Alexandre Aja

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Alexandre Jouan-Arcady, known professionally as Alexandre Aja (Template:IPA; born 7 August 1978), is a French filmmaker best known for his work in the horror genre. He rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension (known as High Tension in the US and Switchblade Romance in the UK). He has also directed the films The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008), Piranha 3D (2010), Horns (2013) and Crawl (2019).

Personal life

Aja's pseudonymous surname is formed from the initial letter of each of the three parts of his real name. He was born in Paris, France, and is the son of Jewish French pied-noir director Alexandre Arcady and French cinema critic Marie-Jo Jouan.

Career

Aja acted at a very young age in minor roles in his father's films such as Template:Interlanguage link, and the two Template:Interlanguage link films.

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 film 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 3D. Levasseur also made his works as production designer too.

Aja in January 2011

Aja directed Haute Tension, which released in 2003 in France and in 2005 in the US, and placed Aja on the map of the horror movie genre. The French slasher, though sticking to horror conventions, pushed the envelope of gore and tension. The film is an unauthorized reinterpretation of the novel "Intensity", by Dean Koontz. Favouring make-up effects over computer-generated imagery, the film quickly found respect among horror fans. It was released in the US as High Tension, after some editing. The film was nominated for the grand prize at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, and earned Aja awards for Best Direction and Best Fantasy Film at the Sitges Film Festival.

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

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 3D, a horror movie about prehistoric piranhas in Arizona. It is a remake of the 1978 film Piranha.

Because Aja was working on Mirrors, he did not direct The Hills Have Eyes 2, which was released on 10 March 2007.Template:Failed verification

In 2004, Aja was named by Variety on the 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 has been associated with the New French Extremity film movement.

Aja produced a remake of the 1980 horror slasher Maniac, starring Elijah Wood. The film was released in 2012. In 2013, he directed the dark fantasy thriller Horns, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Joe Anderson, James Remar, Kelli Garner and Max Minghella. He also produced the 2014 horror film The Pyramid directed by Grégory Levasseur and starring Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare, and James Buckley. Aja produced and directed the 2016 psychological thriller film The 9th Life of Louis Drax, which is based on a novel by Liz Jensen.

Aja is set to direct a live action adaptation of the manga series Space Adventure Cobra, and the Mice and Mystics film for DreamWorks Animation. In 2019, Alexandre Aja directed his highest grossing and best-reviewed film yet, Crawl.

On February 6, 2026, it was that Aja will direct the sequel to the action horror film Under Paris for Netflix.

On February 13, 2026, it was announced that Aja will co-write the horror film adaptation of Dead by Daylight with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick for Blumhouse Productions, Atomic Monster and Behaviour Interactive.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Notes	Template:Abbr
1999	Furia	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2002	Template:Interlanguage link	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Also second assistant director
2003	High Tension	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2006	Template:Sort	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2007	P2	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Also story author
2008	Mirrors	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2010	Piranha 3D	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2012	Maniac	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2013	Horns	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2014	The Pyramid	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2016	Template:Sort	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Template:Sort	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2019	Crawl	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2021	Oxygen	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2023	Night of the Hunted	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2024	Never Let Go	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No

Other credits

Year	Title	Role	Template:Abbr
2004	Mariage mixte	Second unit director
2005	Marock	Artistic advisor, technical advisor
2013	Rock the Casbah	Associate producer
2016	La Rage du démon	Himself
2017	47 Meters Down	Executive producer

See also

• Furia (album)
• Alexandre Aja's unrealized projects

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Alexandre Aja on Fox Searchlight
• Eat My Brains! interview with Alexandre Aja
• Alexandre Aja interview on sci-fi-online.com