This article contains spoilers.

The man-eating alligator movie Crawl isn’t just a thriller, it’s the kind of thriller in which the protagonists are COMPLETELY screwed. Everything that can possibly go wrong does, to the extent that it’s hard to imagine their situation could possibly get any worse.

So it was surprising to discover that, according to director Alexandre Aja, the ending was almost even bleaker.

In a recent interview with Bloody-Disgusting, Aja explained why the film has that desperate tone, and why the heroes can never seem to catch a break.

“When you make an alligator movie you have this reference to a lot of them and a lot of other crocodile [movies], and a lot of other creature movies,” Aja said. “Somehow I liked the idea of taking this story a little bit more seriously, but then create the fun by being an escalation. Everything is going wrong, and all the shit that we can put them through that day.”

And according to Aja if that seems like a bit of commentary, or even a philosophy, that’s part of the point.

“It is kind of close to where we are in our real life, unfortunately. We are trying to fight and survive and whatever, but I’m sure, seen from above, it’s very hopeless,” Aja laughs. “I really wanted to create a situation where everything, every time, [does] not make my life easy as a filmmaker or as a writer. By not choosing the easy way out, but try to really put them into what’s the worst could happen now, and building from there.

“I think that accumulation of tension is creating that laugh, but it’s really similar to when you ride a really fun rollercoaster. You’re having this up and down, and crazy moment where you know it’s coming but you are surprised, but at the end the laughing is making the whole thing intense,” Aja adds.

But there was at least one draft where even Aja thought they got a little too hopeless. It’s the draft where, after our protagonists Haley (Kaya Scodelario), Dave (Barry Pepper) and Sugar (Cso-Cso) get rescued by the helicopter… an alligator jumps up and eats them anyway.

“Yes, we did it!” Aja laughs. “We did! We had a draft. This is pure spoiler but we had a draft with the final alligator grabbing them in the basket, going up.

“We didn’t shoot it but on the script stage, we explored a few different directions. It was a challenge, besides water and the obvious technical challenge of making such a movie. The challenge was to find the right balance between the character’s story and the survival/disaster thrills,” Aja says.

“In fact, we were pretty early on in the process […] I had a lot of time to figure out what was the movie, exactly? And then it came to me it was a home invasion movie,” Aja adds. “And then that’s why, also, it was very close to High Tension as well. But instead of having a killer coming in and killing everyone in your home it’s the water, it’s the elements, it’s the storm. The breaking through the wall and floating to a new place.

“With the water comes the 16 million-year-old neighbors who are just here to get back and make a meal of you. It has that kind of home invasion with the elements. There are two layers, a creature but also a disaster,” Aja concludes.

Ending Crawl with a mean-spirited punchline might have been in keeping with the film’s vicious sense of humor, but would it have been satisfying? Probably not. It seems likely that Aja made the right choice in the end.

Crawl is playing in theaters now.