I just watched this scary movie called High Tension. I normally dont watch scary movies cause well they scare me, but my wife wanted to and we were hanging out with friends so….. here I am. It was presented to me as a lesbian horror movie. Its a french movie, the dvd I saw had a dub/subtitle combo going on. So these two girls, alex and marie go to the country side to vist alex’s family so they can study. Now i’m fixin to spoil the plot for those of you who wish to see this movie stop reading now.
So this truck driver comes to the family farm at night and kills everyone except for the two girls, one of which he dosent know is hiding upstairs. As it turns out Alex, has invited a psyco home. Marie is the one who kills everyone, except she is crazy so she thinks some dude has done it.
This is a very gory movie and they dont skimp on the blood. I was sacred to go to the bathroom afterward by myself. Then i started thinking about the movie more critically. Before the killing spree, on the way to the house the girls are talking and Alex is telling marie about this boy she is seeing. Marie calls alex a slut. Later at the house Alex tells Marie that boy she is seeing actually has a girlfriend and once again marie calls her a slut. Alex tells Marie to go and date some folks and not to glare at men if they come and try to talk to her.
I mention this because it points to sexual frustion on maries part and an irritation with men at the very least. Later Marie goes outside to smoke a cigerette and she starts watching alex who is taking a shower and then she goes back in to her room and masturbates. Sounds like marie is interested ( read obsessed) in alex. Ok stay with me I’ve almost made my point. So at the films climax after it is revealed that marie is the killer she got a circle saw in her hand and she is telling alex “you dont love me do you?”. Alex answers back through tears I do love you as she is scooting back away from marie. Marie puts the saw down and starts kissing alex. They are both covered in blood cause marie just killed the guy in the car alex flagged down because he got in between her and alex, not to mention all the other killing marie had done eariler, the mom, dad, dog ,little boy, gas station clerk. The movie ends with Alex observing marie behind a double mirror in a sanatarium.
So needless to say i have some problems with this movie. It was not the violence this is why slasher films are made. It was not the gore ither although this movie was pretty nasty and I saw an uncut version of this movie so there were severed hands and heads and squirting blood all over the place. What pissed me off about this movie, the reason I don’t like this movie is because of the tired old lesbian stereotypes it was based on.
Why do people keep making these movies where the lesbian is so obssed with the straight girl that when she cant have her she kills her and anyone else she preceives as a threat? Ok that last sentence was a total run on but damn it this shit makes me mad. Why does marie have to be a man hater? I dont know any lesbian, especially one who is as cute as marie who would be so desperate for one girl. Most of the lesbians I know just move on if a girl shows no interest in them there are more than enough queer girls to go around. Most of the lesbians I know are pretty stable and dont going around killing folks cause they cant have what they want. We are stable people for the most parts despite the fact that we are not always treated with the respect we deserve.
If you like slasher films with over the top blood and gore you will love this movie. if you get tired of stereotypes being played up infilm and print then this movie will not only scare you because of its violence, but also its treatment of lesbians.
