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.
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.