Having directed the flimsy American remake of Rec and the frankly ridiculous Devil (from the mind of M. Night
Shyamalan), John Erick Dowdle moves back into familiar territory with
found-footage horror movie As Above, So
Below. Following archaeologist Scarlett (Perdita Weeks) and her accomplices
down into the Parisian catacombs in search of the fabled philosopher’s stone,
the film documents the inevitable issues and trauma arising from a descent
deeper and deeper into the bowels of the city.
There are two problems with the film that need to be addressed
before going further: first of all, the plot feels like ‘Harry Potter goes
horror’, because it is really hard to hear the words ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and ‘Nicolas
Flamel’ without just picturing three pre-teenagers wandering around after dark,
but instead we have five post-teenagers wandering around in the dark. The second problem – and this may just be true for me –
is the found-footage camerawork which made me feel quite sick because no-one can hold the camcorders still for five seconds. The characters
apparently couldn’t afford to add a Steadicam to their array of expensive
equipment.
However, unlike the similarly nauseating Devil’s Due, the terrible camerawork is
largely forgivable because the film actually has a lot to offer. For once,
there seems to be a focus not only on the central character but on the
cameraman himself, who falls prey to one of the most uncomfortable but
well-constructed sequences of claustrophobia I’ve seen in some time. While not
helping the Harry Potter analogy, the posh-totty voiced Scarlett is a decent
female lead, whose own ghosts make the descent with her in a predictable but
entertaining manner.
Where the scares are concerned, it does take a long time to
get to them, but they are actually scary and surprisingly refreshing, making a
nice change from the usual found-footage tropes where possessed people spend
the last twenty minutes throwing people about with unexplained telekinesis. Considering
the fact I was in an entirely empty cinema at the time, the claustrophobia
factor was surprisingly effective, plus the growing sense of dread is
competently executed and did result in yours truly coiling up in fear towards
the end.
The plot does keep you guessing throughout, which some could
use an excuse for the story simply wandering aimlessly, but as the ending is
well-handled and fairly different to what you’d expect, and given how badly
the endings of every other found-footage film has panned out is something to
celebrate. A couple of niggles that have been inherited from those other movies
and most recently from Into the Storm
is that every camera retains high-definition quality regardless of whether said
camera is a helmet-cam, a handheld camcorder or a fully-fledged film-quality
camera.
With a frankly ridiculous plot and nauseating camerawork,
there are many things that could pull As
Above, So Below kicking and screaming into the realm of sub-par. But thanks
to a well-developed sense of dread and a focus on more than just jump scares,
it exceeds average expectations and provides an involving and entertaining
horror romp…just take some motion sickness pills first.
3 stars
