As Above, So Below
by John Erick Dowdle
I have been waiting very patiently for the release of As Above So Below ever since I saw the trailer several months ago. Being an extremely claustrophobic person, movies in caves and catacombs or other small spaces always freak me the hell out. When it finally hit theaters, I patiently waited a few more days for the "teen crowd" to get it out of their system and saw it on Monday.
The movie begins as a "mockumentary" with Scarlett, our leading lady, talking to the cameraman, Benji, about her deceased father's quest for the Philosopher's Stone. Scarlett has found proof of the stone's existence in Iran and has traveled to Paris with the high hopes of finding the artifact, and proving the myth to be a fact. Her father had gone mad in his quest for the stone and committed suicide, so Scarlett takes this very seriously.
She sets out to find her ex, George, and he reluctantly agrees to help her crack the "secret code" that will tell them exactly where the stone is located. Once they pinpoint the location, they seek the help of a local explorer named Papillon (just call him Pap) and his team to take them down into the catacombs beneath the city of Paris. They convince him to take them on this illegal journey by promising him half of the "treasures" that lie beneath the city's surface.
Once our rag-tag group descends, all hell breaks loose. Literally.
As Above So Below is rich with a mythological storyline coupled with cramped, dark spaces and loads of scares. There were several times while watching that I was legitimately creeped out, but honestly it was because of the catacombs. They could have filled the catacombs with puppies and kittens and I'd have still been squirming.
The acting wasn't wonderful. It's wasn't bad, it just wasn't very believable. But that's not what ruined the movie for me. Just as with this year's Oculus, I was truly disappointed that this film boasted itself as a horror film. Just because scary things happen does not make a film a horror movie. When all was said and done, As Above So Below was simply an R-Rated, scary version of National Treasure.
Our group of explorers actually descend into the gates of hell, and yeah, while they're scared shitless, they seem to have no problem venturing further and further into madness in order to find this friggin' stone. While they're searching for this stone, their inner demons manifest in the catacombs and begin haunting them. The moral of the story ends up being "come to terms with that which haunts you or be forced to suffer it for all of eternity." Or at least that's what I got out of it.
Somehow Scarlett comes to this conclusion, with a little help from George, and despite all the terror they've just endured, the movie ends on a somewhat happy note. Now, I understand that the typical "horrific ending" has been overdone, but I feel like this was really what killed this movie for me. I would have been okay with all the underlying morality of the film trying so desperately to be smart if the ending had been more jarring. But it was as if the entire movie was a short fuse on a piece of dynamite that never gets to explode.
If I were you, I'd wait for the VOD release for this one.
Stevie Kopas, HMS