Review of As Above, So Below (2014) by Filipeneto — 11 Jun 2018

This low-budget film starts from a promising premise: the legendary quest for the Philosopher's Stone, allegedly discovered by a medieval alchemist, Nicholas Flamel. However, the whole story is based on a script so ambitious that it ends up being its own enemy.

One of it most obvious mistakes is to arbitrarily mix historical elements, such as the unlikely link between a medieval pseudo-scientist (who, at most, would know some Latin) and a Persian stone tablet in Aramaic, an absolutely unknown language in medieval Europe.

The use of Paris catacombs as a movie location was an excellent move, adding value and interest to the film but, despite the gloomy atmosphere, it failed to create tension. The scares repeat themselves, successfully, but nothing more.

There is no real fear or suspense. The use of an old kabbalistic axiom (as above so below) is determinant for the plot and the end of the film, always having in mind the words and their meaning (difficult to understand for those who are not fans of the occult).

Perdita Weeks is the lead actress and does a fairly reasonable job, but the rest of the cast does not help. Cinematography is bad, but I think it was purposeful because it's supposed to be a found-footage or something based on unedited recordings.