High Tension movie ripoff
Has anyone seen High Tension aka Haute Tension ? It is pretty much a copycat of Intensity, but i think intensity is better. If you have seen it what do do you make of it?
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MovieChat Forums > Intensity (1997) Discussion > High Tension movie ripoff
I've only seen 45 minutes of this movie and yeah, it's very similar...
shareOh! they frking rip Intensity off almost seen by seen, I thought I was tripping when I watched that, then I said, okay, if they pull into a gas station and the same shiitte happens, im turning it off, sure as hell, they pull off into a gas station, and start ripping off intensity frame by frame, so I shut the shiat off, and went and sold it the next day,
shareActually, the gas station scene is where the similarities between the two movies end. High Tension goes off into a totally different direction after that.
shareWell I wouldnt know, as I said, I shut it off, it's not coencidence that the two movies use identical scenes, instead of it coming out, they should have just edited Intensity up a little bit, and blasted it onto DVD, I think it's a little disingenuous that someone would be thinking "hey! Intensity will never see the light of day, and nobody's really ever seen it, so I'll rip it off" I hate remakes, so you can only imagine how bad I hate rip offs, especially if it's someone ripping off a good movie!
shareIt pissed me off. It is a scene by scene ripoff for 75% of the movie. Unacceptable. It's even worse because the director probably thought/thinks he could get away with it because Intensity was only a TV movie that has not been distributed, so "who would ever know?"
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A ripoff was obviously necessary. High Tension didn't have McGinley in it.
sharewhile reading intensity, i thought the same thing. i only saw the trailer for high tension, but some of the scenes seemed exactly alike. Especially the part where she hides under the bed.
shareReally.. even IF Alexandre Aja saw this... which I highly doubt since he was most likely living in France at the time, just about every movie today is a copy or a remake of something, High Tension was much better from what i saw of this anyway
shareReally.. even IF Alexandre Aja saw this... which I highly doubt since he was most likely living in France at the time, just about every movie today is a copy or a remake of something, High Tension was much better from what i saw of this anyway/
Read this website: http://blogcritics.org/video/article/high-tension-oddly-like-intensity /I'll even clue you in to the part that you should pay particular attention to:
Caught off guard by this line of questioning, director Alexandre Aja was now the one doing the squirming. He owned up to reading the Koontz novel. "The beginning is quite similar," he conceded, "but it's a classic story: two girls in a house with a killer ... It's a tribute to all slasher films.”
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http://athinkersblog.com/ share
He admitted to reading the book genius. He totally ripped this off, if you stopped licking his butthole you'd see that.
shareThey are similar, but Intensity is a pile of crap compared to Haute Tension.
-AP3-
Honouring French Horror: Ils - Them - http://tinyurl.com/5g6m7x
They are similar, but Intensity is a pile of crap compared to Haute Tension.
I would have to disagree. Intensity is a much better film given the lead performances (especially by John C. McGinley) and the fact that it can sustain it's drama without resorting to on-screen gore. It was a made-for-TV film so it had limitations in this regard, and perhaps would have been better as a 2 hour film than drawn out over 2 days as a 3 hour film. Still I prefer it over High Tension.
And what's more, a check for Dean Koontz should have been forthcoming from the writers of High Tension (Messrs. Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur) for having totally ripped-off the story. Adding the on-screen gore and changing the last 20 minutes doesn't absolve the plagiarism.
~LjM
Step on it! And don't spare the atoms!
the fact that it can sustain it's drama without resorting to on-screen gore
Haute Tension didn't 'resort' to using gore. Gore is a part of horror, since the beginning. It had the ABILITY to use gore, Intensity didn't. Had Intensity been greenlit for feature (which it didn't deserve, and rightfully didn't receive), it would've used more than it did.
The stories are different. As are the settings, the characters, and the entire third act has no similarities whatsoever.
Get over yourselves, people.
You can like the film all you want, but stop being so goddamn bitter against the superior film, which is recognized as such.
-AP3-
Horror of The Coreys: 'The Back Lot Murders' (2002) - tinyurl.com/67w7th share
*****SPOILERS*****
Let's see...
(1)Female lead reluctantly is visiting friends parents in rural setting.
(2)Friends family is murdered by psychopath.
(3)Psychopath takes friend captive in van.
(4)Female lead hides in psychopaths van.
(5)Psychopath stops for gas.
(6)Female lead sneaks out of van and into mini-mart at gas station.
(7)Pyschopath kills mini-mart attendant.
(8)Female lead is left behind and takes mini-mart attendants car, and gun.
(9)Female lead follows psychopath's van.
(10)Unknown to female lead, psychopath has removed bullets from said gun.
That's about 70 minutes worth of "sameness" into High Tension. Albeit with some minor differences. But you cannot ignore these very same key plot points that originated in Intensity. Yes they radically changed the ending, which had an impact on the mini-mart killing, but still!
As far as gore... there are films that can achieve effective ''tension'' without it and does not preclude it's use to achieve horror. I don't mind it as a rule I am just saying it was not necessary in Intensity to maintain the drama and suspense.
I don't think High Tension was a bad film, it just that it's writers took another persons work, for at least 75% of their film, and gave no credit to that person, Dean Koontz. If people don't see that as wrong... fine. It does not however change the facts.
~LjM
Step on it! And don't spare the atoms!
I accidentaly saw the title to this thread before I watched Intensity and so I spent the whole movie thinking it was going to have a very different ending.
share(1)Female lead reluctantly is visiting friends parents in rural setting.
(2)Friends family is murdered by psychopath.
(3)Psychopath takes friend captive in van.
(4)Female lead hides in psychopaths van.
(5)Psychopath stops for gas.
(6)Female lead sneaks out of van and into mini-mart at gas station.
(7)Pyschopath kills mini-mart attendant.
(8)Female lead is left behind and takes mini-mart attendants car, and gun.
(9)Female lead follows psychopath's van.
(10)Unknown to female lead, psychopath has removed bullets from said gun.
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Yep, looks like unquestionable plagiary to me. No wonder the only movies Aja can make in Hollywood are remakes: he's never written anything original in his life, but he can't just steal from American TV movies like he did back home. Hahaha, should have kept his dirty little secret quiet and not had High Tension released internationally. Lamer.
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It's a movie, people! It's not, nor is it meant to be, real life!
I guaran-damn-tee you that Aja saw Intensity and read the book.
Wayyyyyyyyyy too many similarities the first 70 minutes [almost the entire film!] of Haute Tension.
I just watched them back-to-back... and I'm very disappointed with Aja. Additionally, I feel that Intensity is a much better movie. McGinley is awesome.
It is not only that the events are the same, the way they are presented is the same: the killer moves stealthily, but confidently, through the house; the girl hides under the bed while the killer carefully studies the room (in the book, the killer has animal-like senses which adds further to the suspense during his careful inspection); in the mini-mart the killer senses the girl is present and very nearly finds her (the mini-mart does not have a huge, well-lighted WC that no gas station in the world ever had, however); and he catches her when he arrives at his home.
It is only then that "High Tension" veers sharply from "Intensity".
No, there is no question that the writers of "High Tension" took almost everything in the movie directly from "Intensity".
(1)Female lead reluctantly is visiting friends parents in rural setting.share
(2)Friends family is murdered by psychopath.
(3)Psychopath takes friend captive in van.
(4)Female lead hides in psychopaths van.
(5)Psychopath stops for gas.
(6)Female lead sneaks out of van and into mini-mart at gas station.
(7)Pyschopath kills mini-mart attendant.
(8)Female lead is left behind and takes mini-mart attendants car, and gun.
(9)Female lead follows psychopath's van.
(10)Unknown to female lead, psychopath has removed bullets from said gun.
As much as I hate outright ripoffs I gotta admit that I enjoyed High Tension more than Intensity.
I think it would all be fine if the makers of HT mentioned that the inspiration came from Intensity, the movie would surely get much less backlash...
Too weird to live, to rare to die!
The book, "Intensity" could not be made into a comparable movie because the Dean Koontz novel centers more on the senses and thoughts of the two main characters, and the only effective way to get thoughts and senses into a movie is via a narration. As a result, the movie, "Intensity" just doesn't have the creepiness or fear factor of the book. That may sound strange, but it is the killer's almost inhuman animal senses and his evil thoughts that make him so scary.
Nonetheless, the adaptation of "Intensity", for all of its weaknesses is superior to "High Tension".
But, for those who can read, I strongly recommend the book. It is one of the best of its kind I have ever read.
In one of Dean Koontz's 'Useless News' letters, (fan club mailing list) he went into the issue of a movie which plagarized Intensity, without naming the movie, and alluded to the fact that there was a lawsuit or lawsuits pending. I'm surmising, but he essentially went onto say that the similarities were so blatant and obvious through much of the film that anyone who's seen it knows what film it is, and he felt naming it would give undue publicity to it.
Do you know what ever came of the lawsuit?
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Once upon a time, we had a love affair with fire.
http://athinkersblog.com/
No. I never heard or read anything further on it.
shareBut....they're nothing alike other than the basic home invasion concept!?!?!? The REASON for the killings....completely different! Right? I mean, I've read the book Intensity, saw it when it came out on TV, watched High Tension about 2 years ago but.... (SPOILER!!!!!)....
in High Tension it's the girl herself doing the killing....right??? Have I forgotten something huge?
in High Tension it's the girl herself doing the killing....right???That is the sole difference. Until that point, it is scene-for-scene, including the damned deer.
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If I cannot smoke cigars in heaven, I shall not go! share
So changing the killer still doesn't mean it isn't a rip off.
shareYeah, I noticed that the first time I saw Haute Tension. Of course, the end of Haute Tension is entirely different. But Aja was obviously inspired by Intensity. Personally, I found the TV version of Intensity to be not on par with the book. There was a lot of things that the TV version simply could not show or touch on. I well prefer Haute Tension over this movie. Good atmosphere and just downright freaking creepy. The only thing I didn't like was the "twist" ending. I found it totally unrealistic and it forces the audience to suspend belief.
I'm just a guy that likes horror flicks.