It began with a Freudian script by Poe fan, playwright and cryptographer Leo Marks, who considered his role as a (famous) WWII codebreaker a highly voyeuristic one. It was such a personal project for director Michael Powell that he cast himself and his son as (abusive) father and (disturbed) child. It was famously condemned by critics of the time: Sight & Sound’s Derek Hill likened it to concentration camp atrocities, while, in 1994, Dilys Powell boldly admitted it was a masterpiece, reversing the hatred she expressed decades earlier.

Released as HAUTE TENSION in its native France in summer 2003, Alexandra Aja’s calling card modern slasher enjoyed huge festival buzz en route to its U.K. release as SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE and (censored) U.S. bow as HIGH TENSION. This intense, stripped-down cat-and-mouse game between brutish, relentless killer Philippe Nahon and repressed, resilient Cecile de France heralded a cycle of “extreme”, ultra-violent French horror films that would peak with the despairing MARTYRS in 2008. These, of course, ran parallel to America’s own post-9/11 hard-R splatter movie trend, itself including Aja’s Hollywood debut – a savage reworking of THE HILLS HAVE EYES.