A twist too far
As promised, then, my third review exploring the recent (and, until recently, overlooked by myself) French horror New Wave – of the films that I have touched on thus far, Haute tension (Switchblade Romance) (2003) by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008), Piranha 3D (2010)) is far and away the least successful, but that’s not to say there isn’t some good stuff here for jaded horror hounds.
The plot is simplicity itself – two French college friends, Marie (Cécile De France) and Alexa (Maïwenn Le Besco), are spending a break at Alexa’s parents’ quiet country home, when a complete psychopath (a lumbering, chilling performance from Philippe Nahon) arrives at the door, kills everyone except Alexa (whom he ties up) and Marie, who manages to escape then sets out after him when he makes good his own escape with Alexa still held captive.
Interestingly enough, it’s based on a work by acclaimed horror writer Dean R. Koontz – quite how he managed to contrive the ludicrous, nonsensical twist that brings proceedings to a close into a novel is beyond me, but what the film does at least manage, thankfully, is a genuine sense of dread along with the by-now seemingly obligatory bucketfuls of blood. Nahon as the killer is a singularly horrible creation, combining brute force with sheer implacability, and De France’s blood-soaked terror and desperation is a very creditable turn.
Oh, but that twist. Of course, I can’t reveal it here, but I would be intrigued to read any intelligent defence of how it makes *any* sense at all – my thanks in advance.
91 mins. In French.
Hurrah! We agree on something.
Forty years of contrarian to-ing and fro-ing, but we can agree that the ending to Haute Tension was very, *very* silly and spoils what is otherwise a fairly decent Gallic excursion into stalk and slash.
SPOILERS
As far as an ‘intellegnt defence’ goes, I’m afraid that I can only offer my own take, which might not qualify but, as I remember it, up to a certain point we see events through the protagonist’s eyes and so the killer appears as Nahon and she perceives herself as a victim.
Later, we see events through the final girl’s eyes and so the killer appears as…now, that’s fair enough but, what’s dumbass about it, is that it feels like a con. You’ll remember the cinematic con that Argento pulls in Tenebrae (1982), where the writer is shown flying off from Rome, and then turns up in Rome for the final twist. Of course, he could have flown back…but it just feels a bit conny, know what I mean?
Hurrah, as you say mate.
And yes, good reference to Tenebrae (1982) – I remember now how Argento’s shenanigans in that respect took the edge of an otherwise great finale. Funnily enough, I saw Suspiria (1978) for only the second time in my life yesterday and, having taken the piss out of Argento’s famously OTT style for some time without actually knowing the film very well, I was pleased that I actually really enjoyed the film as an adult – remarkably dreamlike and disturbing, even though the quality of the dubbing makes some of the acting appear very amateurish.
Yes, Suspiria was a classic, I’ll have to catch up with it again myself. Like Nick said, Argento’s movies were a glaring omission on the top horror movies thread – a bit like forgetting Leone when talking about Westerns.
I always liked Inferno (1980) the best – I loved that bit where she drops her keys into the underwater room.