Ah 2014, the year of It Follows, The Taking of Deborah Logan, The Purge: Anarchy, and VHS: Viral. And then there’s the subject of this article: As Above, So Below. Stemming from the spiritual/religious thought that planes of existence (heavens and Earth, microcosm an macrocosm, life and death, etc.) reflect one another and are essentially the same, As Above, So Below follows a group of urban explorers on a search for knowledge and riches in the restricted parts of the Paris Catacombs. What they find there takes them through the literal Nine Circles of Hell, a trip that forces them to repent for their sins in order to escape alive. Spoilers ahead!
As Above, So Below came out around the same time as many other found footage movies, like The Pyramid and The Taking of Deborah Logan. AASB was lucky enough not to be drowned out by the masses and rise above other similar plots. With likeable characters, a cool setting, and National Treasure-style historical puzzles, AASB was sure to gain some traction in both the horror community and regular audiences. Add in a claustrophobic element and genuine fear-inducing scares, it’s one of my favorite films to go back and rewatch.
It feels similar to watching a group of friends do an escape room, only with way more chances of death! There are definitely things about AASB that would otherwise make me skip a watch, like its religious premise and knowledge-base. Those factors didn’t matter here though; the religion aspect is mixed in with other supernatural and worldly elements and the historical knowledge wasn’t a requirement on my part — it was enough to have the characters talk about it without it feeling like they were dumbing it down or going too over my head.
There’s never a dull moment in AASB. As we follow our protagonist, Scarlett, from ruin to ruin, we are drawn in more and more by the thirst for what’s to come. I wanted to know more about her exploits. I wanted to know more about the places she was going to, the things she was reading and seeing. I needed to know. And it was the same for every character that we see. Everyone is so exciting, and having them all in one group in the most famous graveyard in the world, the Catacombs of Paris, there was sure to be a crazy story to come from it.
And that’s exactly what we get from it: a crazy story with scares galore. Most of the movie takes place inside the catacombs, so it’s easy to get a bunch of frightening sequences there with it’s dark, dingy setting. But instead of only shadowed corners and bones, we get open caverns with impossible objects (like a car or piano), or bottomless pits of water (and sometimes blood) and groups of cult members chanting away into the darkness. And they keep venturing further and further down until we think we’re at the center of the Earth. That is, until…
We’ve gone so far down that we’re right side up again, back on the streets of Paris. The twists and turns the group takes never leave us hanging, and there continues to be a surprise around every corner.
I could go on and on about how much I love this movie. It is non-stop entertainment that keeps your blood pumping in more ways than one. AASB is filmed beautifully, and the storyline matches perfectly, surrounding the viewer in majesty fitting of the ancient relics Scarlett and the group uncover. As Above, So Below will never fail to impress me, and it’s a movie that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a high energy, fast-paced scare fest.
