100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # As Above/ So Below

Director: John Erick Dowdle

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Runtime: 93 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, François Civil, Marion Lambert, Ali Marhyar, Cosme Castro, Hamid Djavadan, Théo Cholbi, Emy Lévy, Roger van Hool, Olivia Csiky Trnka, Hellyette Bess, Aryan Rahimian, Samuel Aouizerate, Kaya Blocksage

Description: When a team of explorers ventures into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.

Review: It’s not one of the main attractions op Paris, but some tourists probably have done it: a tour through the catacombs of Paris. Millions of skulls and bones. It’s a pretty creepy setting, perfect for a movie.

“As Above/ So Below” is about the young Scarlett Marlowe, an ambitious and brilliant archeologist who is following in her father’s footsteps. He dedicated his life to finding the Philosopher’s Stone and she is continuing that journey.

Scarlett is on the right track and this leads her to Paris. With her cameraman Benji, fellow archeologist George and a group of catacomb experts, Scarlett is exploring the catacombs of Paris. Strange and supernatural things happen down there.

The creators understand that a horror movie doesn’t always need gore. The sound of a ringing phone and the sight of a piano is enough to give you the chills. The movie is a strange mix of “The Descent” and “The Da Vinci Code”. “As Above/ So Below” takes its time. Its introduction could have been shorter, especially because the movie isn’t that long. As viewers we get the time to get used to the characters. As lots of horror movies, the characters die one by one. All of them carry a trauma with them, which haunts them in the catacombs. The traumas the characters have aren’t all explained well. This means you hardly care for most of them. The movie has some clichés and the mythical and historical theories aren’t developed that well either. This works against them.

“As Above/ So Below” is fresh and original, but doesn’t manage to perfect it all.

Rating: 2,5/ 5