High Tension [P&S]

Director: Alexandre Aja, John Glen Alexandre Aja

Overview

French filmmaker Alexandre Aja writes and directs the slasher film Haute Tension, given the English title Switchblade Romance. Best friends Marie (C?cile De France) and Alex (Ma?wenn Le Besco) go out to the countryside to visit Alex's parents. However, a homicidal delivery man (played by Philippe Nahon from Gaspar No?'s brutal movies) ends up at their house and starts killing everyone. Alex and Marie fight for their lives with help from several means of weaponry. Switchblade Romance was shown at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival as part of the Midnight program. The film was aquired by US distributor Lions Gate Films in 2004 and quickly put into turnaround as an NC-17 release, though plans for that were scrapped due to a lack of theater support of the controversial rating. Retitled High Tension, the R-rated version is missing one minute of grisly gore and features a redubbed audio track by star C?cile De France.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/11/2005
UPC:	0031398183556
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	47,314

Special Features

Closed Caption;Full screen version; 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital; U.S. theatrical version; DVD introduction with Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur; Commentary with Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur; Haute horror - Making of High Tension; Building tension; Giannetto De Rossi: The truth, the madness and the magic; Selected scenes commentary with Alexandre Aja and Cecile De France; French Language version; U.S. English Language Dubbed version; Optional English Subtitles; Optional Spanish Subtitles; Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Cécile de France	Marie
Maiwenn	Alex
Franck Khalfoun	Jimmy
Marco Claudiu Pascu	Tom
Andrei Finti	Le père d'Alex
Philippe Nahon	Le tueur
Oana Pellea	La mère d'Alex
Jean-Claude de Goros	L'inspecteur
Bogdan Uritescu	Actor
Gabriel Spahiu	Actor
Alexandre Aja	Actor
Timothy Dalton	Actor
Maryam D'Abo	Actor
Jeroen Krabbé	Actor
Joe Don Baker	Actor
John Rhys-Davies	Actor
Art Malik	Actor
Desmond Llewelyn	Actor
Andreas Wisniewski	Actor
Geoffrey Keen	Actor
Walter Gotell	Actor
Caroline Bliss	Actor
Virginia Hey	Actor
François Eudes	Composer

Technical Credits

Alexandre Aja

Grégory Levasseur

Alexandre Aja	Director,Screenwriter
Alexandre Arcady	Producer
Robert Benmussa	Producer
John Glen	Director
Grégory Levasseur	Screenwriter
Pierre Andre	Sound/Sound Designer
Didier Lozahic	Sound/Sound Designer
Emmanuel Augeard	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A relentless, stalk-and-slash fright-fest with a heart-pounding pace as brutal as its husky, truck-driving killer, French director Alexandre Aja's gory sophomore feature will no doubt please fear junkies in search of a truly visceral horror experience. Aja keeps thinks viciously organic by eschewing the current CG-obsession by employing the brutally realistic effects of makeup-effects artist Giannetto De Rossi (a favorite of late gore meister Lucio Fulci) -- an asset that makes the violence all the more disturbing and realistic. Of course, with a film that moves as fast as Haute Tension, there's little time for such distractions as character development or dialogue, but -- as is rarely the case in many similar films -- viewers will never doubt the actions taken by the killer's tough-as-nails prey. Much has been said regarding Haute Tension's love-it-or-hate-it "surprise" twist, and while it seems as if Aja and co-screenwriter Gregory Levasseur at least attempt to remain faithful to the revelation, even dropping an occasional hint for the savvy viewer, the awkward revelation may ultimately derail the entire endeavor for less forgiving viewers. There may be little new here for those who follow the genre, but by keeping the pacing tight and the squirm factor high, Aja has crafted a lean, mean, and unrelentingly tense film that quickly grabs the viewer by the throat and doesn't loosen its grip until the credits scroll.