As Above, So Below Movie Review

September 05, 2014

As Above, So Below Movie Review

As they said in the movie... “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Ever wonder, what horrors lurk beneath the streets of Paris?

Well, this movie are said to be a combo of "Lara Croft" + "Paranormal Activtity" = Kinda equals to "Paranormal Archaeology" though... a Gallic-accented American thriller horror movie, where most of the action takes place in deep shadows or complete darkness plus booming, howling scary noises.

This movie also serve as a warning to claustrophobes about what seems to be as you watch it the darkest, most suffocatingly closed-in movie ever made.

As Above, So Below is a found-footage chiller about a team of American travelers who experience disturbing memories of their past, most involving death in one way or another, and visions of their subconscious while exploring the catacombs (The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are underground ossuaries) beneath Paris.

The Catacombs; listed as one of the 7 most terrifying haunted attraction around the world. (Click here)

Underneath the brightly lit streets of Paris, millions of human bones act as a type of structural support for parts of the city.

This underground cemetery originally acted as a temporary solution to improper burials and strengthening the structure of the streets.

In the 1860s, city workers dug up many of the surrounding graveyards for bones to be used as building materials. After opening a small portion of the underground catacombs to the public in the late 18th century, there has been no shortage of reported ghost sighting throughout the years...

Way, way..... underground!

Claustrophobes, you are hereby twice forewarned.

About as claustrophobic (low ceilings, narrow passages, and hip-deep water) as Dowdle’s Devil(which took place in an elevator), As Above, So Below conjures a few genuine scares, but for the most part this is a figure-out-what’s-happening adventure that proves too annoying and difficult to see clearly to take the trouble.

Directed by John Erick Dowdle (Devil, Quarantine, The Poughkeepsie Tapes), who co-wrote the script with his producer brother Drew uses cameras like go pro cam, handheld shaky-cam cinematography and lots of jump-cut editing technique. So yeah, warning, this movie can cause you nausea & headache if you're not use to watch shaky videos.

So, surprisingly, I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10. Because As Above, So Below leaves us literally and figuratively in the dark and dizzy so often that I almost, well, almost throw up. Pening okay!

Perdita Weeks stars as Scarlett, a Lara Croft-ish tomb raider and strongly motivated daughter intent on continuing her late father’s lifelong attempt to discover the Philosopher’s Stone, which legendarily heals wounds, turns base metals into gold, and bestows eternal life.

Ben Feldman (familiar from TV’s Mad Men) co-stars as George, an expatriate clock restorer, while Edwin Hodge plays Benji, the obligatory documentary cameraman – the view-finder of all that footage.

[THE END]

Anyways, I visited Paris few years ago and darn it, if only I have enough time to venture, I would surely pay a visit to this Catacombs. I visited Scotland's underground but oh well, you don't get to feel/see/touch/sense anything at all cause it's too dark. Le sigh~ -_-
Well, here are some of the beautiful picture of Paris that I snapped when I visited the place. It's kinda like "Why go The Catacombs/underground when you can enjoy all the beauty of Paris on ground!?" ':p