High Tension (2003)★★★★★

I’m easily distracted, so I often skip foreign movies because I know I don’t pay enough attention to the subtitles to really follow the plot. And dubbed movies, especially dubbed horror movies, are pretty hit or miss (more often on the “miss” side). But this one hits, and it hits hard.

What all that means is that I love this movie. A lot. It’s incredible how effective this movie is. “High tension” is absolutely right. This movie is a thrill ride that just doesn’t let up. The story isn’t entirely original, but the acting, the pacing, and the background music all work together to make this a really scary story.

I love this movie so much that I’m even willing to forgive the overly artistic camera work in some scenes and the fact that some of the goriest scenes (and there are a lot of gory scenes in this one) are a little too over the top to be realistic.

I’m also willing to forgive that some pieces just don’t quite fit, leaving a few unanswered questions at the end. (Spoiler alert!) After the big reveal, which is masterfully done by the way, I found myself wondering about some logistics. Like who was really driving the truck? Were there really prior murder victims, and if so, what was the motive then?

Anyway, this is a graphic, violent, scary as hell movie that I could watch over and over and over again.