Casey Chong ranks the films of Alexandre Aja…
French director Alexandre Aja has explored different genres throughout his illustrious 25-year career from the post-apocalyptic romance Furia in 1999 to the single-location sci-fi thriller Oxygen in 2021, but his most celebrated works remain his horror films, beginning with the ultra-nihilistic High Tension a.k.a. Haute Tension and other movies like The Hills Have Eyes remake and Piranha 3D. Aja returns to the horror territory this month with Never Let Go starring Halle Berry [read our review here], and so we’re looking back at every Alexandre Aja’s feature film, all ranked from worst to best…
The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016)
Horror director Alexandre Aja is no stranger to diversifying his filmography as seen in sci-fi romance Furia and dark-fantasy thriller Horns. But his attempt to venture into the Guillermo del Toro-style territory of childlike whimsy and morbid elements, specifically Pan’s Labyrinth, resulting in a jumbled and overstuffed mess.
Max Minghella, who previously acted in Horns, adapted the screenplay from Liz Jensen’s bestselling novel of the same name, boasts a potentially intriguing setup: The titular nine-year-old boy (Aiden Longworth) has endured a series of near-death accidents ever since he is just a baby. But his latest one ends with him falling off the cliff on his 9th birthday and pronounced dead later in the hospital. Then, a miracle happens: Louis is somewhat alive two hours later after his body being wheeled to the morgue. Dr. Allan Pascal (Jamie Dornan), who specializes in pediatric coma, is intrigued by such a rare case as he monitors the boy’s progress, who is now in coma.
From there, Aja gets ambitious, mixing elements of whodunit and police procedural surrounding the mystery of Louis’ falling-off-the-cliff incident and a surrealist fantasy of a moss-covered sea creature appeared in Louis’ mind. There’s a dash of erotic element revolving around Pascal, who is somehow attracted to Louis’ flirtatious mother, Natalie (Sarah Gadon). The movie even tries to delve into the marital drama of Louis’ parents (Natalie and Peter, where the latter played by Aaron Paul).
And yet, the level of ambition that Aja laying out all the groundworks could only muster a confusing, yet heavy-handed narrative. The 9th Life of Louis Drax also lacks the necessary emotional heft, making it harder to get invested in the titular character’s predicament throughout the movie. By the time the twist ending arrives with a big reveal, it’s already fallen apart as Aja’s worst movie to date.
Furia (1999)
It’s hard to believe that Alexandre Aja was only 20 years old when he made his debut feature in Furia. But instead of a horror movie that many fans and viewers alike have grown accustomed to Aja’s filmography, Furia turns out to be a post-apocalyptic thriller adapted from Julio Cortázar’s short story Graffiti.
The movie, which takes place in the future, centers on Theo (Stanislas Merhar), a rebellious young man who paints the public walls with graffiti as a mean of expressing artistic freedom, even though such a move is deemed illegal by the oppressive government. While it looks as if Aja wants to address something deeply political in his movie, that’s not the case since he’s more interested in focusing on Theo’s life significantly changed after he falls in love at first sight with Elia (Marion Cotillard). Like Theo, Elia also shares the same passion for painting the walls.
Furia benefits from then-young, pre-Oscar winner Marion Cotillard of La Vie en Rose fame, whose combinations of magnetic beauty and nuanced acting quality is already present right here. The passionate romance between Cotillard and Merhar is the highlight here but Aja takes a long time getting to the point while suffering from a languid pace. The movie also showcases some of the bleak and nihilistic elements in the third act that would become Aja’s signature filmmaking style. Credits equally go to Queen guitarist Brian May’s distinctive score and Gerry Fisher’s moody widescreen cinematography shot on locations in Morocco.
Mirrors (2008)
Loosely based on Kim Sung-ho’s Into the Mirror, Alexandre Aja’s English-language remake follows a former NYPD detective Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland), who took a job as a night-shift security guard at the burned-down department store of Mayflower. The titular mirrors within the store somehow cast supernatural occurrences upon Ben’s already-troubled mind as he starts seeing things. Things that are unsettling to the point he questions his own sanity.
Ben’s existing mental condition, stemmed from the frustration and guilt over his past along with personal struggles with alcoholism and marital woes (Paula Patton plays Ben’s estranged ex-wife), serves as a psychological reflection to the haunted mirrors. But the attempted emotional intensity meant to make us sympathize with Ben’s plight is unfortunately suffers from overwrought storytelling. Not to mention the movie’s underlying mystery surrounding the origins of the mirrors takes a long and winding road to cut to the chase.
Mirrors has the tendencies for going over-the-top with loud sound effects and Kiefer Sutherland’s outright histrionics as if he is trying too hard to make an impression. Still, the movie has its moments of graphically vivid imagery and in-your-face gore (the grisly opening scene revolving around an ill-fated security guard comes to mind) synonymous with Aja’s works. The CGI may have been a hit-or-miss affair but Aja doesn’t forget to incorporate practical effects to ideally visceral results and a pessimistic, Twilight Zone-like ending.
Horns (2013)
Horns marks a then-rare departure for Alexandre Aja, who already made his name in the horror genre from High Tension to Piranha 3D. In this movie, Daniel Radcliffe’s Ig (a role originally meant for Shia LaBeouf) finds himself sprouting horns right out of his forehead. He’s frustrated at first as he forces to listen to some of the people’s secrets and desires with the power of his protruding horns, leading to the movie’s refreshingly dark and quirky comedy elements.
Aja, who works on Keith Bunin’s adapted screenplay from Joe Hill’s 2010 novel of the same name, also explores the murder mystery surrounding the death of Ig’s girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple), a result that made him the prime suspect, even though he insists he’s not the murderer. The whodunit angle is the least interesting part here but the story manages to compensate with a tender love story told through extensive flashbacks between Ig and Merrin. The flashbacks also help to establish Ig’s childhood era with his best friends, which would become crucial to the plot in the present day.
Aja doesn’t completely abandon his horror roots in Horns with moments of gruesome violence and gory details, particularly in the second half of the movie. The movie also features Radcliffe’s then-adult-oriented role, post-Harry Potter era with a game performance as Ig and solid support from Juno Temple and Max Minghella, where the latter plays Ig’s childhood best friend Lee Tourneau.
Oxygen (2021)
Filmed between France’s first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexandre Aja’s first native movie in 18 years since High Tension sees the director exploring the sci-fi thriller territory in the tight confines of a cryogenic chamber. The chamber in question reminiscent of a coffin-like structure, which immediately evokes Rodrigo Cortés’ Buried starring Ryan Reynolds, but with technology embedded within.
In Oxygen, we learn that a woman (Melanie Laurent) finds herself in a cryogenic chamber for a reason unknown. She doesn’t have a clue how or why she is here in the first place and worst; she has no recollection of her own identity whatsoever. With no one else to turn to other than communicating with a HAL-9000-like computer MILO (voiced by Mathieu Amalric), she determines to find the truth. But there’s another setback: Her oxygen level is depleting and she has only less than an hour to live.
Such a thriller takes place in the confined space works best with an airtight editing while brimming with claustrophobic tension. Oxygen does contain some suspenseful and thrilling moments, notably a scene where Melanie Laurent’s character struggling with an automated needle trying to inject into her body. Aja manages to find creative ways within the movie’s limited-space setting with the help of Maxime Alexandre’s dynamic camerawork, which in turn, helps to prevent the movie from being visually stagnant.
The movie also benefits from Melanie Laurent’s predominantly one-woman show with her engaging lead performance. But if there’s one thing that bothers the most is Aja’s insistence of stretching his movie beyond the confines of the cryogenic chamber with extensive flashbacks to fill in the otherwise taut, 101-minute runtime.
Piranha 3D (2010)
Alexandre Aja goes all-out in remaking Joe Dante’s Piranha (1978) as he embraces the schlocky horror to a mean-spirited level with free-flow of blood, gore, and nudity. And in 3D too if you happen to watch this in cinemas back then. The story, as expected, is simple: The spring-break season in Lake Victoria, Arizona means it’s a splashy fun time in the waters but something sinister awaits them: a school of prehistoric piranhas emerged from the bottom of the lake floor as a result of a minor earthquake.
The movie gets off to a promising start with the smart casting of Richard Dreyfuss in a cameo role (he’s in Jaws after all) and Aja doesn’t waste much time getting to the part we wanted the most: the bloody underwater massacre of the flesh-eating piranhas. Even with the downtime in between, Aja fills his movie with a vivid sex comedy straight out of the ‘80s era and an above-average cast, notably Elisabeth Shue as the no-nonsense sheriff Julie Forester and Jerry O’Connell’s sleazy supporting turn as adult filmmaker Derrick Jones.
The grisly fun reaches the boiling point in the blood-soaked third act with every gore imaginable from ripped-off facial skin to sliced-off limbs, mixing practical and CGI effects. The prehistoric piranhas are as uncompromisingly mean as they come while Aja doesn’t forget to load some darkly funny gags (the one involved a chewed-off private part). Piranha 3D is all about guilty-pleasure entertainment and Aja knows it.
Crawl (2019)
Horror movies about alligators aren’t as popular as sharks but Alexandre Aja, whose previous creature feature in Piranha 3D, sees the director packs a lot of punches in Crawl. It’s a lean, mean, and tense horror film, making good use of its tight 87-minute length to sustain your interest.
Aja favors an efficient storytelling in establishing his characters right from the get-go. Haley (Kaya Scodelario) and her father (Barry Pepper) find themselves stuck in the titular crawl space of their family home in Florida. The Category 5 hurricane is the root of the cause but that’s not the only thing they need to face. Another problem? Hungry alligators.
Weathering the storm and overcoming obstacles are used to reflect the estranged father-daughter relationship between Haley and Dave. Kudos go to Aja for making sure we care about the plights of these character going through the ordeal with Scodelario and Pepper deliver respectively engaging performances. Despite carrying a meagre budget, Aja knows well how to ratchet up the tension and suspense with lots of close calls and near-death moments. The only setback here is the obvious CGI in certain scenes but Crawl succeeds well enough as a must-see alligator horror-thriller.
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Alexandre Aja’s take on Wes Craven’s 1977 horror film of the same name remains his best English-language movie in a wave of high-profile remakes that he’s been involved so far. The story is a familiar one: An American family on a road trip heading to San Diego as Bob (Ted Levine) and his wife Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan) celebrate their wedding anniversary. Joining them including their three children (Vinessa Shaw’s Lynn, Emilie de Ravin’s Brenda, and Dan Byrd’s Bobby) and Lynn’s husband, Doug (Aaron Stanford) along with a pair of German Shepherds.
But a stop for refilling at a gas station and the attendant’s (Tom Bower) suggestion to take a shortcut through the hills seal their fates. What follows next is the worst days of their lives, beginning with punctured tires midway before finding themselves facing a group of cannibalistic mutant savages. It’s a fight for survival as the family forces to improvise to stay alive against these savages, whose physical deformities resulted from the US government’s nuclear tests.
Aja doesn’t shy away from the matter-of-fact brutality, violence, and gore. Definitely not for the squeamish, the cannibals have no compassion except for the young Ruby played by Laura Ortiz. Despite granted with a bigger budget compared to the 1977 original, Aja retains the nihilistic nature of the movie but with better acting (Aaron Stanford’s character arc from a meek protagonist to an unlikely savior under the forced circumstances comes to mind) and practical effects. The Hills Have Eyes culminates in an all-out gore fest in the third act in the abandoned nuclear-testing village, proving Aja’s success crossing from his native France to Hollywood at the time.
High Tension (2003)
High Tension marks then-unknown Alexandre Aja’s sophomore feature in the horror genre, arriving at the time of the New French Extremity trend that focuses on explicit violence and sex. Co-written by Aja himself alongside Grégory Levasseur, the story is deceptively simple at the beginning: Two young girls and best friends Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn) are on the road heading to the latter’s parents’ farmhouse in the secluded area for a quiet weekend study.
That night after their arrival, a mysterious man (Philippe Nahon) driving a beat-up truck show up in the house and murders everyone in gruesome fashion. Alex manages to hide while Alex, all gagged and chained being dragged into the truck.
Most of the movie looks as if Aja embraces the straightforward slasher-movie route but with the blood, gore and violence pushes to the extreme (remember to watch the uncut French version and not the heavily-edited US edition). It’s uncompromisingly tense and graphic – a dream comes true for horror fans who love all things exploitations. Aja also deserves praise for his efficient pacing and above-average acting performances played by Cécile de France and Philippe Nahon.
Then comes the twist that alters everything we have seen from the beginning. It may prove frustrating for (some) viewers blaming Aja for the jarring, cop-out narrative shift. But without going to the spoiler territory, the twist justifies the character’s action in the first place as Aja gamely toying with the viewers’ expectations. High Tension ultimately puts Aja in the map and even though he has explored more horror and some other genres, none of them come close to the sheer genre-bending creative juice seen in this 2003 one-of-its-kind horror film.
How would you rank Alexandre Aja’s movies? Let us know on our socials @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
