Language : English | French | Latin.
Director : John Erick Dowdle.
Writers : John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle.
Cast : Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge.
Genre : Horror | Mystery | Thriller.
Imdb: As Above So Below (2014).
Streaming on Netflix.
As Above So Below is one of those rare movies that manage to enthral you out of nowhere. One day you are scrolling through Netflix not knowing what to watch, and then by the humbling experience of not finding anything new, you stumble across it.
Sure, As Above So Below starts out like a typical found footage film that a lot of horror movies of late have sheltered. Behold! possibly another concept of documentary styled production “supposedly” employed to create realism in the story! Quite questionable hmm… After you get through the messy albeit a little “exciting” prelude, the judgemental side of you would mostly find itself being shown out of the door.
For a movie predominantly shot in the real catacombs under France, As Above So Below does really well to blend claustrophobia with the found footage structure. At no point do you feel exhausted by the shooting style (as I expected before going into the movie) as opposed to the intended claustrophobia-feels the movie wants to invoke.
Neatly acted and carrying a definitive plot that is new to the genre, As Above So Below is more an Indiana Jones film than a “The Descent” vibe kinda film with the caves, the spooks and chills.
(If you haven’t seen “The Descent” then oh you are in for a gory treat, so please do… Yeah?… Enough digressing!)
As Above So Below is about the quest of a group of people who come together to search for the infamous Flamel’s stone that grants it’s user powers to turn anything into gold and amongst other things, immortality; yes! This is the same one featured in the first Harry Potter film… The Philosopher’s stone. The pursuit sees them literally go to hell and beyond to retrieve the stone in the heart of the enchantingly creepy french catacombs.
It’s not gory worry horror, nor does it have many bloody smacking jump scares. Whether this is your cup of tea or not shouldn’t matter. All that matters is the 200 miles of catacombs that run amok underneath France, the country of smooch smoochies. As Above So Below shows all that and more. Why haven’t you watched it already?
Verdict: 7/7 stars.
Bloody Brilliant.
Trivia:
The words “As above so below” are derived from “On Earth as it is in Heaven” which is a line from the Christian, “Lord’s Prayer,” which begins “Our Father, who art in Heaven…
The movie was actually filmed in the catacombs, not on a set.
This was the first ever production that secured permission from the French government to film in the catacombs. The film utilizes a set of narrow, winding tunnels of the Paris catacombs, complete with real mint skeletons creepily arranged centuries ago.
As part of the promotion for the film, Felix Kjellberg (AKA PewDiePie) traveled through the Paris Catacombs.
