As Above, So Below (2014)

I watch a new movie every night most of them being horror and no matter how much i have liked or disliked them i have never written a review, Until now. I came into this movie thinking it would be your average found footage. Group goes into cave, spends the whole time running from ghosts or cave people, yadayada. I was wrong. This is definitely a movie to watch out for, very original, creepy, and a whole lot claustrophobic. It's found footage with a good story line, characters, and Ginsberg! best to watch in the dark with the volume up, wrapped in a fuzzy blanket. Sit back and enjoy, because you cant find many horror movies like this.

Fmovies: Precocious young female British archaeologist equipped with martial arts skills & mandatory posh voice (but this time without dual firing pistols) is off following her father's footsteps on an adventure to find an ancient mysterious artifact with fabled mystical powers.

It leads her into raiding a tomb (the French catacombs in this case, hmm why is this starting to remind me of something?) where mysterious things start happening involving angels & darkness. Along the way we are shown evidence as to how brilliant she is, for example she is an expert in languages (can string together a couple of basic words in French) & has a Masters in Chemistry, somehow allowing her to clean stone relics & perform basic First Aid. She is joined by her equally nonsensical potential love interest who fixes ancient clock towers using watchmaker glasses as a hobby & naturally translates Aramaic into modern English poetry.

So a little ridiculous then & not exactly original, but in this case that is part of it's charm. The movie continually sets up little sub plots that it is blatantly not going to do anything with, randomly introduces things that make no sense in order to lead to the next set piece & everything is done with such gleeful arbitrariness that I couldn't help but be charmed & highly amused by it.

Ultimately if you're looking for a dark unsettling movie about the nature of death, regret & evil or a psychological shaky cam movie with monsters you won't find either here (I'd recommend revisiting The Others or Rec instead). On the other hand if you fancy some faintly ridiculous, fun, funny adventure with good old fashioned scary set pieces give it a try.

As I'm currently living in Paris and actually visited the Catacombes a few days earlier, I had high hopes for this film. The setup of the movie is promising as well, because the Catacombes can be quite scary. Therefore, a lot of ingredients for a good scary movie.

Alas, it turned out to be nothing of the sort. A very far-fetched plot, predictable scares, and the overly shaky hand-cam which is past its prime were the culprits of my disappointment. Add to that some flimsy romantic love story, and you got a mediocre film at best.

However, I do not want to give the impression that this movie was all bad. There were some pretty decent scares despite their lack of originality. I'm sure that if this movie would have come out ten years ago, it could have been a major hit. But after Blair Witch Project, Rec, and Paranormal Activity, it is difficult to insert a new angle into the whole hand-cam-genre.

So if you just want a decent scary movie for 90 minutes while keeping your expectations limited, Catacombes would be a decent choice.

As Above, So Below fmovies. I think people are hating on this movie way more than they should. Yes it is a horror film and no i was not terrified crying in the corner of the theater, but to say this movie didn't scare you it just seems like you think you're this super macho man who isn't scared of anything because you beat slender-man at 2 am in your parents basement. The hand-held camera work is still a very cool concept in my opinion and the filmmakers did an amazing job with this, primarily because they're actually in the catacombs of Paris! Let alone i thought the actors did a great job, and it was very believable and it the hand-held camera work made you feel like one of the characters experiencing the whole thing. No it was not the scariest movie of all time, no it doesn't have some deep meaning, but for the 9$ i spent to go see it, i absolutely loved it. Very cool movie in concept and it was done very well. People who hate on this movie really just don't appreciate it

"As Above, So Below"

I pondered this film for some time now. I've been trying to understand why it's done so poorly for the critics (not that that affects my opinion about a film). But I just didn't understand how we could have such stark differences in opinions about this film. I've heard it called, chiched, forced, just like all the other found footage films in this "saturated genre". And I thought none of those were true about this film. Save maybe "forced" in some moments.

Where to begin with this convoluted breakdown. The film clearly had some absurd qualities. First and foremost is the painfully contrived female protagonist. A mid-twenties girl who is fluent in 4 languages and 2 dead languages and 2 PhD's. Oh and a black belt in Krav Maga. She was beautiful, adventurous, intelligent, brave. Really? Too much. Waaay too much. HOWEVER. I know why they did it. For the sake of the story they needed a character who could do all of those things. The solution to this would've been simply to cast an older person. But that wouldn't cater to the targeted audience. They needed a full cast of young 20 somethings. There were other small things that were a little far fetched. Like "oh they conveniently had enough cameras for everyone and they never broke or got water damage." Of course. For the sake of a film in this type of genre to continue that had to be the case.

First I would like to debunk the myth that the "found footage" genre is saturated and overdone. Let me think of a couple memorable found footage films: "The Blair Witch Project".... "Paranormal Activities".... ummmm..... "Cloverfield"? I mean that's really all that stands out to me, but I'm not an avid horror fan. Maybe "Quarantine". The point is if you wanna complain about over done genres maybe you should look more in the direction of "If I stay", or "The Maze Runner" and movies alike. Or Exorcism movies. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about overdone.

No other movie has beautifully meshed these two genres together. Historical-Mystery- Adventure and Horror. Maybe "The Mummy" but even that wasn't really going for HORROR. And maybe that's why I particularly enjoyed this film so much. I love the Historical adventures such as "Indiana Jones", "Laura Croft", "National Treasure". And they painted an idea that I don't think has been done a lot or very well. I've never seen a film that has painted Hell like they did. And I'm gonna be real, I was very creeped/stressed/scared. I think it's strongest point was it's middle act. It's build up to the finale was very well done. I continually had a sharp pain in my chest until the end. Also "George" was a pretty good actor. And the french people. Change the main girl and you've got a great movie.

In the end my reasons for why I liked it so much was that it was a fresh horror, unlike.. oh... I dunno... the thousands of possession and exorcism movies that come out every freaking year. And the concept was really intriguing.

As far as horror movies go? 9/10

Horror movies are rarely called 'great.'

When was the last critically acclaimed horror movie released? You'd be hard-pressed to find anything since The Ring in 2002.

I haven't seen The Conjuring, Mama or Oculus but people say they've got potential. I thought Drag Me to Hell was pretty good from 2009.

But the last great one I caught in theaters was Devil from 2010.

Which is also directed by John Dowdle. He wrote Quarantine (2008), as well – another solid semi- recent horror.

As Above/So Below is the best horror movie I've seen in a long time.

First of all, it's shot on-location in Paris, which is a delight for any fan of that city. Favorite sights like Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur are featured throughout.

The filmmakers use almost every shooting style. AA/SB is a mockumentary about Scarlett (played by Perdita Weeks) a young archaeologist searching for the philosopher's stone. Therefore much of the footage is first-person, shot via headlamp GoPro cams.

Although I'm sick of 'found footage' it works better here. For obvious reasons, the budget can't be massive, so this filmmaking style is particularly suited to horror.

The story is also good, co-written by the director and his brother, Drew.

There's more nuance than usual. The main characters use deductive reasoning and historical analysis in order to solve riddles and navigate the labyrinthine catacombs.

There's a lot of rebirth imagery, but I wonder just how far the metaphor goes. Are the ribbed tunnels supposed to be reminiscent of a vaginal lining?

Dichotomies drawn between light and dark, and up and down, are intriguing and thought provoking.

The cast of unknowns delivers strong performances. It's tough to get through a whole scary movie without poor acting or cheesy moments.

Apparently I'm in the minority because AA/SB is getting 13% amongst top critics and 57% amongst the users on Rotten Tomatoes.

But I would encourage an open mind, because it's a cut above the rest.

If you're looking for a decent flick this weekend, especially if you dig horror, you can do a lot worse than As Above/So Below.