Review of As Above, So Below (2014) by Travis R — 02 Sep 2014

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. I'm not talking about hell; I'm talking about this movie.

Look, I get it. Claustrophobia is scary. As Above, So Below banks on this by having its group of intrepid explorers venture through the catacombs of Paris in search of the philosopher's stone and continually find that their escape routes have been closed off, forcing them to keep going, eventually leading them straight into hell. I think the idea here was to derive suspense from this sense of claustrophobia, but the tight spaces of the catacombs don't translate to the screen because of the film's insistence on the worn novelty of the found footage device.

Ever since Paranormal Activity, this has been the big thing in horror movies. The practice predates 2007, sure, but Paranormal Activity was the one that popularized the trend in contemporary horror. The thing that most filmmakers seem to miss is that Paranormal Activity didn't generate suspense from the "found footage" device but from the use of cinematography that device enabled. The stationary cameras of that film created so much suspense because it made you sit there and wait for something to happen. You knew something was coming, but you didn't know what or when. That's what made it work.

As Above, So Below trades in stationary cameras for a handheld adventure through the catacombs, resulting in some of the worst "shakycam" effect I've ever seen in a film. Not only is it nauseating, but it removes any inkling of suspense the movie could've hoped to generate, because the shakycam disorients the viewer to the point of being unsure where the camera is or what the audience is looking at. Disorientation can be an effective device for horror, but it simply doesn't work here, because instead of using that sense of disorientation to any sort of effect, the movie relies on cheap and utterly predictable jump-scares to shock the viewer.

The plot itself could have been interesting in a different movie. What starts out as dry and boring take on National Treasure eventually turns into a story that revolves around the characters' past guilt manifesting in the catacombs. That story has potential, but the movie squanders it. The acting isn't bad and the sound design is actually very well done (due to the nature of the found footage format, background music is absent and there are a few other tricks with the sound the movie plays with that are genuinely distressing), but the movie is so intent on making the audience jump instead of actually scaring them that it makes the movie nearly unwatchable and incomprehensible.

But, seriously, the sound is pretty freaky.