Watched As Above, So Below last night (spoiler and non-spoiler review)

I know it was pretty hated reviews-wise, but I liked it a lot and actually thought it was really well done. It's a different movie than what I was expecting.

Non-spoiler review:

It's about a girl in search of the Philosopher's Stone (which turns metals into gold and gives everlasting life and whatnot), and the search takes her deep into the Paris catacombs. There is some jump scares here and there, but most of the tension and creepiness comes from the catacombs themselves. If you're claustrophobic at all, this movie will make you squirm...I'm not, and there were still several times where I was sort of on the edge of my seat with uncomfortableness.

I will say that the first 3/4 of the movie is a good bit better than the last 1/4 or so, and things sort of get wrapped up in a nice little bow, but all in all it's a very solid movie. I'd definitely recommend seeing it if you dig horror films.











Spoilers/questions.



There were a few things that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Like for one, they never showed her actually finding/with the stone even though she says she found it. Reading up about it a little, I found this in Wiki's plot synopsis:

quote:

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She races back to the crypt, returns the stone and looks into a polished mirror on the wall where the stone was hidden, realizing that her quest for the stone and belief in the philosophy "As above, so below," (explained as simply willing acts of magic to happen makes it so) has granted her the magical abilities of the stone.

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...so is that saying there wasn't really a physical stone and that it was more her beliefs that allowed her to brandish the power of the "stone"? That's what it seems like. If so, that is a little bit stupid, but it didn't take away a lot from the film for me though.

I thought it was stupid of them to blindly trust that mole dude. I know he was their friend, but clearly something fricked was going on, and they just blindly followed him deeper and deeper into the earth, and then Suxie getting all close to him was also stupid, though I thought her death scene was pretty cool.

I didn't understand why some people were picked to die (like Papillion) and others weren't...especially since they hadn't "atoned" for their shite yet. Didn't seem fair to Pap.

I thought the movie was legit creepy throughout, like the Satanists (?) singing in the catacombs, the apparitions, etc...and just the general setting of being underground like that and being trapped with nowhere to go but deeper into your own tomb, basically.

I liked the flipped version of everything, just to show how fricked they were for a while.

I thought the "entrance to Hell" angle was pretty cool, but the physical sort of "manifestation of Death" Grim Reaper thing walking around was sort of lame to me. And things sort of got wrapped up fairly quickly in the last 10/15 minutes or so, with her racing back to the stone's room, "finding" the real one, and then racing back and healing George and then them peacing the frick out. I mean, she climbed up that 100-foot well/tunnel fast as shite.

The scene early on with Benji getting stuck was really well done...you could see the terror on that dude's face and I felt like I was right there with him. And I thought his death scene was both really creepy and awesome.

There were a few times when I wondered why they'd still use the camera, but I just chalked it up to them needing the light more than anything else, so it didn't bother me. Plus, with found footage films like these, some of that is to be expected anyway.

I wondered if they were gonna make it out, and I thought the way they did was pretty cool (with the manhole cover).

I felt like the "supernatural" aspects of it were believable enough (within the frame of the movie) to make sense. So I wasn't too mad about anything (like her healing powers at the end, their jump into the hole to get out, etc.).

All in all, really solid movie with some legitimate creepiness to it. I think it sort of comes down to whether or not you buy into the supernatural thing or not. I don't really believe in that IRL, but in movies it's fine as long as it's well-done...and I thought this one was pretty well done in that regard. Like I said, it made enough sense to me to be able to stay engaged and be interested.

Sorry if this review is too long. Thoughts on the movie if you've seen it?