Director: John Erick Dowdle
Cast: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, Francois Civil, Marion Lambert, Ali Marhyar.
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 93 minutes
John Erick Dowdle returns with his third found footage feature, AS ABOVE, SO BELOW. A film which seems to have been built around a fantastic location, rather than a story. This time we follow a young professor out to finish her dad’s work by discovering the Philosopher’s Stone. Last I’d heard Dumbledore had had it destroyed. Oh how wrong I was!
Perdita Weeks plays the central character of Scarlett, a feisty and adventurous heroine who gives the perfect mix between Indiana Jones-esque ballsy exploration skills, and obsessive and stubborn horror icon who needs to know when to quit. Notable from the outset is just how exposition heavy the dialogue is, but Weeks manages to make most of it seem organic by channelling her character’s passionate side towards her job. Wanting to give us an engaging mystery based on certain real world mythology means that the exposition is needed, but makes the film feel too scripted.
Elsewhere we have problems in the presentation of the film itself. Being found footage, we have to question how these cameras are so crisp in their clarity and how exactly are conversations captured perfectly in busy nightclubs? The latter would be forgivable were the film a regular piece of narrative filmmaking, but here there’s just too much polish to ever be completely swept away in the realism of it all.
THE DESCENT springs to mind throughout the film, but luckily AS ABOVE, SO BELOW has an ace up its sleeve, for it was filmed in the actual catacombs below Paris. This makes it a terrifying exploration of claustrophobia which passes over flawlessly to the viewers. One scene in which a character hyperventilates is shot close-up and it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that this was a genuine reaction to the surroundings. The twisty cavernous location also allows for anxiety every time a corner is turned.
As the characters descend further into the catacombs it soon becomes apparent that ghostly visions are playing on the genuine fears and past regrets of those trespassing. It’s a familiar technique, but always works to make an emotional bridge between the characters and the paranormal entities they face. Despite this, the film is much more powerful the simpler it is, although it is admirable for Dowdle and his brother Drew Dowdle to attempt something ambitious in terms of story rather than just serving up a ‘lost in caves’ feature.
A fairly decent and uncomfortable experience, but one that creates panic and fear naturally and then stabs it in the back by trying to make the footage too perfect. Found footage needs to be as realistic as possible, and that means using the actual cameras the characters are using, and accepting that some footage and sound is going to be awful. Otherwise, it just seems like a money-saving ploy.
[usr=3] AS ABOVE, SO BELOW is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.
