Next to Neil Marshall (The Descent, Centurion), my favorite of the “Splat Pack” cadre of horror directors that arose during the ‘00s has to be Alexandre Aja. After a rather unnoticed debut (1999’s Furia), Aja truly came out swinging in 2003 with the still-polarizing High Tension. Some still take issue with that film’s final revelation, but it’s a movie that I count not only was one of my favorites of that decade, but also of the horror genre in general. The fact that he followed it up a few years later with a fantastic remake of The Hills Have Eyes only further cemented my appreciation of Aja as a filmmaker.
In the years since, he has managed to craft several other films, both as a director and as a producer. Some of them have worked for me in spades (Piranha, Maniac). Others I’ve found interesting in part, but unsatisfying overall (Mirrors, Horns). Whenever the man has a new production on the way, it has my attention, especially if he directed it.
His latest offering is The 9th Life of Louis Drax. Like Horns, it’s another novel adaptation, this time based on a bestseller by Liz Jensen. I cannot speak to how faithful the film is to its source material or how well it brings it to life on the silver screen, simply because I have not read it. I can only judge it based on how it works as a film and on that front, I’m pleased to say that it works rather well.
Much like Horns, this picture sees Aja toying with some horror-esque tropes (including some monster moments) without ever fully going into that genre. Instead, this plays more like fantasy drama that is occasionally punctuated by thriller tropes and bits of whimsical humor. As you can imagine, this calls for the filmmaker to perform a juggling act with the film’s tonal shifts. In Horns, I felt that Aja fumbled the ball more than he caught it. He fares better with Louis Drax, although there’s still the occasional stumble.
Fortunately, it takes after Horns in a good way as well: theme. Both films nail their core themes, in my eyes, which makes Aja’s better mastery of tonal gymnastic hit home even more. The film is not without its faults beyond just tonal trip-ups. I often found myself having a hard time connecting with Sarah Gadon’s performance at times. I ran cold on the character throughout, which makes some since from a narrative standpoint, but still doesn’t change the fact that her character never fully worked for me. Since she’s one of the leads, that’s an issue, but I should point out that she isn’t terrible. Just misdirected, perhaps.
Luckily the other leads all perform well. Jamie Dornan is livelier here than I’ve ever seen him before, Oliver Platt dishes out the right amount of humorous quirk, and Aiden Longworth is great as the titular character. The real standout for me, however, was Aaron Paul. As one of the perhaps five remaining people on the planet who has yet to experience “Breaking Bad”, Paul is someone who I’ve always found “fine” in roles, but never outright great. That changed here. As the father of Louis Drax, Paul is given plenty of varying emotional beats to chew on throughout the film’s duration and he hits his mark every time out. I came away impressed with Paul as an actor and wanting to get to “Breaking Bad” sooner than planned.
The 9th Life of Louis Drax is not one of Alexandre Aja’s best efforts as a director, but it’s also not among his worst. What you will find here is a horror filmmaker continuing to branch out beyond the genre with which he is primarily associated. While he has yet to craft a masterpiece outside of the horror playing field, he’s getting better with each attempt. All too often genre filmmakers are discouraged from experimenting outside of their wheelhouse, so it’s nice to see one still forging ahead and doing his own thing. I might not love the results every time out, but I admire his tenacity and creative drive. Given that his next film is a full-blown period piece drama, I hope he takes the lessons he has learned here and gives us yet another worthwhile effort. Doing so will just make his eventual return to horror all the sweeter, especially since he will arrive back in my favored genre with a new bag of tricks on his belt.
The 9th Life of Louis Drax is currently available on VOD and DVD.
