Switchblade sister: Cécile De France is Marie, High Tension's chainsaw-wielding protagonist.

What horror geeks -- the most fanatical film fans imaginable -- want to ask French filmmaker Alexandre Aja is this: How do you feel about remaking Wes Craven's classic thriller The Hills Have Eyes?

His answer is the right one as far as geeks are concerned. "It's a dream come true," Aja says, speaking recently from the offices of Lions Gate Films, distributor of his newest film, the splatter thriller High Tension (Haute Tension). "Even when you are watching High Tension you can see references to The Last House on the Left and Hills Have Eyes, and to be able to think about Hills Have Eyes and to try and make a new Hills Have Eyes, which, of course, is not going to be better but it will be different.

"It's more than excitement. It's really a dream come true." (His version should hit screens in 2006.)

Aja, 26, knows what purists want in their horror films because he's a fan, too: axes, chainsaws and splatter. High Tension delivers without compromise.

Alex (Maíwenn Le Besco) has brought her college friend Marie (Cécile De France) to spend the weekend at her parents' farmhouse in rural France. Philippe Nahon -- best known as the disturbed butcher from fellow French director Gaspar Noé's 1999 film I Stand Alone -- is the perceived villain in the worker's jumpsuit. He drives a rusty delivery truck and caresses the photos of young women he keeps on his windshield. Once the intruder arrives at the farmhouse door, the girls' night will become a nightmare.

Aja, who co-wrote the script with lifelong friend and writing partner Grégory Levasseur, keeps the tempo lightning quick and the mood claustrophobic. The bloody heart of the film is De France's grueling performance as Marie, the woman with the chainsaw and more. The side of her face is caked in blood. She is victim, heroine and something surprising.

Asked about his inspiration for Marie, Aja refers to Ripley from the Alien films, Linda Hamilton from the first two Terminator movies and Halloween's Jamie Lee Curtis. Marie starts out as a scared victim, then transforms into something more.

Aja's debut short film Over the Rainbow (1997) was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He made his feature filmmaking debut in 2000 with the sci-fi film Furia. High Tension does more than simply pay homage to American slasher movies of the 1970s. Aja wants to modernize the genre with contemporary themes and characters. Case in point: Alex does not find safety in the arms of a boyfriend; Marie acts as her protector.

Horror fans are calling the movie a switchblade romance because Marie's longing for Alex adds a lesbian twist to what is normally a heterosexual genre.

"You can have exactly the same story with the protagonist being a young guy coming with his girlfriend on a weekend," Aja says. "But when you are playing with a female character, you can play a lot more. She can be very shy inside and not sure of herself and show huge strength at the end. What was interesting for us was the contrast between the two girls. At the beginning, the chained girl is not shy but comfortable with herself and comfortable with guys and talking about love. During the movie, the shy girl becomes the fighter and the cool girl becomes the one screaming and crying like a little child."

The final twist is true to the European spirit of psychology and demands full disbelief from the audience. One question remains unanswered until the film's final moments: Who really is the Big Bad Wolf?

"It was made to be a fairy tale," the young director says. "At the end, the killer bends over to kiss the victim and asks if she loves him. It's the frog and the prince. It's a little like the Peter Jackson movie Heavenly Creatures -- not crossing the line but close to the edge of love and friendship."

High Tension played the film festival circuit in 2004 and early 2005, scaring audiences from Toronto to Sundance. Watched originally in its unrated version, it's fast-tempo bloodletting. Recently viewed a second time at a suburban Cincinnati multiplex, it's impossible to pinpoint the cuts. You can't call a movie mild when heads are severed and throats are slashed in plain view.

What's more impressive is the clever use of the dubbed English dialogue in the film's early scenes. Alex's family becomes American expatriates seeking a new life in France. Alex's English and Marie's attempts at speaking English become woven into the tweaked plot.

Aja promises more twists with his remake of The Hills Have Eyes. Like High Tension, it will be an American horror movie with European sensibilities, all of which makes Aja something of a horror internationalist, bringing the gory spirit and dark humor of Paris' Grand Guignol Theatre wherever he goes.

"I think this European sensibility you are talking about is a freer approach of the girl," he says. "We don't have any boundaries because there is no conservative spirit in France. ... There are big walls all around us filmmakers and when you are making a survivor story you are on the side of the victim, and with them you expect the worst. Then you survive like in Deliverance. In a way it's very positive when you are living in this violent world to go deep into the dark and then go out in the light." ©