Switchblade Romance Review

Switchblade Romance

(aka High Tension) (aka Haute Tension)

(2003)

Reviewer Bias' Loves: Great bad guys Likes: French cinema Dislikes: Hates: Pointless violence that is there only to shock

If this film would have been made 20-30 years ago it would have easily been paired with the so-called video nasties of that time. It already somewhat conjours up the memories of The Last House on the Left, Straw Dogs Et al.

The plot sees friends Marie (Cécile De France) and Alex (Maiween Le Besco) go to visit Alex's parents in the countryside and study in their peaceful surrondings. However the peace is soon broken when during the night, a truck driver (Philippe Nahon) breaks into the house murder Alex's family and tie up Alex. Marie manages to evade the truck driver. When the man carries Alex into the back of his truck, Marie is forced to attempt to rescue her friend.

First things thing. The movie is utterly gripping from start to finish, De France is excellent in the lead role as is Nahon who is brilliantly chilling. The deaths are very glorified and linger a bit too long, it sometimes is a bit hard to like a film when a little kid is killed but I guess makes sense in the all family getting massacred sort of way.

I don't know why but I never felt completely satisified by the entire film, I guess I felt a little uneasy- bloody and gory movie deaths don't effect me but I think I was confused because the deaths seemed to be in a different tone to the rest of the gripping story. SPOILER: The twist at the end is somewhat well done, better then say Identity, worse then The Sixth Sense when it's revealed De France is actually the killer and Nahon maybe just of been a part of her split personality.

In conclusion, all I can say is, it's well worth a watch, there's a lot to recommend, occasionally intense (perhaps too intense), occasionally over gory but still a damn good watch from director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes remake).

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(3 out of 5)