Film Road to Halloween: Haute Tension / Switchblade Romance (2003)

The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 51 days to go.

Picture this, dear reader. It’s the late 2000s and teenage me has just discovered horror films, extreme horror films. And by extreme I just mean really gory, but still fairly mainstream Hollywood films. Then someone tips me off to look for some French horror films and this director made a really cool slasher, called Switchblade Romance or as it’s known in its country of origin, Haute Tension.

So I get my hands on it, which is difficult because I live in Finland and we can’t have nice things, but I get the DVD and I pop it in my DVD player. The film begins and I am done for life. About 10 years later, sitting in my living room now, I must say I was not ready for the film, at all.

It was gory beyond anything I had seen before, had fascinating sexual undercurrents and it simply kicked ass and blew my mind. It kick-started my love of extreme horror and it forced me to look at grotesque, gory scenes and find the beauty and skill within the bloodied frame.

“It’s a brutal watch; Aja goes all out with the gore, prompting a physical reaction from the viewer.”

In 2019, Switchblade Romance still holds up remarkably well. Even though the lesbian aspect of the film is a little problematic, I completely buy the story. I buy into it, I consume it, hungrily. The effects might be a little clumsy, but there’s no denying director Alexandre Aja’s talent when it comes to filming.

The story follows two friends, Marie and Alexia who escape to the country to Alexia’s picture-perfect home for the weekend. Alexia’s family welcomes the girls with open arms and Marie, while feeling like an outsider in the loving, warm home, enjoys herself. They barely settle in for the night when a ruthless killer shows up, hacking away at the family. Alexia is kidnapped and Marie will do anything to get her best friend back. Who will survive? Who is this deranged psycho?

It’s a very simple set up, one that allows for maximum gore but minimum effort. It’s effective precisely for this simplicity it utilises. It’s a brutal watch; Aja goes all out with the gore, prompting a physical reaction from the viewer. It’s all over the top, spectacular bloodshed. But the more blood he sheds, the more he seems to look back at the poor audience, asking can you take more?

“Any good horror director understands that your film isn’t anything without good kills.”

Aja has gone on to have a relatively successful career in Hollywood since Switchblade Romance; his newest film, Crawl is currently in cinemas and is indeed a very good monster flick. But even in Crawl, which is much more popcorn-friendly, a monster mash that deserves to be seen on the big screen, some of the brutality comes from Aja’s roots in New French Extremity. He isn’t afraid to show the blood, to really make you feel the hit of a knife, making for a much more gruelling viewing experience.

Any good horror director understands that your film isn’t anything without good kills. Because let’s be honest, that’s what we’re here for. We buy a ticket to a horror film fully aware that people are going to die and there will be blood, lots of it. It becomes a spectacle. A musical wouldn’t be a musical without fantastical musical numbers, a horror film won’t be a horror film without scares and imaginative kills. Aja however goes further with this.

It’s not just people getting stabbed and then dying. It’s the act of killing that is in the centre here; he preserves the moment, draws it out in all its horror. The balance of sound and visuals seal the deal, there’s often heightened, loud noises but Aja makes room for silence so the full effect will sink in.

“The violence isn’t glorified, but Aja also won’t let us look away.”

While the spectacle of kills is present, Aja always allows us some time to process the death, to let them sink in. The deaths still feel heavy like they should, but unlike in many slasher franchises, we’re not rooting for the killer here. He’s presented as totally deranged, dirty and disgusting. He doesn’t crack jokes and there’s a weight to him and his actions. The violence isn’t glorified, but Aja also won’t let us look away.

The film notoriously has some twists up its sleeve. Bear in mind, Switchblade Romance was made in 2003, so twisty endings weren’t quite as popular as they seem to be now. The twist, while at least in the first viewing pretty unexpected, never takes away from the effectiveness of the film.

While it wants to fool you, it doesn’t want to trick you. What’s the difference, you may ask? The film isn’t cheapened by it’s ending, it feels a natural, organic part of the story and the storytelling. It doesn’t necessarily pull the whole rug from underneath you; it just asks you to reconsider what you’ve just watched.