This Horror Movie Was Going So Well And Then Came Its Ending

The Big Picture

• High Tension is a French slasher film directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alexandre Aja.
• The film is praised for its gritty atmosphere and intense horror scenes, but the twist ending has been heavily criticized for its plot holes and problematic message about homosexuality.
• This ending has been widely panned for being senseless and disappointing, and it has left many viewers frustrated with the film. Despite its flaws, High Tension remains a cult classic among horror fans.

We've all seen them, those horror movies that are absolutely perfect, but then comes that last act where it all falls apart. Some have said this just recently about In a Violent Nature, at once praising the clever premise, while expressing disappointment over the last fifteen minutes. Sometimes it's the bleakness of an ending that disappoints, with the director making a choice to kill off everyone. The Mist and Eden Lake are so dark in their final moments that it nearly destroys everything that came before it. Other times it's the twist fans don't like. Audiences loved M. Night Shyamalan in the beginning, but twenty years ago many were incensed because they hated his twist in The Village. There's another horror film that came out around the same time with a much maligned ending due to its divisive twist. In 2003, AlexandreAja directed the French slasher High Tension, a movie which got him enough attention that it led to him making American horror fare such as a reboot of The Hills Have Eyes, the Elijah Wood starring Maniac, and Crawl. High Tension is a terrifying slasher until the third act, when it falls apart in a twist filled with so many plot holes that it makes another viewing of it frustrating.

High Tension

Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.

'High Tension' Is One of the Best 21st Century Slashers

The slasher subgenre was in a strange place in 2003. The Scream era and its clones had played itself out and fans craved something new. Instead, we got the familiar, as the success of the 2003 reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre led to a whole wave of slasher icons coming back from the dead for a reimagining. If you wanted originality, you had to look across the ocean to Europe for France's High Tension (Haute Tension in French), written and directed by Alexandre Aja.

Although it's a slasher with that late 70s grit to it, High Tension isn't about a kids at a summer camp or high school being picked off by a guy in a mask. Instead, its two heroines are smart, college-aged young women, Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco) and Marie (Cécile de France). The first scene is a clue to what lies ahead, as it shows a banged up Marie in a hospital saying she" won't let anyone come between us anymore," along with a scene of her bloodied running toward a road screaming for help. After that, it's back to Marie and her best friend, Alex, with Marie telling her bestie about the dream she just had of her chasing herself. The two are on their way to Alex's parents' house out in the middle of nowhere in the French countryside, but watching them is a man in a van so nauseating it would make The Creeper from Jeepers Creepers proud. It initially looks like he's getting oral gratification from someone, but then he tosses the head of a decapitated woman out the window and begins to follow the girls.

Marie and Alex arrive at the farmhouse at night, and we get to meet the parents and the little brother (Marco Claudiu Pascu) before the girls are alone, Alex complaining about men and Marie being alone. Later, Marie notices Alex in the shower from outside the window, and we can tell from her stare that she feels something for her friend that's not so platonic. If that's not enough of a clue, she then goes inside and masturbates. It's then that the horror begins, à la The Strangers, with the man from the van (Phillipe Nahon) ringing the doorbell. When the father (Andrei Finti) answers, he is immediately killed in an impressively gory decapitation. High Tension is not holding back! Mom (Oana Pellea) and little brother get it next and Marie hides, leading to a suspenseful hide-and-seek scene that leaves the killer empty-handed. Meanwhile, Alex is asleep with headphones on and misses all the chaos. The killer finds her and caresses her hair, and although he lets Alex lives, he ties her up and gags her. Marie tries to save her friend, but the killer gets to her first, taking Alex and a photo of her with him. Marie manages to get in the van with Alex, then later hides from him inside a gas station while the killer talks cheerfully to the attendant before putting an axe in his chest and getting back in his van, leaving Marie behind. Our hero steals a car and takes chase, leading to a crash, and the killer after her inside a dark greenhouse. Our final girl gets the upper hand and defeats the killer and all is well, except for the fact that there's almost twenty minutes left in High Tension.

A Twist Ending Changes Everything in 'High Tension'

Aja's film goes for the twist ending when the police arrive at the gas station, finding the attendant dead. They then check the security footage to identify the attacker, but who is seen plunging that axe in the poor guy's chest? It's not our male killer, but Marie. Say what? Meanwhile, Marie rescues Alex, but her friend acts scared of her rather than relieved, holding up a knife to her rescuer and screaming about how Marie killed her family. Alex runs away as the once dead male killer is shown to be alive again, and now after Alex with a chainsaw. A switch to another shot shows that it's Marie carrying the chainsaw, before going back to the image of the man killing someone who tries to help Alex. The killer tells Alex that she'd make anyone crazy, before calling her a slut and following it up with an "I love you." The shot flips again, with Marie kissing Alex, before our true final girl stabs Marie. The last image reveals Marie in a hospital as Alex watches her through a window.

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The twist of the hero being the killer might not be as much of a shocker now, as both the My Bloody Valentine reboot and Shutter Island did the same thing, but while those worked to varying degrees, it feels like a cheat here. We've spent the entire film with Marie, cheering for her, scared for her, only to discover that she's been the killer the entire time, and we're watching her delusions. It's a disappointing cheat for High Tension that, in a way, removes all of that tension for the sake of a nonsensical shock ending. It's not just that it makes no sense either, but it's extremely offensive.

'High Tension's Twist Is Filled With Plotholes and Mistakes

High Tension's twist reveal ending fails in not one, but two ways. The first is through its plot holes. In his written review, Roger Ebert gave the film one star, saying it "gets low marks for plausibility" that are "not possible, given our current understanding of the laws of physics." He added that "the movie's plot has a hole that is not only large enough to drive a truck through, but in fact does have a truck driven right through it." The beginning gives away what's to come at the end when Marie speaks about her dream of chasing herself, but is that what she has literally been doing too? Was she pretending to stalk herself through the farmhouse? That's strange enough, but then explain the gas station scene. One moment has the attendant wink to a hiding Marie, as if he's trying to calm her. How could he winking at her hiding though when the real Marie is standing right in front of him? Then there's the car chase, with Marie taking after the killer's truck that contains her abducted friend. She can't be driving both vehicles at the same time. The only way to explain it is that Marie is imagining all of this. She is the killer the entire time and is fantasizing that not only is she chasing herself, but her other self is also trying to stop her. This makes the first two acts of High Tension a letdown not worthy of a rewatch because everything is a lie and so much of it is not really happening. Instead, it's a long magic trick that we didn't know we're invited to.

Much worse than that, though, is what High Tension says about homosexuality. It appears that Marie is a repressed lesbian who is in love with Alex. When she sees Alex showering, her homosexual desires for her friend cause her to have a mental break, and masturbating to the thought of her friend leads to her killing everyone so she can have Alex to herself. That's a problematic message, to say the least. Maybe twenty years ago, it might have felt smart; perhaps, Aja was trying to imply that Marie is wrestling with her sexuality and that it makes her scared of herself. That is a theme that could work every now and then, but not when the result is that being gay makes the person violent, as if that internal fight can become external rage. Marie is supposedly liberated through bloodshed and death. It's only then that she can truly be herself and be free.

High Tension is a fine slasher until the last fifteen minutes. Aja's attempts to say something with his film are understandable. The best horror movie is political and does have something deeper to say after all; but for the message to be received, it has to not just be delivered in a plausible way, but the message itself must be plausible. It's hard to root for a film that tries to be intelligent with a killer who goes on a rampage because of her sexuality. Slashers have often had sex as an undercurrent, but this is simply not the way to do it.

High Tension is available to watch on Tubi in the U.S.

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