International pie day
I did some vulturing of my local Borders as it was going under. Got, among other things, a copy of High Tension for like a buck-fifty. For some reason I thought it was a zombie movie. I remember very distinctly a conversation in which my friend Diana, who saw it when it was in theaters, said that it was a French lesbian zombie movie that involved among other things a scene with an animated severed head.
There were 2 severed heads, but no zombies.
It was a pretty good/gut-wrenching movie though. I cared about the main character more than I think I’ve ever cared about a character in a slasher movie before.
And then the movie kind of screwed all that up with a knock-off Fight Club ending.
I’ve been thinking through what kinds of twist endings add to the pleasure of a movie, and what kinds detract from it. High Tension’s ending, unfortunately, belongs to the second category. I would also add in The Usual Suspects, which I think is ultimately marred by its twist ending (even though I seem to be in the minority on that one). In both cases, the twist in some way removes the drama of previous scenes, instead of enhancing or deepening it.
The twist at the end of Fight Club, on the other hand, makes the rest of the movie into a different, but still compelling movie. One focused quite a bit more on the character Marla (who “reads” completely differently before and after knowledge of the twist ending).
In other news, submissions are now open for this.
