As Above, So Below is the pompous title for a fairly generic found footage horror flick about a bunch of personality-free stupid people who get lost in the Paris catacombs and get haunted by whatever the screenwriter wants to put on screen.
The characters, when not generic Redshirts, are urban archaeologists and the movie has a touch, a tinge of Indiana Jones, Goonies, or DaVinci Code in it which is, at the very least, original as far as horror movies go. The movie takes forever to get going because it thinks its archaeology and symbology story is interesting… and it should be, but it isn’t. They are hunting for the Philosopher’s Stone which they think is hidden in the Paris catacombs and the movie pretends its almost totally filmed in the real catacombs… but I don’t buy it. Some scenes are but I doubt as much as they are claiming.
But, anyway, the horror is generic and full of whatever the film makers decide to use to scare us and since it’s all mostly hallucinations, it is hard to be afraid of it because it may or may not be real and there are no rules.It can’t build real suspense, in my humble opinion. I suppose the very end of the movie notches the movie up a couple of points for being a bit of an amusing head trip. But not enough to recommend this to anyone…. not horror fans, not found footage fans, pretty much no one.
The movie also really really wants to trade on darkness/shadows and claustrophobia. A movie that nailed that SO much better than this one was The Descent. It’s a hardcore horror flick and genuinely freaky.