HIGH TENSION (USA) aka SWITCHBLADE
ROMANCE (UK) aka HAUTE TENSION
Year: 2003
USA: Lions Gate Films
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Cecile De France, Maïwenn Le Besco, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun, Andrei Finti, Oana Pellea, Marco Claudiu Pascu, Jean-Claude de Goros, Bogdan Uritescu, Gabriel Spahiu
Director: Alexandre Aja
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 85 mins
USA Rated: R for graphic bloody killings, terror, sexual content and language (previously rated: NC-17 in 2004)
UK Certificate: 18 contains very strong bloody violence
USA Release Date: 10 June 2005
UK Release Date: 24 September 2004
Synopsis
An isolated farmhouse...
Two girls, best friends, inseparable...
A close-knit family...
... A bloodthirsty killer on the prowl.
When night falls, there is only one rule. Survival!
A truly bone-chilling shocker from hot new talent Alexandre Aja, SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE stars Cecile de France (AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) and Maïwenn Le Besco (THE FIFTH ELEMENT, LEON) as Marie and Alexia, two inseparable friends who embark on a nightmarish journey into the depths of terror, one flesh-crawling evening. Fresh from Luc Besson's successful EUROPA stable, SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE drips with palpable tension and bloody carnage.
Guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat, writers Aja and Levasseur conceived SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE as a homage to the movies that marked their youth and the film is not afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve: THE EVIL DEAD, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE SHINING, MANIAC and HALLOWEEN. Alexandre Aja, the movie's co-writer and director explains: "The subject matter is quite simple. We are 100% in the genre movie register. We have one aim: to scare people!"
Also starring Philippe Nahon (IRREVERSIBLE, SEUL CONTRE TOUS), SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE sees Alex invite Marie for a quiet weekend in the country, neither of them realising it will be a weekend that will change their lives forever. Soon after the house goes to sleep, a horrific maniac, wearing a baseball cap and dirty overalls, barrels up to their front door in a dusty, beat-up truck. Startled by the loud ringing at the doorbell, Alex's father (Andrei Finti) answers, only to be blinded by the truck's powerful high beams. What ensues is a bloody massacre that ends with Marie closely following the old truck, determined to save Alex, who's helplessly bound.
Exploring the most basic fears - the unknown, the dark, claustrophobia, the significance of death - SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE appears to flit constantly between dream and reality with twists and turns around every corner.