Alexandre Aja on "The Hills Have Eyes"

Written By: Staci Layne Wilson

Photo: Director/Writer Alexandre Aja and Writer/Art Director Gregory Levasseur on the set of The Hills Have Eyes. © Fox Searchlight

It's no secret Alex Aja, the French-born director of High Tension and the newly-released The Hills Have Eyes remake, is a huge fan of classic horror. "I grew up watching Wes Craven's films," he enthuses. "I loved Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left.  I grew up in the 90s," — he was actually born in 1978, one year after the release of the original Hills — "and I was very frustrated with the movies you can find in the theater.  All my cinematic came from the movies you can find only in the movie club."

As for what exactly struck him about the original, he says, "I think it's amazing beautiful, and the filming. Right now with DVD we have the opportunity to rediscover movies that were made back in the time. [The interior trailer scenes] For me, that was the best scene in the original film… and we try to go further with the original breast-feeding scene." (Poor Vinessa Shaw gets to nurse the mutant this time around.)

Due to his success with High Tension, the director was courted quite a bit in Hollywood. "The last two years, I was proposed all the remakes possible. The Hills Have Eyes was different because we were all a fan of the original film." As for why he could it could be remade, he says, "All I can say is the acting, the 70s filming, all that kitsch.  It was possible and even more possible to reinvent that movie in a more scary, violent way." But without Wes Craven, "It would be impossible to do without his blessing."

Aja won't say whether he has a sequel to Hills in him (thought Craven did one of his own, in 1985). "I am 27, and I have the chance to make exactly what I am dreaming since I'm 10. Right now there are many subjects and stories I want to tell. I want to make it even more scary, and I don’t want to see myself 20 years from now doing the same film.  When you repeat yourself you lose yourself from finding something new."

When I mentioned to Aja that Michael Berryman, the most memorable star from the original, seemed a bit miffed he was invited in for a cameo, he said, "One of the characters was written for Michael. But the producers wouldn't allow it." (Funny aside: When I later asked Craven the same question, he said Aja didn't want any "winks" in the movie… hm… the mystery continues!)

Craven wasn't on-set in Morocco, but he did have some input on the script. "Wes asked us to approach the idea and re-approach the original. The idea of the village…We based it all on real footage about the children born after Chernobyl and the effect of Agent Orange on babies in Vietnam. The opening title sequence shows the real mannequins, the real babies with nuclear fallout."

When asked about how he decided who would die, and why he killed off — spoiler alert — the most sympathetic mutant, Ruby, he says, "I am not killing her, she is killing herself. She is doing something that is pretty nice [sacrificing herself to save one of the Carter family].  In a way she is the redemption of all the others.  I really fight to have that scene.  I think it’s really strong for some of them to save the others."

Speaking of fighting, it was the inevitable fight with the ratings board to get everything they wanted, violence-wise, in the movie. "I think we submit the movie like four or five times to get the R. You try.  First you try to get five frames here, six frames there and two frames there and of course it’s not enough, but you have to be more patient than they are and eventually they give up.  In the end we lost two minutes. I think they are naïve to think they could change the intensity of the movie with two minutes."

As for why some films, like Hostel, get by with more and still get the R-rating, Aja says, "I also felt it was unfair, but at the same time I found out something: When your acting is really bad you can go as far as you want, because they think it's like a joke. If you have a realistic approach to acting, you can't go as far.  They don't have a clear idea of what is the violence and what they are trying to protect."

Apparently, some viewers — spoiler alert — had a problem with the Doug character not going back to save his dog, Beast, from the mutants. "It's just real," Aja insists. "Who is going to come back to help the dog to survive? You are here to save your baby. You are here to bring back the baby. We had this conversation with the producers. 'You have to go back and save the dog,' they said." But Aja's realistic approach won out. 

As for the ending of the movie — spoiler alert — some viewers (not me!) thought it screamed: Sequel. "Since the beginning, and for me, that shot that doesn’t say 'There is going to be a sequel,' Aja explains. 'That shot says, 'They are not going to escape'."

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Read our review of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) here.