I thought that High Tension was a decent attempt at a good scary movie, but lets face it the French make terrible movies.  The special effects in terms of blood were aweful, and the acting was just okay.  People were comparing this movie to Fight Club and the Secret Window, but it definitely was not like either.  Those movies did a better job of hiding the fact that two seperate people were actually in fact the same person.  Much of the confrontation between the two people was kept between them, whereas this movie left me very confused, especially when Marie is in the gas station.  Also, where did she get that big creepy truck anyway?  This movie clearly is a lot like the Haunting of Hill House, where the entire story is seen through only one person's perspective.  I guess the movie makes a little more sense when you look at it that way, instead of watching the movie literally.  Duality plays a big role in this movie as well.  Marie is obviously a lesbian, but I think the movie tries to force that too hard with how short her hair is and how manly her body seems.  She is torn between being a woman but at the same time wanting to be a man because that is what Alex wants.  It is somewhat strange that she sees herself as being such a gross disgusting man.  Overall, this was a very creepy, strange and confusing movie.  I liked it, but at the same time I didnt' like it.  I would like to talk to the writer about it because there are so many questions that I have concerning different parts of the movie.  Why did Marie know the guy in the gas station, or was all that simply in her head?  Was the whole thing in her head? 

I am also a whimp and would not have shown up had I known it was a horror movie. I too missed a lot of parts because I was diverting my attention. That being said, it was quite obvious ehy Alice picked this movie; it was Haunting of Hill House with the opposite characters dying. I am horrible at picking up on foreshadowing and symbolism, so other than what I had said in class about the chain saw being used as a falic symbol I didn't catch on to many other things.

 I was also confused as to how certain things unfolded. It would be very difficult to direct this film, from the demented persons vp like this film was. More time passes than we realise and the trauma of the events bring her back and forth between her female side and her male counterpart.

Although Alice suggested that this film portrays homosexuality in a bad light, I didn't see this. If anything I think it portrayed heterosexual relationships in a bad light. The "male" side of the main character is the side that is projected to be so horrible. When she is showing her affection for Alex as a female it is all very comforting and supportive, until the very end. Also, the scene where the head gets dropped out of the window (apparently one that I missed) would also suggest that the heterosexual relationship is much more destructive.

I had already seen this movie before but I got so much more out of it this time since we have been talking about duality in class. The ending of the movie is actually the beginning. The very beginning of the movie when Marie is sitting on the bed saying, "nothing will come between us," just made me think that there is going to be something with her and another person. Also when she is running through the woods is foreshadowing to the end of the movie when Alex is running. When Marie is in the gas station and goes in the mens bathroom and hides now that i think about it its like she knows her other personality is a male and she is hiding from him knowing he will look in the girls bathroom.

I feel bad for the homosexual community in this movie because they are stereo typed so bad in this movie. Marie has the short hair and muscular build and just the way she acts toward Alex makes her seem like she is a lesbian.

I think Marie created the male personality out of her struggle of her homosexuality because of the pressures of society. She knows that Alex likes men so it seems like she is creating this figure to get to her easier.

Marie reminds me a lot of Eleanor in Haunting of the Hill house about how she creates things just to get attention. She makes up these situation and incorporates everyone around her into her imaginiary life.

I have seen A LOT of movies and this one was definately different. So I am not sure what to think about the movie. I initially wasnt sure if I liked it but thinking back on it now I think it was a pretty good idea. I really enjoyed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Fight Club thing. Not knowing how I feel about the movie makes me want to watch it again, but I am afraid that it will be like the Sixth Sense, once know that Bruce Willis is dead it just isn't the same. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the begining it was just a little too over dramatic with the whole dream thing and then it really happens.

I do think that the character is alot like Eleanor. She isnt so sure where she fits in life and she seriously  just  lives in her own little world. I by the way thought she was a lesbian from the begining. It was sad really how over obvisous they mader her wanting Alex from the begining and how stereotypical they were about the whole lesbian thing (butch, short hair, etc).

I do wish they would have waited to show us the part about the police seeing the video tape. I think it would have served the  movie alot better had we figured it out after she tried to "help" Alex.

if i had known this was a scary movie i wouldnt have shown up.  Last scary movie i saw i cried.  i know i'm a puss but i cant help it.  This one wasn't as bad as the one that made me cry but i still closed my eyes for parts of the movie.  So i probably missed some of the symbolism.  And even if i was watching the movie i probably missed the symbolism because i was concentrating on how much i hate scary movies.  After discussing it with everyone i could see where i should have been able to pick up on some things.  Such as the mens bathroom, hello that was huge, i woulda ran into the womens bathroom purely out of habit.  That makes me think was she really a man though?  Even if she was a woman her natural reaction should have been to go into the womens room.  Does she think of herslef as a man or did she just know her alter ego enough to outsmart him.  I also dont think that this movie portrayed the homosexual community in a bad light.  Yes looking back on it things could have been taken the wrong way but overall i thought it showed the woman in a strong yet sexy light. Not until the end of the movie did it dawn on me she was gay.  I just thought she was very body conscious.  She was fit and well groomed.  nothing wrong with that.  the story begins and ends in the same place, the woods, only with different people in the same situation.  why?  i have no idea. i have no idea why there are even scary movies, who likes that?  give me a romantic comedy any day and im a happy girl. 

I enjoy good horror films, and that is  the first good horror film I have seen in a long time. Most of the scary movies nowadays are about a "grudge", the "ring", and other stories that seem too....elaborate. I like horror films that could actually happen, multiple personalities is a real disorder and things like this are possible. When I first found out towards the end that is was Marie all along, I found no way that I could have possibly guessed that. But as i think about the movie and the beginning when she had the dream of her chasing herself, it was so obivious that it was foreshadowing something that would happen. Never did I suspect that she would be chasing her own personality. I think throughout the film the character was trying to get rid of her one personality, especially at the scene when she's beating him with barbed wire. Also, when she says at the house if he wanted to kill you he would have done it already. He had a special reason for Alex and we find out its because Marie wants Alex to love her back and have nothing "stand between them anymore". When I was watching the film it reminded me of the movie Hide and Seek with Robert DeNiro and Dakota Fanning. Since, I don't want to ruin the movie for those who have never seen it...it helped answer how Marie could be in two places at once. One was her imagination what she thought she was doing. Like in Hide and Seek when Robert DeNiro had the headphones on...he thought he was working when he was really doing something else...I believe the story begins with her showing up at the door and killing the dad and it ends when ALex is let free to run away. What I would like to know is that has Marie done this before? all the pictures of the other girls? or was that all in her imagination too? i guess i'll have to watch it again!

 Eleanor is defintely the most obvious related to this movie. Going to house in the middle of nowhere, looks strange, and bad things happen at night. Marie is in love with alex just like Eleanor was in love with Theodora.

after readin thorugh all of the revviews, summaries, and comments here on the blog, i've noticed that an alarmingly high number of people thinkt hat this movie is like fight club. there is much wrong with that statement. in high tension, the multiple personality is what the movie is really about, what imakes it that movie. whereas in fight club, the multiple personality was used merely as a tool for the writer to make his comments about society today,a dn was vastly different in use than how multiple personality was used in high tension. i do not thinkt hat you can even egin to compare the two simply on the grounds on how they were used as well as the fact that they accomplished completely different things within their own stories.

When watching the film, I was disgusted. Throughout the movie I was disgusted by the blood and gore and the "old man's" dirty comments, and at the end I as disgusted by Marie's homosexuality and her warped mind. This film reminded me a lot of The Haunting of Hill House. Marie, like Eleanor, is a victim of her own imagination. I believe both women are confused of their sexuality and both believe that other people are antagonizing them. Themes that were most apparent in the movie were: sexuality, duality, violence, and roles of men and women. Marie's dream in the car was definite foreshadowing. I think the dream was just some of Marie's subconscience thoughts, even though she didn't realize it. This may have lead to her actions later on in the film due to her wild imagination. There were many phallic symbols in the movie such as the chainsaw and the knife, which also are symbols of violence. As far as Marie's "journey", it contained many stereotypical symbols of homosexuality (short hair, built body, piercings). Also Marie tended to play the role of a man, like in her imagination. Is this because she thinks men are evil or because she wants to be a man? I think the story's beginning took place when Marie had her dream. This was foreshadowing and a look into Marie's mind. I don't believe there is an end to the story, because Marie never had a moment of realization. She does not know what she did, or refuses to believe it.

After viewing the movie, the last thing I wanted to do was watch another horror film. Initially, I was bothered by all the blood and gore. Then, I started thinking about the different issues that were presented in the movie and making connections to class discussions. The text that came to mind was The Haunting of Hill House and Eleanor. I noticed similarities between Marie and Eleanor. In both the movie and the text, both characters are portrayed as not being in a stable frame of mind. Eleanor drifts from what is actually occurring to her reality, which is a dream world in which she lives in a little apartment with the animal statues/figures and the fantasies about a relationship with Theo. Marie also creates a fantasy for herself, in which she can be with Alex. She uses one dimension of herself, the destructive aspect, to remove all the obstacles, Alex's family, she perceives to be standing in the way of her being with Alex. The other dimension, the hero/heroine, is used to try and win Alex by convincing her that she has saved her. I identified the themes of duality, sexuality, and changes within gender roles in the movie. Two opposing sides are illustrated within each of the characters. They do not fulfill the stereotypical gender roles of the man being with the woman nor the man being the hero figure. Marie is portrayed as the heroine/hero figure. She is constantly stereotyped in this film. She is seen as a "butch-type" character. She is a lesbian, has short hair, has a muscular build, is athletic, and wears the tight, muscle-emphasizing clothing. Marie is highlighted, according to the traditional generalizations, as a masculine symbol within this movie. I also picked up on instances of foreshadowing within the film. At the beginning of the movie, she was shown as having a dream where she was trying to escape from herself, dealing with the conflict of her two very different characters. At the end of the movie, she is wrestling with the two different characters she embodies. Another thing I found interesting about the movie before I started really analyzing it, but am not sure if it has any relevance, is the comment she made to Alex at the beginning when they were in the cornfield. She says something along the lines of "I will get you" when Alex plays the trick on her. At the end of the movie, she has tortured Alex and killed her family. The film made me think Marie was trying to get her revenge on an act that seemed so trivial. That's all I have in response to the movie.

*Thanks for the movie and pizza night.

I can honestly say that I did not enjoy this movie, at first.  I do agree with the whole "Fight Club theme", it did take me half way through the movie to catch on...and like Fight CLub, I think that to fully understand and appreciate this movie, I will to need watch it another 5 to 6 times, something that I do not have the luxury or time to do.  The story begins and ends in the woods.  I do enjoy the way that they bring it full circle.  It makes you wonder through the movie what details come along to being it to the point where it started.  There were many themes in this movie, like the typical slasher/psycho horror movie and the repressed sexual feelings towards the opposite sex.  One forshadowing point I did see is when Marie is in the truck in the woods, and pulls out the gun as she is getting hit from behind by the van.  She looks in her rear view mirror and sees that a hand is holding bullets to the gun that she has.  SHe freaks and realizes that there are no bullets in the gun, but the hand that happens to be holding that bullet had long nails and was wearing a ring, which would not look like the hand of a scary, old man.  Other than that, I think that a few more rounds of watching this movie would definitely help see more themes and symbols.  Not quite sure that I would ever watch this movie again though. :0)

So even as much as I hate horror films and blood, I still thought that this was a relatively good movie (for being French, haha).  My first reaction to it was to try to forget all the gore, but as I got to thinking about it more I became confused as to how the man fit in place and how Marie could be 2 places at once... but after we talked a little in class I realized how one part was just her fantasy and it made a little bit more sense to me.  For me, that related to Eleanor a lot, because there are times where Eleanor is somewhat schizophrenic in the book (where she runs knocking on doors and runs to the top of those huge wobbly stairs, etc.) and I feel that Marie is the same because she can commit these horrible murders while also imagine that she is doing something completely different. 

I also thought the foreshadowing in the movie was pretty good; like how the ending was at the beginning, except with Marie being chased instead of Alex.  I also thought the foreshadowing of the truck dropping the head out of the window at the very beginning was clear, especially after we saw the mirror with all the pictures of Marie's "women"; it made sense that Alex was just the next in a long line. 

And yes, I agree with everyone else that lesbians were extremely stereotyped in this movie.  Everything about Marie was a stereotype, her short hair, tight body, etc.  Plus, she acts like she has to become a man in order to make Alex love her (for me, that's where the "man" doing the killings comes in, she would like to be a man and also why she runs into the men's WC at the gas station) and so she is your stereotypical lesbian.

So, there's my thoughts... If given a choice, I wouldn't have watched any horror flick, but I did, so there you go!  Thanks for the pizza and movie night, it was a good change of pace for me.

I thought the movie was predictable, but what horror movie isn't? I enjoyed the movie though...nice change of pace. I want to talk about the beginning and the ending of the story. It is strange how the beginning and the end seem to be the same. At first I thought it was another attempt at foreshadowing, and that they just showed the same thing again for the slower in the brain to draw a connection. But then I realized the story is cyclical. It began at the ending in a sense. Look at the mirror in the truck. It is filled with faces of Marie's victims. I then realized Alex's story began at the end of another woman's story, which began at another woman's story. Had Alex not finished it, we would have been able to have the same exact movie again and again with a different character in Alex's place. I liked how I was able to make sense of a vague beginning through the simple repetition of the scene after the story was over. Thanks for the pizza night!! And sorry I had to leave class early...I got called in to work.

First of all, I would like to say that the movie was pretty good. I would really like to watch it again so that I could pick up on all of the subtle things. The first instance of foreshadowing, which drew upon the book we are reading now, Invisible Man, as well as A light in August is how they essentially give you the ending at the beginning and then retreat to an earlier time. There is also foreshadowing when she said that in her dream she is "chasing herself". I think that they do a little too much stereotyping for lesbians. The girl is butch, has short hair, and constantly hits on her friend. if this is not pigeon-holing I do not know what is... One major theme that runs through the film is that she views herself as incapable and weak and needs to resort to the masculine man side in order to be powerful and assertive. She is able to carry out terrible things when she is in her alternate state of mind. Well, I really dont feel like writing anymore, so I'm out.

I enjoyed watching High Tension with its twisted plot and all. As I think many of us have mentioned it reminded me of Fight Club with the multiple personalities. It did remind me of the characters we have read about. Eleanor being one of them, and also Joe Christmas because of his sense of longing to be accepted and then turning to violence. There is a lot of foreshadowing and symbolism throughout the movie. One being the fact that the beginning is her dream of Marie chasing herself, another being that the first time it shows her getting injured was her getting into that car accident, which is not physically done by the man in the movie. I also seemed to notice that whenever Marie would come back to see Alex, Alex was never happy to see her, nor would she listen to her when she tried to tell her to be quiet or corporate. I still think that she wanted to be loved by Alex and prove to her that she could protect her just as well as a man could and that is what set her off (seeing how Marie would consider Alex a whore). The movie ends right at the beginning, with Marie ill and obsessed with Alex, not wanting to let go.

I was just about speechless when we finished this movie. At first, when it was through, I was nauseated and freaked out. But after I thought about it for awhile, I was actually confused in how it all worked out. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but don't think I would watch it again. It reminded me of Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Fight Club.

As someone said in class, Marie reminds me a little too of Joe Christmas. Joe held a resemblance because he also seemed to have dual personalities. He had his job, acted civil among others, but deep down he had a quarrel with himself and his past leading to the murduer of someone relatively close to him. There seem to be commonality between Eleanor and Marie too. They both had an alter ego, someone or something to live out their story, which may or may not hurt another. However, they were both obviously psychotic.

I did notice the fact that she went into the men's restroom and thought it kinda funny. As when she was hiding undreneath her bed and the "man" followed her exact steps when he came into the room. It just seemed too played out, or out of context for a random person to happen to follow the same steps as Marie. Personally for me, when Marie and Alex were talking about Alex's other men, Marie would always give you these looks of concern or passion. Marie just seemed to always have that look in her eye (when they were first driving to see Alex's parents and Alex had fallen asleep) and how she would be stroking her in the back of the van.

When refering to the story, I am assuming Marie's fantasy. It seemed to have started when Marie was out having her smoke and saw Alex naked. It seems that that had to have started b/c she was quite arroused by it. It seemed to have ended when Alex said she loved Marie in the middle of the road. This movie really put down lesbians and used the majority of stereotypes against them. Marie had the short hair, muscular, hard ass look that through the whole movie seemed to be trying to show Alex that she can be stronger and outwit the stereotypical male. The man, or the alter ego of Marie, was a burly man who seemed to have the whole act of homicide pat down.