As Above, So Below Director: John Erick Dowdle Starring: Ben Feldman, Perdita Weeks, Edwin Hodge Two stars
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” is the inscription uncovered by a gang of 20-something treasure hunters in the catacomb-hopping horror flick, As Above, So Below. But the warning could easily apply to viewers checking out this rather hopeless mash-up of The Descent and [Rec], not to mention a dozen other found-footage movies that have clogged the screens over the past five years.
Hardly credible, even for a film claiming that the gates of hell lie a few hundred feet below Paris, this low-budget effort from the director John Erick Dowdle provides a few late scares after plenty of eye-rolling set-up, with the scares attributed to the heavy sound design than the action itself.
First seen wearing a headscarf as she explores an off-limits cavern in Iran, the tomb raider Scarlett (Perdita Weeks) claims to be a black belt in capoeira, while holding a doctorate from University College London. She never uses her fighting skills and fails to cite Dante when coming across the above-mentioned quote, yet she’s brazen enough to continue her dead father’s quest to discover the legendary, eternal life-giving philosopher’s stone.
Teaming up with an expat clockmaker (Mad Men’s Ben Feldman) and Benji (Edwin Hodge, The Purge), a stereotypical cameraman-who-keeps-shooting-at-all-costs, Scarlett finds the Paris catacombs, which famously house the bones of six million dead, and the three Americans head underground with three spelunking French folk.
Cue lots of stinging sound effects, eerie chanting, rats, a freaky guy named “the Mole” (Cosme Castro) and a slew of lame paranormal gags whereby each character is forced to face his or her own inner demons. But the characters are all so brazenly one-dimensional and Scarlett so ridiculous (she dresses for the expedition like she’s headed to the mall), that the film fails the credibility test from the get-go. It’s only partially salvaged by a few chilling moments in the final reel.
The filmmakers capitalise on their Paris locations and there are one or two genuine scares, but that’s about the best this excursion has to offer.