"As Above, So Below"

Every time I'm positive the "Found Footage Film" (FFF) genre has finally died, another one comes out which doesn't completely suck. "As Above, So Below" (2014) was one of those movies. It was a really good movie, but could have been significantly enhanced had it not been FFF. This review I want to do with as few spoilers as possible, since it is a thriller that depends on the unknown to scare you.

The box art is fantastic.

"As Above, So Below" is about our main character Scarlet attempting to discover Nicolas Flamel's workshop and the Philosopher's Stone. Now if none of that sounds familiar, go do a bit of reading, even if it is just the first Harry Potter book. Her research brings her to Paris where she discovers that the workshop was hidden in the catacombs under the city (Seriously, this is a real thing and it is fucking terrifying! Even the parts of Assassin's Creed Unity that utilized the catacombs had me sweating!). As the team ventures deeper within the catacombs, they discover maybe things are not quite as normal as science can explain.

I do love this movie, but there were some weak portions of the movie. The weakest is the format, as I stated previously. Granted the format adds to the sense of terror and intensity - much in the way "Cloverfield" and that one scene from "The Descent" (don't you worry, we'll get to both of those fantastic movies in the future!) are intense - but there are many parts where lighting and movement become a huge issue for your focus.

Another issue is, the writers intentionally did not explain anything that was happening in this movie. Sometime it's fun, because it makes you feel like a genius when you figure some things out on your own. So much of this movie is left unexplained, and many components disappear after they're utilized - the woman during the well scene, for instance. Another nod towards this is Zed - the group's "climber" - is a complete enigma during the movie. You mostly forget he's even there.

The first 70% of this movie is a little dry. There is a lot of sleuthing performed, and many mythological terms and stories referenced. It's pretty character-driven. The catacombs have a few jump scares, but mostly its fairly dead. That does not make it bad, just not what you might expect from this movie going in. That last 30% of the movie is a bit rushed, and full of scares. Many parts (as mentioned previously) are tough to make out because of the shakey camera.

To me its odd that the characters never pick up on the supernatural elements occurring earlier in this movie. La Taupe - who went missing a couple years prior to the movie - keeps disappearing and reappearing throughout the movie. None of the characters ever notice that he isn't with them the whole time. One part that really stood out to me is when they team goes through an underwater passage, La Taupe is standing above the tunnel ominously as the last person comes through, but he isn't wet and was never shown going through.

Not that the acting is bad. The acting is what helps carry you through this movie. I guess it's tough to try and criticize something like that, seeing as these characters are scared and very focused on the task at hand. I think I might miss a few things given the situation, but there was a lot that was missed. I don't think I would have been that oblivious. But I also could never bring myself to step foot in the Catacombs of Paris. I hate haunted houses, and just seeing the Catacombs during this movie was terrifying enough for me (so the Catacombs of Paris are added to the "Things that Terrify Me" list, alongside Thunder/Lightning and cephalopods).

Another weird tid-bit is the cult the team encounters near the beginning of the movie. The section of the tunnels they enter is supposed to be unknown to anyone, and the only entrance is a small crawlspace. A mere few minutes of the movie later (presumably a half hour or so of tunnel exploration) they witness a cult in one of the offshoots of the tunnel they're in. How did the cultists know about the "hidden" tunnel that no one knows about? Now, hidden is in quotations because when we see the tunnel, it's pretty visible in the ditch of major access tunnel (which is off limits), and there is even graffiti directly above it.

We mentioned Hellmouths back when we discussed "28 Days Later". This movie is almost entirely Hellmouths. As they descend deeper in the catacombs, things get worse and worse for the team. Pretty much every time a Hellmouth is shown, you can be sure that something is going to happen.

Check this out if you like intense horror movies. Watch it closely and while you're not doing anything else. You need to be dedicated to this movie to get the full effect.

Interesting fact: the estimated budget for the movie was $5million, and the opening weekend in the US was $10mil. That's a pretty amazing feat to take in double your budget opening weekend. Granted $10mil is a bit low for an opening weekend (slightly below average for the top 100 grossing supernatural horror movies [odd that "As Above, So Below" isn't on this list]).