High Tension (2003) ***

When High Tension (2003) hit US theaters in wide release in 2005, I saw it twice in two days. Even then, I didn't particularly love the improbable (and much derided) twist ending, and I still think the film would work better as a straightforward slasher (although then I guess it wouldn't be the movie that it is), but at the time it felt like a shot in the arm for a quasi-mainstream horror film. The last time I watched the picture was 2010 and, while I definitely like it less now, I can't deny that Giannetto De Rossi's gruesome makeup effects still pack a punch, the film has a pleasingly dark and grimy look, and the sound design (plus ambient score) does a commendable job of creating suspense throughout.

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