Ten years after Anthony Minghella optioned Liz Jensen‘s The 9th Life of Louis Drax to develop cinematically, it was his son Max who saw it begin production. The younger Minghella’s first credited screenplay, probably brought to director Alexandre Aja on set of their previous collaboration Horns, it would ultimately take another two for the finished film’s release. If I were to wager a guess as to why I’d say the distributors found themselves painted in a corner unable to figure out how to sell it. Rated R for reasons that probably could have been cut to earn a PG-13 if desired, the story arrives from the viewpoint of a nine year-old boy—his dark fantasy delivered in a way that feels perfectly primed for teenagers rather than adults.

Young Louis Drax (Aiden Longworth) is an original. He’s smart, perceptive, and extremely accident-prone from the womb.