The French were a little slower than most when it came to enjoying a Golden Age of horror movies, but when it finally arrived it did so in style - the New French Extremity movement has delivered some of the most disgusting horror movies of the twenty-first century. One of the highlights of this new wave of Gallic horror is High Tension, which took the slasher genre and inbued it with a level of violence and gore more excessive than almost anything else in the genre. The first appearance of The Killer (played by Philippe Nahon, who also played a nameless butcher in three of Gaspar Noé's movies) sees him arrive at Alex's house in the dead of night. As Alex sleeps upstairs, oblivious to the new arrival, her father answers to knock on the door. After being slashed in the face with a razor he stumbles back, disoriented and afraid as the killer pushes his head between the staircase. A quick shove on a nearby bookcase and one head has been swiftly removed from its body, blood gushing onto the floor.