10 Times Horror Directors Admitted They Went Too Far

Although High Tension is filled to the brim with staggering violence, that's not the issue director Alexandra Aja had with the project. Instead, he believed the twist was too over-the-top.

In this New Extremity slasher, college friends Marie and Alex travel to Alex’s family home in the countryside, only to be confronted by a serial killer. In the end, it's revealed that this sociopath is a figment of Marie's imagination, who unknowingly murdered Alex's family after suffering a psychotic breakdown.

However, this twist is deeply illogical, since there are moments where Marie is in one location while her other personality is committing murder somewhere else. Based on Marie's small frame, it doesn't seem feasible for her to overpower her victims the way she does. (She tears off a person's head with brute strength at one point.)

Aja wasn't a fan of the ending either, which is why he wanted to shoot High Tension in a way that it's evident that everything we saw until the last few minutes is Marie's distorted interpretation of events. But when a producer discarded this idea, Aja was forced to devise a non-sensical climax, against his better judgement.