As Above, So Below

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The catacombs of Paris are the setting for this claustrophobic exercise in "found footage" terror about an archaeology student and her team whose search for the legendary Philosopher's Stone takes them deep within the landmark tunnels. What they discover is not the substance of legend, but rather a terrifying portal into hell (Home Box Office)

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Trailer 1

Reviews (7)

kaylin 

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English I really enjoyed that story at the beginning because I simply love mysteries, references to history, and alchemy. However, this film has a clear genre framework, and even though there are interesting moments in other parts, I was quite irritated by the fact that it's mostly just shouting and heavy breathing, and it's essentially a classic found footage variation, only this time with the philosopher's stone, which is indeed a novelty. And that's it. ()

novoten 

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English After a long time, a horror movie that captures our attention with its subject, grabs us by the throat with its trailer, and confirms with the film that good ideas (even if subtly collected and rewritten from elsewhere) still work in this underestimated genre. It would be very easy to criticize a few overly easy riddles that Scarlett effortlessly solves or even the premise itself, but that would take away from the fun of the whole concept. The found footage format finally makes sense again, and those few damn well-crafted moments (most of which are stolen by the black-haired girl) were so intense that I found myself cheering on the main characters more and more, even if it only meant they would get got around the next corner. ()

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lamps 

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English A piece of crap whose frantic pace would wake up Snow White from her enchanted sleep, but in terms of content, it fails miserably to keep up with itself. The basic plot may be trivial and the premise of an adventurous quest for a historical artefact suits it quite well, but all the horror elements are either completely unoriginal and underdeveloped (who was the mysterious woman outside the bar?) or try so hard to be cool that they become ridiculous (the feet sticking out of the ground was the funniest moment). And as usual, I was not at all satisfied with the ending, which compared to the previous 80 minutes or so, which worked hard to maintain a decent psycho-terror atmosphere and the curiosity about what will happen next, seems terribly sloppy and bland. The overall feel in the cinema wasn't bad at all, but I wouldn't have missed anything if I had passed this film. 50% ()

J*A*S*M 

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English Robert Langdon in a skirt runs through the Parisian catacombs Indiana Jones-style in search of a secret chamber with the philosopher’s stone. To be honest, even though As Above, So Below blends motifs that I like (underground, ancient secrets, demons, mysticism, and history), the result is not very convincing and John Erick Dowdle is yet to reach the levels of The Poughkeepsie Tapes. That’s due mainly to the script, which is very weak, really. The characters are apathetic, they don’t react properly to all the shit going on around them. Something happens: “we have to keep on going”; something even worse happens: “we have to keep on going”; something happens: “oh! Our friend is dead. boo-hoo, whatever, we have to move on”. And that’s how it goes almost the whole time. Plus a bunch of never again mentioned, pointless and mysterious arbitrary nonsense (who was that mysteriously vanished guy that mentioned Papillon during the tour? And that mysterious girl leaving the club, did she have any purpose other than singing weirdly with other people later in the catacombs?) Sometimes it’s actually hard to watch, for instance, why did the fake magic stone worked the fist time, when they healed the injuries on that girl? Maybe some alchemist in the past had this train of thought: “I will make a beta version of the philosopher’s stone, single use, just in case someone who finds it wanted to see if it works. And then they will take it and, when they get back to the surface, they will realise that they have nothing but a worthless dud, ha, ha, ha!”. Some of the scary scenes are pretty effective, the tempo is high, so there’s no risk of getting bored, those 90 minutes are quite fun (on the other hand, the way the puzzles are solved feels almost always too hurried). Overall, the film is nothing but a chain of the worst and the best horror attractions, where the only slightly more ambitious motif of sin atonement is completely lost because there isn’t any bond with the characters. ()

EvilPhoEniX 

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English Considering how much I hate, despise and curse the found footage genre, As Above, So Below deserves nothing but praise and also that only uninteresting shit like Jessabelle and Ouija went to the cinema this year. Fortunately, the film is engaging and draws you in from start to finish, it doesn’t even have the typical 40 minute of uninteresting and epileptic boredom, here it more or less pedals along at full throttle all the time. The film maintains a perfect atmosphere, beautifully mixes mystery, adventure, historical and horror elements, it is shot in a very stylish way, no shaky camera, no grainy image; this is how it should look like! My only regret, however, is the lack of scares, although one of them was very decent. 80% ()

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