Horror found footage films are from my experience not exactly masterpieces of the cinematic universe. They're made for about twenty quid and that cheapness glares out of the screen. Many critics and film fans are sick of them. And I have to agree. I've seen 2 horror found footage films this year, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Devils Due. Both are horrendous. The latest Paranormal Activity did attempt a new twist to refresh the franchise but it was so random and ridiculous. At times it looked like a rip off Chronicle and it followed the same formula as every other found footage horror. Boring. Devils Due was a dump fest of cliches, dumb characters and a terrible storyline. I remember going to see this film with a mate who loves horrors. He turned to me and started laughing when the main female character started to eat a deer. Bet she smelt nice next to her husband in the morning. Would As Above So Below fair any better and finally bring something new to the table to this tired overplayed gimmick?
As Above So Below is directed and written by John Erick Dowdle and stars Perdita Weeks as a young, intelligent and adventurous archaeologist who has spent her career searching for the Philosophers Stone after her father's suicide. She leads a team down into the Paris catacombs to find this artifact which consequently leads them into the bowels of hell and they have to try and escape. The plot does sound like a Harry Potter and Indiana Jones crazy cocktail and it does pay homage to them films. Thankfully the found footage element does pay off due to the location of where the majority of the film takes place, inside the narrow claustrophobic catacombs. If you do have that phobia, this film will definitely make you feel very uncomfortable. I'd never heard of any the cast, which for a horror rings alarm bells but they did a solid job with the material they had. I loved how the film used sound effects especially towards the end of the film. They do creep you out and it creates plenty of tension which many found footage films fail at miserably. There was some scary imagery and it did make me jump a few times. The last 20 minutes had me on edge and it reminded me of a theme park scare maze. A big surprise which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Set ups for horrors are never their strongest features. Plenty of them do take a third of the film to get going. But the set up for As Above So Below was absolutely shocking, and not in a good way. It was completely pointless and an utter snoozefest. I think the director didn't bother and couldn't care less about introducing any of the characters, apart for the lead female. It's just a load of random peeps that were thrown together and as per usual with horror films used only as cannon fodder for Satan, so the audience can see them get annihilated. It was pretty pathetic. The story is very generic and doesn't have an ounce of creativity which is a shame because I reckon this film had the potential to be a breath of fresh air for the found footage genre. Laziness however sinks the film into mediocrity.
As Above So Below is a decent horror film which utilises the found footage gimmick to good effect. The scares are satisfying but a boring story and cringe-worthy set up makes the film pretty average and forgetful. It's frustrating because the potential was there to be seen. Grrrrrrrr!!
6/10
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