High Tension

Alexandre Aja (born 7 August 1978) is a French film director who rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension (known as High Tension in the US, and known as Switchblade Romance in the UK).

Aja was born in Paris, France. His real name is Alexandre Jouan-Arcady and his pseudonymous surname is formed of the 3 first letters of his full name. He is the son of French pied-noir director Alexandre Arcady and French cinema critic Marie-Jo Jouan. Aja is Jewish and his wife is Moroccan filmmaker Laïla Marrakchi.

He made his directorial debut at the age of eighteen with the short film Over The Rainbow, which received a Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm Award nomination for best short film. In 1999 he directed Furia, a movie based on Julio Cortázar’s short story Graffiti. From Furia and his next features, he frequently works with Grégory Levasseur as writers. Such as in The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors, P2, and Piranha 3-D. Levasseur also made his works as production designer too.

Haute Tension, released in 2003 in France and in 2005 in USA, placed Aja on the map for the horror movie genre. The French slasher, though sticking to horror convention, pushed the gore and tension envelope. Favouring make-up effects over computer-generated imagery, the film quickly found respect among horror fans. It was released in the U.S. as High Tension after some editing. The film was nominated for grand prize at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival and earned Aja awards for best direction and best fantasy film at the Catalonian International Film Festival.

American director Wes Craven asked Aja to come up with a concept for the remake of his 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes after seeing High Tension. Craven subsequently asked Aja to direct the movie, which was released with an R rating in the U.S. after an extensive amount of editing.

His next project was a horror film entitled Mirrors, about a mysterious mirror that brings out the worst aspects of people whenever they look at themselves in it. The film is a remake of the K-Horror film Into the Mirror. Aja directed Piranha 3-D, a horror movie about prehistoric piranhas in Arizona.It is a remake of the film Piranha.

Because Alexandre Aja is working on Mirrors, he did not direct the sequel to The Hills Have Eyes 2, which was released on 10 March 2007.

In 2004, Aja was named to the Variety – Ten Directors To Watch list. He is a member of the so-called Splat Pack, a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in “Total Film” magazine for a new wave of directors making brutally violent horror films. The other Splat Pack members are Darren Lynn Bousman, Neil Marshall, Greg Mclean, Eli Roth, James Wan, Leigh Whannell, and Rob Zombie.

Aja will direct a live action adaptation of the manga series Space Adventure Cobra.