As Above, So Below
As Above, So Belowmilks a surprising amount of richness from its premise and found-footage format, but is hampered by its inability to fully develop both.
As Above , So Belowfollows fearless scholar / explorer Scarlett ( Perdita Weeks ) , who is judge to complete the missionary work of her stagnant explorer founding father by locating the mythic Philosophers Stone . Thanks to a parlous stopover in Iran , Scarlett determines that the stone is actually hidden somewhere in the catacombs under Paris , and set out to retrieve it with help from her former flame / fellow scholar , George ( Ben Feldman ) .
After glom up with a squad of untested amateur explorers , Scarlett lead herself , George , documentary filmmaker Benjy ( Edwin Hodge ) and the explorer team down into the depths of the catacomb in hunting of a longsighted obscure passage . However , when they arrive , the radical finds themselves caught up in saturnine , surreal upshot that flex the law of reality and force them ever deeper underground - to a destination that none of them may ever return from .
As yet another entry in the feel - footage horror sub - genre , As Above , So Belowmay clearly be met with skepticism ; however , while it abide from a few of the sub - genre ’s inherent drawbacks , As Above , So Belowis broadly speaking a tense revulsion thriller that uses some refreshing ideas to create a playfulness and horrifying experience .
It ’s no surprisal that the motion picture impresses above ( low ) expectation ; it was directed by John Erick Dowdle , who managed to make solid ( if underappreciated ) material out of a single - setting horror picture ( Devil ) , and an American horror remake ( Quarantine ) , severally . Here again , Dowdle takes something that could go so wrong ( found - footage ) and infuses it with some cunning ideas and filmmaking techniques that heighten the overall experience .
He certainly take up a few lessons from Niel Marshall’sThe Descent- and then , takes those ideas a step further - using the background of subterranean exploration as THE principal panic source and menace throughout the moving-picture show . Phantom phantom and freakish figures in the dark make their show to give us gooseflesh , butAs Above , So Below ’s most heart - stopping , helping hand - clenching , sequences have to do with take in lineament squeeze through dark scissure , outrun collapsing caverns , or dive into dark pits or murky pools as they examine to make it under the world .
The find - footage logic and structure ( a individual docudrama cam and multiple head cam - all used for sparkle ) helps to produce an eery effect of nigh - dark threat , with sufficient lighting to follow what ’s going on , and enough variance in point - of - horizon that the eye does not get bored . Due to the nature of the story ( more on that later ) , the scares come in squeamish diversity ranging from naturalistic and practical ( falling , being demolish , etc . ) to risk more supernatural and psychological in nature . With so many threats at turn both internally and externally , it ’s soft for Dowdle to enforce a pulsate soundtrack and a few optic effects that wrick amateurish footage into a playground of dread for the imaging .
Dowdle write the script with his crony / collaborator Drew , and while it ’s in force in area like characterization and premise , it suffers a lot in the areas of character / thematic development and narration bow - despite attempting to seed some much deep emotional / thematic seeds into the narration early on . There is also a lot of mythos thrown around ( a combination of history , mythology and religious theory ) , but very fiddling of it is amply explained or answer - ditto mark for a lot of character background , which happens to play a immense part in the finale of the film .
… Speaking of the finale , As Above , So Belowcommits the key sin of so many found - footage movies , and depart us high and dry with a grossly underwhelming and abrupt close . Not only does it end awkwardly , it leave behind much confusion and half - explanations on the table , release what had been a enthralling and tense journey into a final , persistent , taste of disappointment . Narratively , the plastic film build on practiced ideas , but does n’t in the end hump that to do with them .
The cast is solid for their part . UK telly actress Perdita Weeks sell the character of Scarlett well . powerful from the outset , Scarlett ’s headstrong ( near obsessive ) mindstate is establish and grounded around a substantial emotional core that helps to produce a nice three - dimensional female protagonist . Mad Menactor Ben Feldman put his twitchy energy to good use as George , also structure his performance around a solid excited core that help to maintain the logic of the type . Rounding out the primary three is Gallic actor François Civil , whose upstart adventurer character Papilon is a fun magnetic foil for the likes of Scarlett or George .
Ben Feldman and Perdita Weeks in ‘As Above, So Below’
Purgestar Edwin Hodge has less of a character reference in Benji , the obligatory nonage / camera operator ; ditto mark for Ali Marhyar and Marion Lambert , who play Papilon ’s supporter Zed and Souxie . Like Benji , Zed and Souxie serve more as tools to keep the see - footage POV focused on the primary actor , as oppose to being musician themselves . In true statement , the trio are unnecessary players throw into the intermixture for the simple sake of sustaining found - footage logic while the tv camera focuses on the chief three characters . With so many characters , it becomes hard to keep track of whom to give care about , how much , and ( without spoilers ) the film ultimately must put the demands of rule - footage over the logic of the story at hand , which only further deflate the conclusion .
As Above , So Belowmilks a surprising amount of profuseness from its premise and found - footage formatting , but is hampered by its inability to fully develop both . A inviolable premise fizzles out into a weak conclusion , while a ingenious find - footage setup ultimately tighten into a noose that strangle the motion picture ’s power to tell its story effectively and fully . While that sounds like a mixed bag on paper , the main thrust of the celluloid is really everything that fans need from a good repugnance movie : It ’s tense , it ’s freaky , and it ’s stress by enough scares and dread to trouble the imagination even after the film ends in terrible manner .
TRAILER
As Above , So Belowis now in theaters . It is 93 minutes long and is Rated R for bloody vehemence / terror , and spoken language throughout .
As Above , So Below is a detect - footage revulsion film set and blast in the real - life Paris catacomb . It follows a team of explorers who venture deep into the undercover tunnels in lookup of the legendary philosopher ’s Harlan Fiske Stone .
Ben Feldman and Perdita Weeks in ‘As Above, So Below’
