Alexandre Aja has always been one of those directors that I have big sympathy for. His was one of the most notorious titles of the early 2000s wave of filmmakers that were grouped as the New French Extremity, High Tension (2003) (Haute tension in original French language). Together with Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi’s Baise-moi (2000), Marina de Van’s In My Skin (2002), Xavier Gens’ Frontier(s) (2007), and Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008), they put French in the top list of horror producers of the early new century.
After a Hollywood adventure where he was responsible of movies like The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008), Piranha 3D (2010), and Crawl (2019), Alexandre Aja is back to France for his most recent title, a fantasy and science-fiction movie entitled Oxygen (2021).
The movie centers on a woman who wakes in a cryogenic chamber with no recollection of how she got there, must find a way out before running out of air.
Mélanie Laurent, known for her role Shosanna in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), and also present in the very stimulating fantasy-thriller film Now You See Me (2013), is the main protagonist in Oxygen (2021) replacing Anne Hathaway and Noomi Rapace after they left the project. Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi, Marc Saez, Laura Boujenah, Eric Herson-Macarel, and Cathy Cerda complete the main cast.
Oxygen (2021) is out on Netflix on May 12, 2021. Here you can watch its official trailer.
