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A gorehound's delight, Switchblade Romance harks back to a gritty kind of hardcore horror that's virtually extinct. The story goes back-to-basics: a serial killer (Philippe Nahon) bursts into an isolated farmhouse in the French countryside, murders the occupants and makes off with teenager Alexia (Maiwenn). Hot on his tail is Alexia's now hysterical friend Marie (Cecile De France), who managed to escape the domestic slaughter unnoticed. What follows is 80 blood-soaked minutes of what the original French title quite accurately dubs "Haute Tension" (High Tension).

From the opening murders where Nahon (better known as the nihilistic butcher in Gaspar Noé's brutal Seul Contre Tous) slits throats and releases arterial spray in ferociously gruesome detail, it's clear that this is no ordinary slasher movie. With no over-sexed teens, no gross out comedy and no let up from its claustrophobic brooding atmosphere, it's an utterly sadistic, razorblade smile of a movie that's willing to push to the very limits of its 18 certificate to elicit a reaction.

"DESIGNED TO TERRIFY NOT ENTERTAIN"

Harking back to the good old days of early 80s horror, a time when cinematic terror was regularly designed to terrify not entertain, director Alexander Aja certainly proves his love of the genre. Not only are there multiple references to classic video nasties, but Aja has even hired legendary makeup artist Gianetto De Rossi - whose work on Italian horror movies like Zombi 2 remains a genre landmark - to create the gory prosthetics involving axe-wounds, stabbings, and a roaringly over-the-top power-tool climax.

Given all this, it's a shame Aja doesn't stick to the stripped down, straightforward scares. For, as the hysteria is ratcheted into utter madness, the unsightly shadow of posturing self-reference falls over the final reel. Still, horror aficionados will enjoy enduring this breathless blood-pumper, even if Switchblade's switchback leaves them seeing red.

French language with English subtitles.
Switchblade Romance (Haute Tension) is released in UK cinemas Friday 24th September 2004.