"Abandon all hope, who enter here" These are the words inscribed above the gates of Hell.
I know I'm a little late with this one so I must apologize. The summer movie season officially ended with the horror film AS ABOVE SO BELOW. My buddies and I saw it opening day, almost a month ago, (sorry for the delay again). I had been looking forward to this one for a while, ever since my buddy Clint and I saw the first trailer. Clint and I along with Ross and Red all went to it together and each of us came out rather quiet with lukewarm feelings.
The idea behind the film is fantastic and the setup is quite good. Our main character is a woman named Scarlet whose profession is that of an archeologist and anthropologist with a special interest in alchemy. Following her father's quest to find the real Philosopher's Stone she finds herself in a cave system in Iran in front of a long forgotten bull Idol. A passage is carved into the surface of the statue, key translations to the location of the stone. From there her quest takes her to Paris to the original resting place of Nicholas Flamel. The story proceeds along a "National Treasure" like story following little clues leading to big discoveries which eventually leads our group of characters to the catacombs beneath Paris.
Deeper and deeper they travel until a subtle tremor causes a cave-in behind them. Cut off, they are now forced to proceed deeper. Each of the characters begins seeing things in the darkness, haunting images from their lives, personal guilt reflected before them. The deeper they go the more volatile they things around them become. Personal Hells manifest, people are swallowed by them. They can only keep going down. The further down they go the further their souls are put to the test.
A literal descent into Hell. If that's not frightening and enthralling to you than nothing will be. Legendary Pictures released the film and given their past contributions to the world of film I had every reason to believe that this movie was going to be the horror epic I'd always hoped for. I imagined horrific fiery images, sharp jagged boiling landscapes, grotesque creatures, and writhing tortured souls. And the scariest of monsters, Lucifer.
I got none of that. Most of the suspense in the film was derived from low lighting, claustrophobic surroundings, and tension between frightened characters. It was a hell of the mind, a hell of our own making. Whatever guilt you carried with you, it became physically deadly. Beyond that there were a few black robed figures and ash ghouls. The movie is another found footage film never venturing into the visually horrifying or fantastique. So much potential wasted. It's a fun film but a small film. Nowhere near as epic as it could have been. The strength of the film and the most surprising aspect was the setup. The payoff lacked immensely.
Overall Ranking: 5 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 3 out of 10
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