by KEVIN LAFOREST

I'm not what you would call a hardcore horror fan. I can appreciate how some filmmakers use that genre to paint dark and twisted psychological portraits (for instance, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining) and, on the flip side, I also enjoy movies that are grotesquely violent to the point of hilarity (Evil Dead and Dead Alive spring to mind). But what I don't quite get is "pure" horror, where it's all about an insane killer senselessly slaughtering people. So, while films like Alexandre Aja's French import Haute tension are effective exercises in style, as far as I'm concerned, they can grow tiresome.

Aja wastes no time in getting to the carnage in this film. We meet Marie (Cécile de France) and Alexia (Maïwenn Le Besco) as they're driving to Alexia's parents' isolated farmhouse to study for their college exams without any distractions. They get there, make small talk with Alexia's family, go to bed and, with Marie having barely enough time to settle in (and finger herself), all hell breaks loose. A stranger comes in uninvited and starts touring the house, mercilessly slashing everyone in sight.

For more than an hour, the young women run and scream as copious amounts of blood and guts splatter everywhere. The action eventually leaves the house and transports itself into the killer's molester van before inevitably heading deep into the woods. Throughout, the characters follow standard horror movie logic. The hunted constantly find new ways to back themselves into corners, while the hunter always manages to turn away just long enough for the intended prey to escape, only to trap themselves in yet another corner, and on and on.

Haute tension is well crafted, with stark cinematography, tight editing and a fittingly abrasive soundtrack. The film's poster promises a blood-covered babe holding a barbed wired picket, and the whole film builds up to that money shot. It's followed by an idiotic twist ending that detracts rather than adds complexity to what was a pretty straightforward narrative. But by that point, few will care about minor details like story points. Basically, if you want a lot of gore, look no further. But if you're expecting anything above and beyond blood and guts, this is the wrong movie.

HAUTE TENSION OPENS FRIDAY, AUG. 5

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