HIGH TENSION (2003) Ending Explained

hey what's up everybody and welcome to found flicks today we're looking at alex ajah's second movie the appropriately named high tension because this one is quite suspenseful it follows a pair of girlfriends marie and alex that go to the country to visit her family but the reunion is ruined by a relentless psychotic truck driver that is hungry for blood this one pretty much launched aja's career with good cause going on to helm several remakes and in particular his take on the hills have eyes is actually pretty great you can see the kind of seedlings of that in his style here which is heavily influenced by 70s era horror films like early west craven and the texas chainsaw massacre but they do have a particular modern flare that ushers in that earlier style for today in a much more horrific brutal way or at least for well you know 2003. another interesting thing about this one is its part in horror history as one of the now classified french extremity films there was a period from the late 90s through the 2000s that the french were making some pretty hardcore kind of horror stuff other things like irreversible martyrs inside ills all of these come from the same time as high tension sorry i can make a whole video just about that stuff high tension certainly earns its place in this wave with some fairly standard setups that are executed so well and suspensefully it's consistently nail-biting and pretty dang violent too things clip along breathlessly with increasingly thrilling setups and disturbing deaths until about an hour and 10 minutes in here we are given a big twist that kind of completely changes everything up to that point getting the rug pulled right out there it's almost so out of left field that it feels like a [ __ ] you almost which as i recall was my initial reaction i brought this up before can a twist ruin a movie sometimes yes however i found that with more viewings of high tension there was a ton of stuff that i missed that really helps the whole thing feel complete so with that in mind while much of the action in this is pretty straightforward there's a lot more to glean from what unfolds about our characters and how that impacts the overall story's trajectory so let's dive into high tension breaking down the story including who the killer really is as well as their motive and explaining marie's ultimate fate in the end we open in what appears to be some kind of hospital hearing a woman chanting to herself i won't let anyone come between us anymore noticing some severe injuries and scratches on her back an off-screen voice asks if they're recording and we then essentially see marie's story filling us in on how she got here she's seen injured in a forest struggling and breathing heavily she makes it out to a road flagging down a car that just barely misses colliding right into her she appears at the window startling the driver screaming for help he then wakes up in the back seat of a car immediately asking her friend alex for a cigarette just woke up time for some fresh air huh oh french people she explains to her about the dream that she had being chased by someone when she asked who was chasing her she clarifies that it wasn't a guy but strangely me me running after me they have a discussion about alex's latest boyfriend which marie shrugs off ah who wants to be normal dating people all the time and their banter quickly devolves into playfully hurling insults back and forth they're making their way to alex's family house out in the country warning her that it is a different lifestyle out here but also reminds her that they're here to study not party boring elsewhere there's a dirty rundown van seeing what looks like a guy getting some head turns out quite literally so after finishing up he tosses a disembodied head out the window oh yikes that's our killer folks humping a dead head this guy's fat still driving later marie looks longingly to a sleeping alex chiding her to keep her eyes on the road they're getting closer only four more kilometers but what is that in miles stupid rest of the world marie starts to lecture her about not letting every guy get to her but stops their conversation suddenly believing that she saw someone out in the cornfields alex gets out instantly lost in the corn marie calls for her to come back but is forced to venture after cursing her thinking it's all just a big joke she winds up quickly lost in the maze of stalks hearing the car nearby roaring to life she chases after it annoyed and sick of her games alex eventually letting her back in they make it to her family's farmhouse where they're warmly welcomed by her dad who at least knows of maria telling her that it's nice to see her in person not just a photo her younger brother tommy is excited too he's been waiting all night just for his sis arrival even mom has left them some food assuming they must be hungry alex groaning oh mother and it's actually funny like how perfect of a family this whole setup is here point being this family appears quite tight-knit marie watches alex put her brother to bed smiling in the doorway they return to the discussion of alex's new crush problem is he has a girlfriend but on the flip side she says she doesn't trust single guys either talk about a catch-22 there the subject then turns to marie's own dating life alex encouraging her to take the plunge or else she's going to end up alone this seems to be quite a touchy subject for her firing back that she's not going to end up a [ __ ] like her and stops the conversation to go for a smoke she plops down on a swing and catches her friend showering up in the window watching intently as she scrubs herself down suddenly the swing is seen empty the night still and quiet she then hops in bed looking a bit bored and restless she jams in some headphones and takes a little adventure downstairs starting to get into it past the cornfields the same rundown van approaches the rest of the family all passed out asleep it comes to a stop right outside the house causing the dog hendricks to freak out barking and scratching at the door marie too hears the barks looking out the window but only seeing pitch black nothingness the man rings the doorbell rustling dad out of bed to answer it he opens a little window in the door and the man pulls out a blade stabbing him right in the face the man then lets himself in getting attacked by hendrix who he quickly dispatches dad weakly ascends the stairs marie's staring on frozen in shock the man pushes his boot down on his head jamming it between the railing then drags out a dresser and pushes it quickly past decapitating him which unleashes a geyser of blood from the neck hole you wait hearing all the commotion mom comes out to investigate alarmed by the grisly scene the man there cleaning off his straight razor and starts to slowly approach her marie runs back to her room hearing mom's muffled screams just outside and attempts to use a landline but the cord is stuck forcing her to move the quite heavy dresser to access it she frantically packs up her stuff and makes the bed attempting to make it look like the room is unoccupied as the man stomps upstairs she even wipes out the sink and everything looking like she's elected to hide in the shower just as the killer opens a door he does a quite detailed search of the room discovering some telltale droplets lingering in the faucet and flings the shower curtain open finding it empty he then lifts the mattress just missing marie hiding there moving her feet in the nick of time covering her mouth to keep herself silent the killer appears satisfied no one is here and finally leaves yet there's still the clueless sleeping alex with earplugs and everything he comes into her room and pushes back her hair from her face then takes his blade to her neck startling her away followed by marie then hearing her horrifically screaming what to do she tries the phone again moving the dresser back but it's the tv not the phone plug dang landlines she slowly tiptoes down the halls still hearing her friends struggling and runs into her parents room searching everywhere footsteps approach and she hides in the closet seeing it's actually alex's mom weakly crawling to a nearby cordless phone the two make eye contact with each other through the slats in the closet as the killer slashes her throat choking and bleeding out her face falls right onto the slats and slides right down in front of an absolutely horrified marie there's some disturbing crunching noises and blood splatters all over the doors marie covers her ears crouching down and waits until he takes his leave she cautiously steps out to check on her mom finding her surprisingly alive croaking out her last word why before perishing she tries the phone getting no signal drawn to banging sounds elsewhere it's little tommy in his cowboy outfit running through the house the killer not far behind she then sneaks to alex's room finding her gag her legs and feet bound together with chains she hears the boy yelling for his mommy seeing him running out into the fields the killer in hot pursuit and now clutching a rifle both quickly disappearing into the tall stalks moments later a shot booms out and fearing the worst alex screams and cries her family all now dead thanks to this guy maria tries to limpy reassure her hey if he wanted to kill you he would have done it already yeah thanks i feel a lot better now marie begs for her to help asking where she can find a phone but alex is too emotional to even respond her assuming there's one in the kitchen she sneaks downstairs the killer re-enters just missing her but their plan was for naught discovering the phone line has been cut she hears his feet on the floor above followed by alex screaming and watches from a distance as alex gets dragged out over his shoulder staring out from the darkness before disappearing into the black pretty cool shot like michael myers at the end of the first halloween he tosses alex in the back of the van leaving the door open and marie grabs a kitchen knife sneaking around the perimeter undetected the killer hones in on family pictures adorning the mantle and grabs one caressing alex's face he then smashes the glass and cuts her face from the picture admiring it in his fingers marie bolts to the van promising alex that she'll get her out of here the killer's stepping outside just a few feet away she waits with her knife at the ready but he simply slides the door closed and locks it up without even noticing her he drives off down the dirt road and puts on some tunes that provides marie some convenient cover to work on the back door alex continues breaking down into a puddle of emotions marie again promising they'll make it out yet evidence around the van makes this look unlikely blood stains covering the walls the killer puts up alex's face on his visor joining those of several other women's photos and we would assume victims he takes a hefty gulp of liquor and marie is able to get the lock loose right as they pull into a gas station the killer goes to fill up and marie realizes this could be her only chance and hands her friend the knife in case she doesn't make it back she slinks between the pumps silently sprinting the rest of the way inside the station she crashes out of sight telling the employee jimmy to call the police hiding behind denial and the killer enters right behind her the two at teams are on friendly terms knowing his name and they have a casual conversation about their knights the killer strolls through the store bringing up that it's the ideal place to bring girls jimmy rebuttling if he did that he'd be fired the killer chuckles and presses further oh come on old rich ladies that drive through they never asked for your services him preoccupied with the sunglasses display yeah i guess he offers awkwardly noticing blood stained on his fingers jimmy is now at least a little on edge about to reach for a hidden gun the killer stops him asking how much oh and he needs a bottle of hooch too jimmy goes to unlock the liquor case glancing back to marie giving her a little wink the killer startles him asking for a different brand he huffs that he isn't even supposed to be selling liquor so late pleading with him to not tell his boss i won't the killer promises and jabs him hard with an axe to really get him good when on the ground he jams his boot into his back digging the blade even deeper in we see that there is a security camera above that presumably caught everything and marie makes her way back outside the killer flipping the sign too closed and shutting off the lights she hides out in a bathroom but the killer must have known someone else was around talking to himself wondering who it was that jimmy was eyeing he then searches the stalls one by one finding them all empty so he moves on to the men's room where she is hiding stalking silently towards her marie growing more terrified with each step however he simply stops to take a leak and casually leaves without incident well sometimes you gotta just take a leak she peeks out after the coast looking clear smiling in relief for at least a moment but it is short-lived running outside the van is driving off along with alex still imprisoned inside she goes for the phone begging the police for help but she can't find any specifics of where she's at and her description of the van is too vague to do much good frustrated she screams that she'll burn the place to the ground if that helps and grabs jimmy's stash gun she comes across a set of keys for a mustang pretty lucky peeling off after them the classic muse jam newborn kicks on origin of symmetry yes please the killer indulges in the cheap thrill of torturing alex he pours liquor on her through the grate and lights a match sticking it through as though he's going to toss it on her but stops himself blowing it out and chuckling all just a sick joke he slows and pulls off the main road marie passing by and comes to a stop she stares off worried what he's going to do with her and continues pursuing after with her lights off getting deeper and deeper into the woods she loses them in the darkness and he somehow appears behind her and rams into the back of the car she grabs her gun but foolishly drops her handful of bullets he keeps slamming into the rear so she cranks it into high gear he's able to catch up and keep smashing into the car causing her to swerve off the road flying off the side of the hill and flipping the car she crawls out of the wreckage sporting some fresh new wounds spotting some greenhouses nearby she takes cover in one finding a shirt that she uses to bandage up her arm the killer is still on her trail a flashlight scanning around the area while he keeps searching she decides to get something to defend herself struggling to yank a pull out of the ground the light passing right by where she is she manages to get it free and wraps the post in barbed wire ah the negan special looking ready for a brutal beatdown she comes to the flashlight but it's a trap it's swinging around on a belt and he gets her wrapping her head in plastic to suffocate her she struggles to get free growing weak and falls to the ground unconscious he takes his blade rubbing it up her chest and then around her ear getting obvious perverted pleasure from it he inquires what is it that she wants from alex does she turn you on and admits that she turns him on too he then jams his fingers suggestively into her mouth groaning and laughing in excitement she grabs something off the ground and bonks him on the side of the head with it retrieving her negan post and she wallops him with a few hard swings already down she keeps relentlessly bashing him to a bloody pulp she lifts the plastic lining listening for his breath but here's nothing to her surprise his arm launches at her neck so she turns the tables on him choking him out with the plastic sheets his breath growing shallow and his arms go limp appearing that he's done for her however we now learn that the situation is not as straightforward as it's initially been presented back at the gas station the police arrive and scope the place out inside they find jimmy's body and then go to review the security cam footage we see jimmy at the liquor cabinet as before yet shockingly it's marie that gets him with the axe appearing excited as well as deranged looking right into the camera the implication here being that there was no killer dude at all but it was actually marie responsible for all these deaths more on that in a bit she happily goes to rescue her friends sighing it's all over yet alex doesn't appear all that elated she giggles unlocking your chains alex still clutching onto the knife growling don't touch me marie is unfazed holding out her hands to help her to her feet alex spitting back you crazy [ __ ] i'm gonna tear you to shreds continuing you murdered my family seeing flashes of it actually being marie behind all those slangs she slashes her face and stabs her in the gut fleeing off into the woods the killer guy persona returns removing the knife and stumbles back to his van retrieving a hefty chainsaw you can't escape me you [ __ ] he sees her hearing the distant buzzing as she keeps running he then switches back to marie's persona i'm gonna take care of you she threatens alex makes it to the road a car skidding off the same scene as the opening but now it's alex as the real victim at hand here not marie as it was presented before he screams for help and hops in the back seat demanding that he hurry and drive he struggles to get the car turned over smoke emitting from the hood the killer climbs on the car and jams the saw through the windshield shattering it to bits and proceeds to absolutely obliterate the driver alex screams horrified in the backseat getting doused in a fountain of blood he steps off the hood telling her he's going to rip her head off well i guess he's into that i don't know he saws through the window the blade getting right up to her trembling in terror he goes for the other side while alex fumbles her way through a toolbox she crawls out her leg seemingly injured oh uh yep there's a massive shard of glass jammed in there the killer slowly approaches alex feebly backing away and sobbing clutching a crowbar he coldly states you'd make anyone crazy you [ __ ] asking if she loves him getting the blade right in her face waving it around leaving her pretty much no choice she cries yes i do repeatedly which does seem to work he gently sets down the chainsaw and gets on his knees now back to marie and gives her an impassioned and bloody kiss alex trying to pull away she surprises her with a stab through via the crowbar marie slightly smiles saying in a day's whisper no one will come between us ever again we see the wound is only through her shoulder emory continues chanting she won't let anyone come between us newborn kicking back on we then return to the hospital from the opening now understanding that it must be a mental health facility marie is there in cuffs rocking back and forth still repeating the same phrase a nervous alex is watching from the other side of the glass making sure that she can't see us right regardless marie must be able to at least feel her turning to the glass and smiling desperately reaching out for her and we end on that ambiguous note okay so there's quite a bit to consider after the big twist of the killer actually being marie sure there's a ton of logical questions like if she was in the mustang chasing after the van who was driving the van lots of what appears to be gaps in logic or what have you the takeaway is that none of these specific details really actually matter because they didn't even necessarily happen the way they were presented what we are really seeing is things being told entirely from marie's skewed perspective of reality kind of unspooling her version of the story while at the hospital the movie is this whole sort of fantasy reality playing out even from the very beginning when she's injured at the woods and at the end we then see what really happened that alex was the victim not her then after that initial dream in the beginning alex asks who was chasing her and she explains that it wasn't a man but herself herself chasing herself already from the top hinting at things not being what they appear on the surface so there's almost nothing that we can actually trust at face value about what transpires because everything is presented from the perspective of an unreliable narrator thusly calling into question what really happened or was justin marie's mind so a lot of those little details are irrelevant overall because they're not even necessarily real they do make clear the few important details of what is real like her killing all of alex's family which she confronts her about at the end that's why alex is all confused the whole time after being captured because marie believes that she's saving her but she's actually the one keeping her prisoner there's also the moment where mom is killed and utters her last word of why this is because she doesn't understand why marie killed her despite how things are presented in marie's version of things the truth is she did indeed kill all of them and captured alex at least that much is true i also think it makes sense that the gas station scene did happen in an altered form at the very least she must have made that call to the police leading them to finding the tape revealing the true killer and most likely also resulting in her capture everything else is up for debate to me then there's the other big question why what happened to cause marie to kind of snap there's more groundwork laid at the beginning marie and alex discuss the latest guy that she's dating and marie is not only uninterested but kind of disgusted by the entire thing calling her a slot and all that stuff and does so again at the end that plus the lusty gays watching her shower and everything else it starts to become more clear what's really going on here marie is actually in love with or at least has very strong romantic feelings for a friend that she is kind of struggling with the snap occurs due to meeting her family as they're all really close and care about her as we remember her whole chant nothing will separate us again it's all about unwilling to share alex with anyone else at any cost so she kills her family or again anyone that gets in the way all in order to have alex to herself but also more specifically it seems the real breaking moment is when she's you know in bed because it's literally as she climaxes that the van comes to the house certainly no coincidence it's kind of representing those repressed feelings coming out it's also really hammered home at the road on the end when she threatens alex with the saw demanding to know if she loves her when she finally relents marie drops a saw she doesn't need any more violence and gotten what she wanted or at least she thinks so that's why she goes in for that sloppy kiss exposing what her true intentions were the whole time being with alex so she sort of created this killer persona to kind of separate herself mentally from the violent acts and those feelings really creating her own version of what happened to make her the hero that saves her despite her actually being the one doing all the killing and putting her in danger and everything else yes kind of messed up really well that's love for you i guess drives you to madness and murder and that brings us to the conclusion of this ending explained for high tension this is definitely a notable member of the french extremity movement that still holds up many years later and i am definitely a fan any others of the era that you'd like to see me cover martyrs perhaps yeah i know you guys asked me for it all the time and don't forget before we go you can send me requests for any movies or tv shows you'd like to see me explain by sending them my way on any of my social media accounts at foundflix what did you guys think of high attention and its ending do you think that the twist was too much and kind of ruin everything up to that point what's your favorite aja flick let me know your thoughts down in the comments below make sure to like subscribe and follow thanks for watching found flicks see you next time

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 413,478

Rating: 4.9739923 out of 5

Keywords: high tension, high tension ending explained, ending explained, haute tension, switchblade romance, ending, explained, twist, twist explained, explanation, meaning, trailer, clip, final scene, end scene, alex aja, french horror, high tension 2003, foundflix ending explained, foundflix

Id: Fs8YDMw2cTs

Length: 21min 33sec (1293 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021