Haute Tension (High Tension). 2003. Directed by Alexandre Aja

Film

Thu, Aug 4, 2022, 7:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Haute Tension (High Tension). 2003. France. Directed by Alexandre Aja. Courtesy of Everett Collection.

Haute Tension (High Tension). 2003. France. Directed by Alexandre Aja. Written by Aja and Grégory Levasseur. With Cécile de France, Maïwen, Philippe Nahon. In French; English subtitles. 35mm. 95 min.

High Tension is a slasher film for the New French Extremity generation. Influenced by 1970s films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, the film follows two friends, Alex and Marie, on a trip to visit Alex’s family in the countryside. It’s all going well until a homicidal delivery man arrives, killing everyone, kidnapping Alex, but unable to find the hidden Marie. What ensues is a tense, extraordinarily brutal game of cat-and-mouse in real splatter-style, with an incredible twist ending that makes you realize our narrator is truly unreliable. A contorted mix of fantasy and reality, Alexandre Aja’s High Tension is about repression violently released both from and to the body.

This film accompanies Messaging the Monstrous: Body Horror.
This film is part of Horror: Messaging the Monstrous.

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