porn" films. High Tension is a success as a horrifying and suspenseful film.
But the film has an alternate title; Switchblade Romance. This alternate title hints at another aspect of the film, its surprise ending.
As we learn in the final moments of the film, Marie is the killer all along. It comes a surprise at the time, but in retrospect all the signs were there to set the viewer up for an old fashioned tale of love gone wrong. Marie is shown acting flirtatiously with Alexia, spying on her in the shower, masturbating after doing so, and hiding in a closet while the murder does his evil deeds.
Apparently driven to murderous madness by her repressed homosexual feelings, Marie embarked on a cruel rampage aimed at having her friend to herself, even if it meant killing her. In her self-loathing she had envisioned herself as a dirty, ugly misogynist, and created a character in that image through whom her crimes would be committed. Only when she finally was prepared to come out to Alexia did she finally kill this alter ego, only to be driven back into murderous rage by the rejection of her heterosexual friend. And now, with a completely unnecessary plot twist, a well executed horror film which could have ended in positive messaging about sexuality instead leaves the viewer with the rotten taste of homophobia in their mouth. It is for this, even more so than its violence or terror, that it has faced criticism.
High Tension has the makings of an excellent horror film, but should not be viewed by the weak of heart, the weak of stomach, or the weak of mind.
3 smashed heads out of 5
Contains violence/gore, frightening scenes, language, nudity, sexuality.
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