5. How Did Marie Kill Everyone in High Tension?
This is one of the great horror mysteries. How could one French chick be in two places at once and murder an entire family? This may be one of the most famous plot holes in recent memory as (to paraphrase Roger Ebert) they literally drive a truck through it. High Tension aka Haute Tension aka Switchblade Romance could have easily been one of the great horror films of the early aughts but they got greedy. I would have preferred it to be a straight-forward slahsher film rather than a bloody, non-nonsensical, psychological thriller. When the ending is revealed that Marie killed all of Alexs family I was no longer scared or engaged. It was as though I could see Alexandre Aja giving me the finger. The easiest answer lies in the opening scenes of the film when we see a woman in a psychiatric hospital being put through hell. If we then take this to mean we are witnessing the events of the film through her eyes this means we are at the mercy of a deeply unreliable narrator. Or a lazy writer/director. Im all for lulling the audience into a false sense of security only to pull the rug out from under them in the final moments. Its a great storytelling device. However, it makes no sense to add elements that are clearly impossible to the plot if it is impossible for Marie to be in two places at once. So the basic answer to this is that what High Tension consists of is Maries version of events which fits in with the first line of the film Are they recording? However, it is a silly ending that doesnt hold water or illuminate any themes or tropes. Its exploitation at its worst.