As Above So Below | Geekscape

Geekscape Interviews: ‘As Above, So Below’ star Perdita Weeks

by Eric FranciscoAugust 31, 2014

Of all the cinematic genres, it has long fascinated me that horror is among the few to predominately feature women in prominent roles. Whether a screaming, almost-naked teen babysitter is shorthand for sympathy and terror and is thus quietly misogynistic, or because horror filmmakers tend to be more socially progressive and want strong women conquering forces is solidly uncertain. This is for you to decide.

Still, it always brings a smile to my face whenever I see a strong central woman in any movie, and As Above, So Below deserves recognition.

Just before I entered the heavenly gates that were the doors to Power MorphiCon in Pasadena this past weekend, I had the chance to talk about the dungeon to hell with Perdita Weeks, the star of As Above, So Below! How much fun did the smart, talented, and indeed lovely Ms. Weeks have playing a badass? And what was it like down there?

Scarlet is a strong and daring individual. She’s Indiana Jones meets Ellen Ripley to me. So, very plainly, how much fun did you have playing a badass?

Perdita: It was so good. It was so fun. I knew it was going to be fun when I read the script. Yeah, it was like, I’ve kind of always wanted to play Lara Croft, unfortunately Angelina got there first. [laughs] I just thought, [it was] really fun, [she was] really strong, leading a group of individuals down to the catacombs. It was brilliant. Hard, but very, very fun.

Yeah, I picked up on the Lara Croft thing a little bit too. The movie was kind of like a video game to me. But you filmed it in the actual catacombs! With the physical challenges in those tiny, dark hallways, being terrified must not have been farfetched, was it? What was it like shooting down there?

Perdita: The first time we went, the first time we went before shooting was just like a walk around. The Dowdles showed off which spaces we’d be using specifically. And it was a little daunting, more just because I’ve never shot anywhere that was going to be so logistically difficult. It was very tough on the crew, having to get all their cables down there, incredibly heavy equipment, and lighting luckily wasn’t really an issue, because the only lights were from our head helmets and the one from the camera. But because of the style of shooting, the found footage aspect, and the fact that all six of us would essentially be having cameras, it meant the crew had to completely hide away, all the time, because you never knew what would be caught in the frame. But it was more incredibly exciting and novel, to be one of the few people who ever shot down there. There was maybe a good forty to sixty of us. It was quite a bonding, unifying experience actually. I mean, you spend that long, you know, with that many people, it was a tight-knit crew by the end of it. You know, we felt like we had really gone through something.

By the time we got to shoot in the sound studio in the last week we were like, this is heaven! There were toilet facilities, and coffee! [laughs] It was hardening, but it was really good for the film. We all felt quite so proud of ourselves after it. Some people had a couple of … head injuries, minor.

Oh, wow.

Perdita: Yeah, ceiling, the height, it changes all the time so it was incredibly unstable. Lots of times, lots of members of the crew had just gone smack! Into kind of like a sticking out rock. It’s a mad, mad place to be in for the entire film. It was bizarre. Probably more bizarre than it even looks in the film. It was scary in the film, in reality it was kind of hysterical. Like, what are we even doing here? Is it even going to work? But, it was great. It adds to the kind of excitement.

Your terror came out genuine, it was amazing to watch. You put on an excellent performance down there.

Perdita: Thank you!

In addition to the actual setting and challenges that came with it, you’re also filming a found footage movie. Very verite-like. Was there any learning curves in acting in those spaces with that kind of genre? As opposed to, for example, shooting The Tudors?

Perdita: Oh, yes! But it was great! You have a lot more energy, because you’re never off. You never know when the camera is gonna capture you. It brings you that much more closer. For each sort of scene, if you can call it that, because in the film the action is so continuous, and lots of time we’d have ten or fifteen minutes of continuous action. I mean, it was incredibly, absolutely exhausting, but brilliant. We would get to do one scene, all day. And at the end of it we’d change, every single take it would be different. But you know, they were using continuous takes, and every time the DOP would do something different. So you never knew really what was going to happen. It was kind of just about reacting to all that.

There was six of us there, all of our performances are changing all the time, so it was a great acting experience, actually. Especially when you’re doing, you know, people give horror a bad rep, but my God, it’s hard work. For any actor. It’s very testing. I’d recommend it to any actor. It’s very hard work but very, very satisfying.

Scarlet is burdened by family guilt and seeks redemption. She’s rebellious and she never hesitates. She immediately dives into a situation. Do you think she’s trying to prove something to the world, or do you think she’s trying to prove something to herself?

Perdita: I think the thing with her is that the thing she really isn’t interested in is fame, or money, or even success to some degree. My whole idea for her was that, she works as a professor in order to just make enough money, and she’ll stop the very second she’s got just the right amount to go and complete this mission. And the thing with her, the reason she is so, as you say, has no hesitation to do anything … is she’s got nothing to lose. That’s what I love about her. Characters like this just don’t come out often. Characters with absolutely nothing to lose as the one complete driving force.

It was a complete dream to play because it makes every decision that you have to make incredibly easier. You know exactly what their purpose is. And what their motivation is. You know, with her, I honestly didn’t think she’d mind if she died doing this. Because, there is no one around. She’s cast off maybe the one person who maybe did care about her, and she doesn’t have any family left. It was the only thing that mattered to her, until the point where she realizes she’s put other people in danger. And that’s her saving grace. You know, she really doesn’t want to endanger anyone else. You see it in the beginning of the movie when she goes to Iran. It’s the only thing that matters. If she dies, she dies. There’s no one who would miss her.

She was fearless and absolutely one of my favorite characters in recent history. You played her well.

Perdita: Oh, great! [laughs]

One last question. Because this is Geekscape, we are nerds here. This is a bit of a fun question. The catacombs are of course terrifying and ancient. If you could be any superhero and go back to the catacombs, and face off all the demons, what superhero would you be?

Perdita: Ooh! Golly, I’m not very up on my superheroes! Who would I be? Well I don’t know if she’s really a superhero, but what was the name that Alan Cumming played like in X-Men, he was a little black sort of–oh, no! I’m gonna be, oh, what’s the name of that… Rebecca Romijn-Stamos played in X-Men and Jennifer Lawrence played now?

Mystique!

Perdita: Mystique! Yeah! That would be cool. It’d be handy! You know, to just blend in and whatever. And also, she’s a good ninja.

As Above, So Below is in theaters now. Head here for our review, and here for our interview with director and writers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle!

Geekscape Interviews: ‘As Above, So Below’ Writers/Director Drew & John Erick Dowdle

by Eric FranciscoAugust 29, 2014

Whether you know much about filmmaking or not, you have to agree that it’s difficult work. There is so much that goes into just one shot, it can be daunting and intimidating to even think about.

Now imagine you’re in dark tunnels with real skeletons at your feet.

During Power MorphiCon weekend I interviewed As Above, So Below writer/director John Erick Dowdle and writer Drew Dowdle, the brothers behind the newest horror movie from Legendary and Universal Pictures. Filmed inside the actual catacombs beneath Paris, the Dowdles chatted with me about shooting a satanic horror movie while almost losing their sanity in the dark, macabre tunnels full of human remains.

It was extremely difficult to imagine as I sat inside the well-lit lobby of the Westin in sunny, 80-degree Pasadena, on my way to a Power Rangers convention.

So I was impressed that you shot it in the actual catacombs. Why was it important for you guys to remain so authentic?

John Erick: When you build something, you just feel, like, it never feels as real as the real thing. Anytime you give someone the real thing, it just adds such depth to the texture of the movie. And you feel the performances. The performances, you can tell seeing this movie, you can tell the actors aren’t stepping off set between takes, sipping a latte and texting their friends. They’re in it, you know, spending ten hours six stories under the ground every day. You can see it in their faces. Like, all of us [became] half-crazy as a result of being down there so much. And it shows! You feel the presence of that space. On our first location scout, we went underground and we all felt, “Oh my god, this is terrifying down here.” And to try to build that and recreate that on set, and be all like, “Okay, everyone, act scared!” It wouldn’t have worked the same way. When you go down there, you feel your chest get tight, your breathing gets shallow, the air is still, and the sound is really weird and tweaky. You just couldn’t fake that.

Drew: When we were talking about doing the movie initially too, it was one of those [conversations]. It was like, if we’re not shooting in the real location, then we almost didn’t think it was worth making the movie! [laughs] It is such a specific place in the world. And if you’re not shooting the real thing, we knew that would be obviously the number one question coming home to. “Is this in the real place?” It has to be. [Questions like] “Do you build some of it? Go somewhere that’s maybe easier to shoot in Paris that might look like this?” To us, none of those were options that were interesting alternative.

Well, you guys succeeded because it came out wonderful.

John Erick: Thanks so much! I really appreciate that.

There is a bit of a video game aesthetic in the movie. I don’t know if that was intentional or not. Like, I was watching the film and it kind of came off like a dungeon crawler in a very literal sense. Were video games at all a point of reference in the making of the film?

John Erick: You know, we didn’t shy away from that, but we didn’t consider that like a reference. And yet we knew that early on in that first sequence when she’s going in that cave, we saw that were like, “Okay, it sorta feels like a first-person shooter,” we thought that was pretty cool. We really wanted to have a camera on Scarlet that was just sort of attached to her clothing, but we realized we wanted to see her a little bit too. Even if it’s just the side of her face, even just a little something so [she’s] not totally disembodied. So we sorta went with that aesthetic early on and it really felt effective. So it was pretty cool. It was fun to play with.

Found footage is a difficult genre. For this film it felt necessary, but it is a hard genre. Did you have any hesitations about doing it in this style?

John: We talked about it for like two minutes, and were like, “You know what, this fits this movie.” There’s something to it, about shooting in the catacombs. If you tried to shoot traditional, you know, light and everything in one direction of the room, and then shoot that out, and then switch out all the lights [for the other side], like that would be a nightmare down there. We were like, let’s go really guerilla. Let’s shoot it like you were if you were doing this real. Let’s light the whole thing with the actor’s headlamps. There’s a scene near the end of the movie where they’re standing around the hole, that whole scene was lit literally from Scarlet, the camera from Scarlet’s hand.

Oh, wow.

John Erick: There’s no other light. We had the actors lighting, I’d say 90% of the movie. And probably 30% of the movie was shot by the actors! [laughs] We really went for like, “Let’s see what kind of happy accidents happen. Let’s try not to over-produce it.” And it really ended up, I think, adding to the realness of the movie. And frankly, it was a lot of fun to shoot that way.

Drew: I’d say too, the origin of this particular character was always kind of in a found footage world. We always had an idea that, you know, doing a female archaeologist, kind of one-part Indiana Jones character in a found footage world would be a really interesting movie. So when we conceptualized this initially, it was always kind of in a found footage set. So it never really occurred to us, frankly, to not do it that way in this setting.

I picked up on the Indiana Jones similarities, to me she was kind of like Ellen Ripley and Indiana Jones, I thought it was fantastic. But you guys enjoy doing terror in small spaces. You did Devil and Quarantine, and now As Above, So Below. So, are you guys claustrophobic like Benji? (Note: Benji is a character in As Above, So Below and he suffers from claustrophobia.)

[both laugh]

John Erick: It’s actually funny, a little bit. I gotta say, the first time we did a location scout of the real catacombs, we crawled through a hole about the size of like a medicine ball, we crawled through that, and we’re like in a tunnel we had to crawl through on all fours and then there was water and I never really considered [it]. I’m finding all sorts of new fears as a result of this job. [laughs]

But like, I never considered myself claustrophobic, but there was a point at which, literally I was having a hard time breathing, like I’m freaking out! Like I’m genuinely terrified! And I had this moment, that if I can’t hack this, they’re gonna have to replace me. And that first location scout they were like, okay, let’s keep going until it feels normal and natural. So we did that first location scout for five hours underground, going deeper and deeper, and one of the people on our team totally lost their mind. They had a total breakdown. So, it was something! It was something down there.

Drew: Yeah, our first scout was actually through that hole on the train tracks that they go through in the movie, was where we entered. On the other side of the hole in reality was about fifty yards of tunnel that’s like, elbows and knees, army style crawling before you can get into a space where you can actually stand up. So for me I’m not very claustrophobic, what I found terrifying personally was the idea that, I’m more of a map person, like I really need to know where I am on the grid, and once you make about three turns in there your sense of direction is gone. And you have no idea which way is out. So not knowing where the exit is and if our guide dropped dead of a heart attack or something, you know, that fear was much more palpable for me than the claustrophobia.

Well, I’m very happy you guys survived.

[both laugh]

The title, “As Above, So Below“, it refers to confronting your inner demons. As storytellers, why is that attractive?

John Erick: Well, you know, I think going back a little bit to the confined spaces, we always find something terrible happens, it triggers that flight or fight response. If you take flight out of it, the confined spaces take flight out of the equation. It forces characters to face something that terrifies them. You know, frankly, I feel personally in my twenties, like there were so many things that scared me I backed away from, there were plenty of them, and in my late twenties, I’m like, I gotta start hitting these things more head-on. And in doing so, literally every aspect of my life changed.

For me that’s been something personally that’s really, I don’t know, made a big difference. I remember a friend of mine, had a kind of metaphor: gotta face life like a boxer, apparently a boxer, like if you lean away, that’s when you get clobbered as a boxer. But if you lean in to the fear, put your face like right into the fear, that is how you box. That’s how you have to fight. In our movies, going through that journey with our characters seeing, you know, if you can’t run away from your fears, you have to face it, and you do, are you better with yourself? How did that change you?

One last thing. Scarlet was a fascinating character. Do you think we’ve seen the last of her?

John Erick: We hope not! We’ll tell you August 31st!

[everyone, including me, laughs]

Drew: Yeah, we’d love to continue these stories. She’s not only a fun character, but such a terrific actress and really fun to work with. Get the band back together, if the audiences want it.

From Legendary and Universal Pictures, As Above, So Below is in theaters now. Be sure to head here for our review.

Geekscape Movie Reviews: ‘As Above, So Below’

by Eric FranciscoAugust 29, 2014

I grew up in New Jersey. Being one of the first colonies of the United States, the simple passage of time over generations has given life to urban legends and myths that knowledge of it become as normal as a day in the park. There’s Clinton Road, the Devil’s Tower, the Gates of Hell, the abandoned Lambertville High, Midgetville, and a slew of others I grew up hearing about. In middle school my friends and I debated what superheroes we would want to be if we fought the Jersey Devil as if he were an anime villain. In high school I went with my buddies on a day trip a few weeks before graduation to the fabled Devil’s Tree, where the Ku Klux Klan used to lynch people. I didn’t see it, but a few years later my best friend told me we were followed by a pick-up truck on our way out.

It was these stories and places that fueled my fascination for As Above, So Below, the new found-footage horror film from John Erick Dowdle. Set in beautiful Paris and not grungy New Jersey, the film follows a small team of urban explorers as they traverse the catacombs of Paris — you know, the tunnels with REAL SKELETONS everywhere — in search of the fabled Philosopher’s Stone. Leading the group is the brave, smart, but haunted Scarlet Marlowe (The Tudors‘ Perdita Weeks), who is determined to redeem her father’s disgraced legacy and prove the existence of the renamed thing from Harry Potter. With her, an amateur documentary filmmaker Benji (Edwin Hodge) — hence the presence of cameras — and an expert explorer who shares a past with Scarlet, George (Ben Feldman, Mad Men‘s Michael Ginsberg). Coupled with some lively locals, they make up the people we’ll be stuck with miles below Paris.

EDWIN HODGE AS BENJI. HIS PRESENCE GIVES NARRATIVE PURPOSE TO THE CAMERAS.

It’s a found footage film. You kind of know what you’re getting into with this journey. There will be scares around the corner, weird shit chasing after the camera, and a buffet of other horror movie cliches like rocking chairs and singing children. Only now we’re in a tunnel that could have been creepy enough on its own, which I think is the biggest problem with the film: It resorts to tried and true devices when something new really could have been explored.

It is in the characters we must rely on for investment, which makes the film’s journey easy. The central characters range from compelling… to horror movie basic. I’m a big fan of Scarlet Marlowe (but I hate freaking hate her name. She has red hair!). She’s supremely intelligent, brave, but dangerously impulsive. She’s like Indiana Jones and Ellen Ripley, but with a millennial “screw you all, I’m going in” attitude. Her father was disgraced for basically believing in magic, and Scarlet seeks to redeem his name and she does so to the danger of the rest of her peers. She’ll jump right into a tunnel or something at the cost of a co-explorer’s sanity or safety. You have to reason her with yourself: Either she’s horrible for putting lives in danger for the greater good, or everyone knew what they were getting involved in. Because, this is a horror movie of course, and people need to die. There is a moment when I thought everyone would be fine — how weird and kind of cool would it be to see a horror movie where everyone survives? — and then immediately it’s like Game of Thrones. But there is less investment to be had in the secondary and tertiary characters, so you won’t have any Red Wedding moments, unless for some reason you really love them. It’s a bit of a let down too, because there was potential in them. They’re colorful and fun. Sitting in the van just before they explore darkness, they are freestyle rapping and doing De Niro impersonations. But there’s no time for them, only for Scarlett and George, but that’s okay, because Scarlet is a powerful presence on her own.

SCARLETT IS A POWERFUL CENTRAL CHARACTER MORE FILMS NEED. SHE'S LIKE LARA CROFT WITH LIKE THREE PH.D'S. — SCARLETT IS A POWERFUL CENTRAL CHARACTER MORE FILMS NEED. SHE’S LIKE LARA CROFT WITH LIKE THREE PH.D’S.

The environment and location is the film’s true co-star. Ever since I read about the catacombs in a Cracked article, I thought how cool it would be to film a movie down there. But I imagined a fantasy film, the catacombs as the lair of a dark villain. I should have expected the first film to get down there to be a horror movie. But the filmmakers filmed in the actual, prohibited areas of the catacombs, and it’s pretty damn terrifying (A horror movie setting an eerie mood, who could have guessed?). Tight spaces and dark tunnels, make up the film’s physical location for its scares and it fucking WORKS. Echoes! Satanic chants! Screams! It chills to the bone. Dowdles’ previous work include Quarantine and Devil, so I shouldn’t be surprised that terror in tight spaces be his kung-fu style. But major props to the sound engineers, because crumbling rocks have never sounded more terrifying. It is truly the film’s achievement: Something mundane as dust can be used for thrills.

The tunnels being the gates of hell is something out of a fantasy film, but in a found footage flick it becomes something way more personal. Almost all the characters (the important ones, anyway) have some kind of baggage. Scarlet has her father, while the others have their own demons. From families they couldn’t save after accidents to claustrophobia (admittedly too easy of a character trait given the premise), they’re haunted by their own demons and the devil is laughing in their face. It makes for a nice metaphor for confronting fears and overcoming guilt. But it’s also kind of cheap, and although fascinating during the film’s running time, it doesn’t leave much when the credits roll. “Cheap” isn’t what I’d describe the film in the literal sense — for a found footage film it has remarkable production value, which is an achievement given the skeleton crew (I’m so, so sorry) — but cheap is what I’d have to describe its storytelling. Cliches galore in the film, but it didn’t have to. These people are surrounded by dead people. I don’t get the value of empty chairs.

There is something of a video game structure to the film as well, which is novel given the genre. In the film’s surprisingly gripping climax, the film turns into something like a mix of Mirror’s Edge, Tomb Raider, and Resident Evil. One would think found footage would take far more advantage of its video game-ness, but rarely do films actually do. Doom did it, and it was the only fun scene in that whole movie. It’s one more cool thing As Above, So Below does pretty well, even if it probably doesn’t do it with much substance or style.

As Above, So Below is easily dismissible as another found footage film, but you shouldn’t! Found footage is an extremely difficult genre that has the potential for true, expert cinematic storytelling but has been plagued by amateurs and cheap filmmaking. As Above, So Below rises above (again, I’m so sorry) basic genre rules but is hindered by its own hesitation to venture into truly new territory. It does so many things right — its compelling central character, probably the coolest location to ever film a movie, expert sound design, an interesting take on Christian mythology, remarkable production value, and appropriate horror movie thrills — but it does several big things wrong that might leave the film as just a footnote. The ending doesn’t quite stick or make much sense, and it is unclear what exactly the Philosopher’s Stone purpose or fate was (It can heal people! And then it doesn’t). The film is plagued by horror movie cliches and is wasted in the novel setting. The rest of the characters show flashes of potential that never meet up to what is promised.

As Above, So Below almost takes the troubled genre to a new level, but its scared to do so and is bogged down by its own reservations. The film is kind of like its own characters: Haunted by the genre’s past, it fails to fight back and truly do something daring. What that could have been, I can’t tell you. But the film has enough terror to keep you for ninety minutes, and if you truly let it, the film can be as terrifying as confronting your own personal demons.

As Above, So Below scores a devilish 3/5.

The Red-Band Trailer For ‘As Above, So Below’ Is Freaky As Hell!

by Derek KraneveldtAugust 25, 2014

Briefly: A new (and very red band) trailer for Legendary/Universal’s As Above, So Below just hit the web, and it is damn freaky.

Seriously, as tired as the found footage genre is these days, I was a huge fan of the Dowdle’s The Poughkeepsie Tapes, and I cannot wait to see what they do with the Paris catacombs.

In the horror, miles of twisting catacombs lie beneath the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls. When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead. A journey into madness and terror, “As Above, So Below” reaches deep into the human psyche to reveal the personal demons that come back to haunt us all.

Eric had the awesome opportunity to interview the Dowdles and star Perdita Weeks, so be on the lookout for those later this week, and check out the new trailer below! The film hits theatres on August 29th!

First Trailer For ‘As Above, So Below’ Shows Off Creepy Catacombs, Found Footage

by Derek KraneveldtApril 24, 2014

Briefly: It may look like an homage to The Descent / Catacombs, but Legendary’s As Above, So Below trailer is also pretty creepy.

In the found-footage horror, miles of twisting catacombs lie beneath the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls. When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead. A journey into madness and terror, “As Above, So Below” reaches deep into the human psyche to reveal the personal demons that come back to haunt us all.

Take a look at the trailer below, and let us know what you think. As Above, So Below hits theatres on August 15th.