Claire Parker is going to die. At the hands of a sadistic and depraved killer, she will endure a terrifying, unimaginably brutal death—and it will all happen again. After being beaten, dragged, sliced, and stabbed, Claire awakens at work—where it all began—untouched and unharmed. But the hellish ordeal is far from over. The madman is back and he's ready for more blood…
Lauded by attendants of last year’s Sundance Film Festival, this film has divided horror fans. Adding up the assets and demerits, I’m somewhere in between. The film opens with our heroine jumping in a truck with her boyfriend’s bud (you see a tarp-wrapped body in the truck’s flatbed, prompting the suspicion that the corpse is her betrothed). She’s dropped-off at her house but the guy declines to leave the scene: he pounds on the door, volunteering to return an earring that she left in the truck. The girl refuses to open the door so the creepy dude obligingly deposits the earring on the doormat. After retrieving the bauble, she notices that the back door is unlocked. The guy jumps in, strikes the girl, drags her to the basement and–kills her?
This is where the weird shit starts. She wakes up and is back at work before any of this action actually transpires. This time, her boyfriend–in lieu of the killer–is at the wheel of the truck. They retreat to her home but the girl’s mother is acting pretty strange. Oh, and I loved the "boyfriend hitting on mom" scene...very nice. Later that night, the young woman flashbacks/flash forwards (?) to her own death while bathing. Her mother is audibly whispering within the darkened basement. The next day, after her boyfriend tries to persuade her and a girlfriend to have a threesum’, she showers and experiences more flashbacks. It appears that compulsive cleanliness is a cue for jump cutting. This time, she "sees" the killer scrambling through the woods in an effort to elude the police. After exiting the shower, she sees herself as the killer in her mirror. Returning to work, the girl (apparently) spots the familiar predator. As she’s assaulted, the cops show-up and the woman learns–thanks to security cameras–that she was fighting with herself (no one else was in the store). You follow? Me neither.
 
Cops drive the poor li'l mixed-up girl home and then she has visions of her boyfriend getting hacked up; she wakes up in a truck that’s parked in a open field. The "killer" walks up, seats himself, punches her in the face and drives to her house. He cryptically informs her, "What is real is what you feel...when I cut your head off!" He drags her into the basement but there is still a background presence walking around the house. Then comes the money shot: the maniac literally rips-off her face in a scene that is decidedly more disturbing, but less graphic, than the makeshift surgery performed in the TEXAS CHAINSAW remakes. It’s not about the f/x. The guy (realistically) struggles with the incision and removal of the face (the sound effects add a gritty realism). I felt my own skin crawl. Then (more confusing shit) she wakes up in the store again..before her murder...this time, she hides behind a bush rather than conceding to a ride with her boyfriend...but the truck’s driver is revealed to be the psychopath.
After a bunch of bullshit, our heroine finds out the "killer" is named Duke and was shot by the cops for a string of murders....then the film proceeds to jump around through more flashbacks and you can’t even tell what is real anymore!
This movie just goes on and on with confusing nonsense until the climactic disclosure (the girl is enlightened that is she is Duke?). Still bitching about HIGH TENSION and its ambiguous diddling truck driver/severed head shot? Try this movie on for size (very similar punch line to its French counterpart). I give this film a 4 and a big fat "WHAT THE F***?!"
By Alexxus Young
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Jeff Crook, Josh Crook
WRITING CREDITS: Jeff Crook, Josh Crook
GENRE: Horror, Thriller
CAST: Lauren Currie Lewis, Chris Ferry, Cody Darbe
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 80 min
RATING: 4/10
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