Aja on Tension

As THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake is gearing up for release, director Alexandre Aja has been making the interview rounds as of late, talking about everything from what to expect from his new film to what his future projects will be. Today CHUD‘s interview with Aja scored a little more information- like what the hell happened at the end of HIGH TENSION.


I for one loved TENSION- thought it was a quality slasher film, and I even dug the twist ending- I had no problems believing it, and enjoyed screaming to myself ‘what the f*ck???’ as the credits rolled. Yeah, it was one helluva ending. But others don’t seem to take my view, going as far to say the ending ruined the movie. Here’s some interesting tidbits on why the ending was the way it was, straight from Aja’s mouth….

It’s kind of funny because the first draft of the script, the script we wanted to do, had the same twist but just in the final minutes. You started the movie in the hospital room and she’s telling the story and then you come back to the hospital room in the end, so you have the feeling that the killer was the killer, but then the doctor brought a VCR into the room, watching the security video from the gas station and you realize she axes the guy. That was the final twist, and the twist was only saying, ‘OK what you saw was her vision of the story and the truth is another movie.’ The producer, unfortunately, asked us to give up the last scene in the last reel, and I think that’s where everything became more fragile.


Whoa Nelly! I think I’d be scratching my even MORE if that was the twist they stuck with! But you know what they say, sometimes being simple is better. Or something like that. Too bad they can’t recut the film like that- just for shits and giggles- it’d be interesting to see how that version played out.


To read more about Aja, including his upcoming BLACK HOLE project, go ahead and click HERE, and prepare to die first next Friday as HILLS hits theaters everywhere.