The 9th Life of Louis Drax

It’s very annoying that French horror specialist Alex Aja, whose films ten years ago would get us excited like a horny mountain goat, has now resorted to making stuff that gets totally forgotten between its cinema première and its release in BluRay. Louise Drax didn’t appeal to me at all and the film is very bland. And when Aja tries to do something interesting, the results are worse than when he had that all-American family butchered by the inbred hillbilly cannibals. The biggest cock-up, though, is that the outcome is clear already by the thirtieth minute, but the script presents it as a surprising twist by the hundredth minute. (28/01/2017)

Well, I was pretty lost here. Alexandre Aja is actually a relatively solid director, and here he took on a story that at first appears to be unbelievably mysterious but after the first twenty minutes, the Earth will spin as if you drank half a liter of vodka. Here it actually looks as if the screenwriter, in protest, put hashish drops under his fingernails, because a movie that acts as if it could wipe the floor with Forest Gump storytelling-wise has such a mess in its head that it will make your eyes roll multiple times during the movie. But I persevered until the end. I was wondering how the mishmash will actually end, which was the only thing keeping me afloat. In the end, however, it didn’t end that badly. However, it didn’t improve my impression of the film. A movie that tries to appear to be of high-quality cinematography-wise, but the story will make you shake your head in bewilderment every five minutes. (29/07/2017)

Alexandre Aja is too good a director to make a complete nonsense film. Technically, his films are excellently executed, but I can't help feeling that here, the blending of genres was somewhat overdone. It's as if he wanted to emulate the films of Guillermo del Toro but didn't have his playfulness. The game with characters, however, can still surprise, thanks to the choice of actors. (01/02/2017)

A somewhat gritty "fairy tale," but I can't say it didn't entertain me. Moreover, with a little good will, I could find a logical explanation for the whole story. Considering the well-chosen cast (including Jamie Dornan, who I am starting to like more and more) and the fact that I was genuinely curious about how the creators would navigate through that mess, I have no reason to give it a low rating. (70%) (02/07/2020)