High Tension Review Country : France Year: 2003 Genre: Stalker/Slasher Format: Theater Running Time: 91 minutes Distributor: EuropaCorp A weekend at an old country home turns terrifying for a pair of vacationing college friends..... Credits Directed by Alexandre Aja. Written by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur. Starring Cecile De France, Maiwenn Le Besco, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun and Marco Claudio Pascu. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how this film is going to go down in the first five minutes. Two college girls at a secluded farmhouse to study for exams are stalked by a slasher! How original. Two worlds collide disastrously -- a rusted delivery van barrels through cornfields; meanwhile, Alex has brought her friend Marie to spend the weekend at her parents' country farmhouse to escape the hectic pace of Paris. Behind the van's wheel, the driver caresses ripped photos of young women; at the same time the girls get ready for bed dishing girly gossip. At the end of the road lies an isolated house, caught in the van's headlights; as the girls close their eyes, an intruder is about to turn their innocent dreams into a relentless and bloody nightmare. Sound familiar? The film fell short for me after the first 30 minutes. Nothing but boredom sets in by this point and I could care less for any of the characters. The true nightmare is director Alexandre Aja’s pacing. I was looking at my watch before anyone even got killed… not good. Another nuisance is the soundtrack. I felt like screaming at some parts of the film. We go from annoying ‘scary’ sounds to reggae to Southern French pop/techno, then back to annoying ‘scary’ sounds. Aja is all over the place in this film and when the final twist is revealed, he totally screws the viewer and sets up an amazing amount of confusion. This reviewer has to wonder how many times Aja watched The Sixth Sense. The saving grace to the film is gore maestro Giannetto De Rossi. True gore hounds will love his Fulci-esque scenes of brutality, and it is wonderful to see the man that created some of the best F/X in 80’s splatter (Zombie) is still doing what he does best. That in itself is worth the price of admission alone. This film proves once again just how vital it is to have a good ending. Those final moments are what most viewers are going to remember most. Sadly, this film is indeed another case of the trailer being better than the actual film. Aja’s next film… a remake of The Hills Have Eyes. Say it ain’t so. MORE INFO Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com