In today’s post I’m going to talk a bit about Haute Tension which is also known as High Tension and Switchblade Romance. Instead of talking a fair amount about the plot and why I really get a kick out of this movie I have decided that it would be more fun to go into spoilers and give you my opinion about how I feel about the ending of the movie. Today’s post is going to be very heavy into the spoilers so only read on if you have seen Haute Tension or if you are just in for the gore and do not really care about the story.

The basic story follows two college friends Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco). They are taking some time off and visiting Alex’s mother and father on a remote farm in France. During the evening a lone driver (Nahon) comes up to the door knocking. When Alex’s father answers the door the driver brutally murders him. What we get next is a home invasion movie that follows a different path than most invasion horrors but I’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

Spoilers follow below and in the comments:

I know more than a few people who get half way through this movie just loving it and then when the twist just happens they hate it. I on the other hand really get a kick out the twist and I applaud Alexandre Aja heading down a different path and while it may just feel like a twist for twist sakes by some people for me the twist elevates the story. For the first half of the movie we watch as Marie and Alex deal with the killer. Alex has been captured by her and Marie is doing everything in her power to rescue Alex. All that changes suddenly when we see the video recording of Marie killing the gas station attendant. For the next while you should be completely confused as to what has been actually happening but by the end of the movie it has become clearly evident that Marie is actually schizophrenic and that everything you have witnessed has really only happened in Marie’s mind.

There was no invasion by some lone driver, Marie murdered Alex’s family and then left with Marie prisoner in the van. This eventually leads to the showdown between Marie and Alex. I can understand why some people who get annoyed by the fact that what they had all watched really did not happen the way it was shown. Much like, the whole it was all a dream sequence from Dallas oh so long ago the audience can either run with it or they will probably end up hating it. For me I am one who is able to run with it. If it had felt like Aja did not have an actual plan and that he was just throwing the twist in to finish the story because he had no clue what to do I would hate it. I do not feel that Aja was doing that. He was telling the story of what happened as Marie believed it to have actually happened.

Perhaps, it would be interesting to see a sequel to Haute Tension where we actually witness what truly happened throughout the entire ordeal but for me personally I was fully entertained the entire time and I am more than willing to run with what Aja has created for us.