The 9th Life of Louis Drax

The 2016, supernatural thriller film The 9th life of Louis Drax is based on a best-selling novel by Liz Jensen. The film was written by Max Minghella and directed by Alexandre Aja. Alexandre Aja is a producer and director, who primarily works on films within the horror genre. The 9th Life of Louis Drax is centered around the story of a young “accident prone” boy (Louis) that finds himself in a coma after falling off a cliff during a family picnic. The film is partially narrated by Louis, who is seemingly aware of what is transpiring around him despite his body laying still in a comatose state. Within his unconscious mind, Louis is joined by an uncanny mysterious creature to whom he is telling his life-story to. As the plot unfolds, we meet several other characters that will help solve the mystery behind Louis’ near-fatal accidents. Louis’ relationship with his mother is special, but in the end it is the relationship he shares with his father that serves Louis’ decision as to where he will choose to live out his ninth life.

Louis begins his story reciting back all of the life-threatening accidents he has experienced throughout his short life. “Every-one said that one day I would have an accident- an accident to end all accidents,” he says. The first accident begins on the day he was born, which resulted in an emergency cesarean. His second accident happened during infancy, when he was just sixteen-weeks old. In this scene we see baby Louis laying in his crib, when the chandelier above his crib falls on him (breaking a lot of his ribs). Throughout his life he has contracted meningitis, tetanus, botulism, food poisoning, salmonella, and has been 85% electrocuted. During a flash-back, Natalie (Louis mother), tells Louis that if he were a cat, he would have used up eight of his nine lives and that the next accident could be his last. Coincidentally on his ninth birthday, while on a picnic with his family, Louis falls from a cliff into freezing-cold water. Once in the water, Louis hears a deep voice that speaks to him: “This is your ninth life, young sir. Together we will solve the mystery… The mystery of the amazing accident-prone boy,” the voice tells him. After witnessing her son fall from the cliff, Natalie calls the incident in. Shortly after, Louis’ body is found and airlifted to the hospital, where he is soon pronounced dead. Two hours later, while being prepped for postmortem, Louis comes back to life and spends the remained of the film in a coma.

There is a reoccurring theme of overreaching in the film. The near-fatal accidents are a great example of overreaching. The type of accidents and illnesses Louis has experienced are peculiar and go beyond the limits of a genuine human experience (Groves,2012. Pg 109). The deep voice that spoke to Louis in the water, is another example of overreaching. After Louis enters his coma and the deep voice becomes a physical entity. The voice becomes uncanny after it appears as a strange seaweed-covered creature (Groves, 2012. Page 87). The creature, though strange and unusual, does not play a monster in the film. Instead the creature offers Louis support and guidance. There is another element of overreaching in Louis’ ability to project himself into the physical and material world. While Louis is in his coma, he appears to have astral project himself into the physical world. Astral projection is a spiritual theory of the interpretation of an out-of-body experience. Astral projection is the ability to project oneself into the physical world and travel to other astral environments, but astral projectors are not able to travel within the material world (Global Healing Exchange). Similarly, “etheric travel” is the ability to project oneself into the material world and travel among the living, but etheric travelers are unable to travel to other dimensions/planes (Global Healing Exchange). Louis is able to project himself in the material world but appears limited to the coma ward and he is able to travel to other dimension. After Louis astral projects himself into the physical world, he is able to tell his story to the creature. The flash-backs that are shown as Louis is telling his story, reveal that being accident-prone is not the only strange thing about Louis.

Louis is an abnormally precocious and obnoxious child who does not hesitate to speak his mind. He seems to be comfortable openly insulting the appearance of his psychiatrist (Dr. Perez) and has purposefully caused fights between his parents (Natalie and Peter). Throughout the sessions between Louis’ and Dr. Perez, we find out that Louis is a fairly disturbed child. Louis appears to have issues with trust and anxiety, in addition to a long medical record of odd incidences that Dr. Perez believed might have been from Louis self-harming. In another therapy session, Louis reveals to Dr. Perez that he uses “The Right of Disposal” law to justify the biennial killing of his pet hamsters after they have reached their “life expectancy”, which according to Louis is two years. After hearing about Louis’ right of disposal, Dr. Perez, despite promising to keep everything Louis shares with him private, finds it necessary to bring his concerns about Louis’ behavior to Mrs. Drax (Natalie). After Dr. Perez breaks his promise, Louis is upset and says "He's a liar like all men are, and he plays the same games they play,” (referring to Dr. Perez). The strange seaweed-covered creature, to whom Louis is telling the story to, asks Louis why he does not like men. Louis tells the creature that he does not like men because they “do bad things” to his mother. The letters Louis writes to both his mother and Dr. Pascal, are also negatively geared towards men. The letter to his mom is a warning:

“Dear Mom, Dr. Pascal would like to sex you. You should stay away from men in general Eg. Dr. Pascal. I’m warning you mom the danger will come and bad things will happen.” He then writes Dr. Pascal, “Dear Pascal, you should be taking care of me but all you want to do is sex my mom. Stay away from her. Bad things will happen if you don’t. It is obvious at this point that Louis harbors a deep distrust for men. According to Freud’s psycho-sexual development theory, Louis’ behavior shows signs of a stage fixation (Groves, 2012. Page 11). The strong views Louis possess about men wanting to hurt or “sex” his mom, could be an indication that Louis might be experiencing the Phallic stage (Oedipus Complex) of his psychological development. This would explain Louis’ strong desire for his mother, rejection of men, and the focus on the libido.

The film incorporates some elements of post-humanism into the plot when Dr. Perez hooks Dr. Pascal up to an EKG machine to communicate to Louis “on the other side”. Pascal believes that Louis has been communicating with him, or rather using him as a vessel, to communicate in the conscious world. After Pascal is hooked up to the EKG machine, Perez is able to talk with Louis though Pascal’s mind and voice. This is when it becomes clear that Louis used Pascal to write those letters to Pascal himself and his mother, Natalie. During the time in which Dr. Perez is able to connect with Louis, we learn the whole story of what happen before Louis' fall from the cliff. As he tells us the story, there are flash-backs of Natalie’s role in many of Louis’ “accidents” and illnesses. They consist of Natalie pouring the blood of raw ground beef into Louis’ food, injecting candy with poison, turning on the light-switch to electrocute her son, and leaning into his crib to smoother him with a pillow. Louis tells Perez that Natalie pushed his father (Peter) off the cliff during a fight that stemmed from Natalie’s oddly combative reaction toward Peter when he tried to eat one of the candies she had made special for Louis. This made Peter suspicion so he accused her of trying to poison Louis with candy, which we find out is true. Natalie then notices that Louis witnessed her push Peter off the cliff and tries to get him to come to her. At this point Dr. Perez looks fairly disturbed by what he has just learned. He asks Louis what happens next, to which Louis replies “I did what she wanted, like I always do. She didn’t have to help me this time. It was only five steps. It was easy.” This is when it is revealed that Louis purposefully walked backwards off the edge of the cliff. Unwittingly, due to the psychoanalysis brewing above we almost completely overlook the small element of post-humanism presented in the film. The EKG experiment is a great example of post-humanism in view of the fact that a typical machine was capable of connecting the minds of two separate people together in such a way that the mind of one person was able speak through the body of another (Groves, 2012. Page 46). The EKG experiment was an important component to the story line because it introduces an entirely different perception of Natalie and her relationship with Louis (or men in general).

Freud’s theory of sublimation and repression is a concept that can be used to uncover why Natalie was causing her son harm. In what Freud calls the “return of the repressed”, people who harbor repressed desires could convey those desires as abnormal behavior later in life (Groves, 2012. Pg. 87). At the end of the film, Natalie is diagnosed with Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy: a mental health problem in which a caregiver purposefully causes illness or injuries to a person(s) in their care. In Natalie’s case, she would purposely cause injury or illness to her son in exchange for his love and affection. And in turn, Louis did what his mother wanted to make her happy. She would also use Louis’ injuries/illness as a way to receive love and attention from then men in her life, by playing the role of a grieving (or worried) mother. It is likely that Natalie’s disorder manifests from a dark childhood. In one scene, during a walk with Dr. Pascal, Natalie opens up about her life. When Dr. Pascal asks Natalie if she has family or friends that she can talk to, she tells him that her parents have passed away and does not talk to her sister. She also tells him that Peter is the only man that she was ever been with and that he was abusive toward both her and Louis. However, when the detective comes to speak with Dr. Pascal, she informs him that Peter is not Louis’ biological father and that when Louis was a baby, Natalie put him up for adoption. Later, Pascal comforts Natalie and she confesses that Louis was actually conceived with a man that raped her. After the confrontation, they have sex, despite Dr. Pascal being married. When Peter’s (Louis Father) mother speaks with Dr. Pascal regarding Natalie, she tells Pascal that Peter was happily married before he met Natalie and that Natalie has been lying about everything, including being raped. Natalie’s behavior suggests that she might have had an a fixation during the Phallic stage of her development. Children who experience an a fixation during the Phallic stage could have issues expressing or accepting love as adults (Groves, 2012. Page 11).

Returning to the film’s theory of Louis’ nine lives, the fall from the cliff would have been Louis’ ninth life. Louis describes his coma experience as being like a dream; A dream that he can control. Using Freud’s Dream Analysis, one could interpret Louis’ mysterious, seaweed covered creature, that is later revealed to be Louis’ manifestation of his father, Peter, as Louis’ way of coming to terms with the death of his father (Groves, 2012. Pg 11-12). Louis’ battle with the decision to stay or leave in his new reality, where his father is still alive, can be interpreted using the Freudian psychoanalysis; the Phallic stage. Freud’s Oedipus Complex concept claims that during the Phallic stage the child (Louis) experiences problems with the relationship he shares with his mother (Natalie) after his father (Peter/ creature) is introduced (Groves, 2012. Page 16). Since Peter has been a part of Louis’ unconscious state of mind since the moment he hit the freezing water, it is likely that Peters presence is pushing Louis through the final phase of the Phallic Stage. If Louis decides to return to reality (awake from his coma), he would have to face his mother and her role in his father’s death. He would need to come to terms with the possibility that his mother is actually the “bad guy.” Using Lacan’s psychology, Louis’ struggle with making that decision (fort-da game) is a developmental process in which the child exerts control over losing and bringing back his mother (Groves, 2012. Pg 16). Louis’ pleas for his father to remain with him is Louis’ way of identifying with his father, while coming to terms with the notion that he will never have the relationship with his mother that he once did. Some psychologists believe that communicating with a dead relative, especially a parent, is the dreamer’s way of finding inner peace and confidence or it could be the dreamer’s way of dealing with his or her feelings of guilt and depression (LeMind).

Ultimately Louis does decide to awaken from his coma. However, before his eyes open and the credits roll, Louis has one final conversation with his father. During this conversation his father convinces him to wake up from his coma. At first Louis is unsure if he wants to go back because in his coma he does not have to worry about his mom being “fragile” or never seeing his dad again, but his father tells him that he will always be with him and that it is okay to “go back.” Since Louis received his father’s permission, he has essentially identified with his father and therefore completed the Phallic stage of his development.

Works Cited

Allen, Clark. “{Exclusive} Alexandre Aja Teams with Jason Blum & Ian Bryce for Horror Pic Sleepwalker.” The Tracking-Board, October 2015, www.trackingboard.com/exclusi vealexandre-aja-teams-with-jason-blum-ian-bryce-for-horror-pic-sleepwalker/. Accessed 05 April 2018

“Astral Travel.” Global Healing Exchange. Copyright2018, www.globalhealingexchange.com/ astral-travel/.Accessed 02 April 2018

Groves, J. Randall. Gray, John Scott. Quist, Robert. Introduction to Popular Culture. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2012. Print.

LeMind, Anna. “What Do Dreams about Dead People Mean?” Leaning Mind. 01 November 2013, www.learning-mind.com/what-do-dreams-about-dead-people-mean/. Accessed 05 April 2018