Can teacher's get Autumn off instead?
My first real love in the world of fiction was horror. In an age where my friends had just wrapped their hands about first edition prints of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I was reading H. P. Lovecraft. Specifically, I had a collection called Waking Up Screaming, that I absolutely adored. I can still remember the cover; black, as you might expect, with an eerie green skull staring out at you. The story that really got me hooked on Lovecraft wasn't Call of Cthulhu or At the Mountains of Madness, but one that seems less highly regarded and has no mythos connection. The story I love the most was titled The Lurking Fear, and dealt with an abandoned house and the inbred family of mole people that lived beneath it. The ending still sticks with me despite not having read it in years, and I am sure I was drawn to it because the setting. That dilapidated manor was something familiar to me as houses very similar loomed in the corner of nearly every Nebraska cornfield.
Now, here I am, firmly an Adventure/Thriller author that hasn't written true horror in over a decade, but my love of that genre has never really gone away. In fact, I do my best to add elements of horror throughout my own adventure tales. Not just because I love horror, but because it fits into the Adventure genre so well. There is the seed of an article there, but I am venturing off the beaten path, so to speak. What does all this have to do with a Shaky-Cam horror movie with a pretty rotten Tomato Meter?
Follow me down the rabbit hole, and I'll show you.
My entire premise here is that the eponymous title, As Above, So Below, is not just a mediocre horror film, but a unique entry into adventure film, albeit steeped in horror. When looking at it from that perspective, you will find a much more interesting film, at least in my opinion. This is an older film from the Golden Age of 2014, so I'm not going to avoid spoilers. This will probably have a ton of them. You have been warned, there are SPOILERS from here on out.
The movie opens up with the main character, Scarlett Marlow, illegally entering a cave system in Iran, seeking a historical artifact known as the "Rose Key". You see, Scarlett is an accomplished young professor of archeology, polyglot, and researcher in the field of Philosophy. She is following in the footsteps of her dead father, picking up his search for the fabled Philosopher's Stone.
And there it is folks.
The plot of an Adventure.
Archeologist: Check.
Ancient Artifact: Check
Historical Mystery: Check
Then BOOM! Some terrorists blow the crap out of the cave. Scarlett narrowly escapes with the "key", but not before she sees a mysterious man calling out to her from within.
Was that her father??
Seriously, if you aren't getting Lara Croft vibes, you should be.
For anyone who isn't familiar with the artifact in question, the Philosopher's stone was supposedly an alchemical substance that could change metals into silver and gold, and also bring eternal life. The exact formula was supposedly discovered by French monk, Nicholas Flamel in the 17th Century.
So far, what we have here, is the set up to a classic adventure where the protagonist travels to exotic, mysterious locales, solving riddles and following in the footsteps of history. I would not be surprised if this movie contained gun-fights with terrorists and rival treasure hunters, but this is not that kind of Adventure.
We pick up a year or so later, and Scarlett has sought out her ex-boyfriend, a church historian and expert in Aramaic. With his help, they are able to decipher the text found on the Rose Key, discovering a cryptic message that indicates their holy grail lies 370 meters below the streets of Paris, France, hidden within the famous catacomb system. Together, they recruit a team of "Urban Explorers" that will aid them in their trespassing into the forgotten tunnels far beyond the eyes of tourists.
We have a couple other aspects of Adventure Fiction here: exploration and wilderness. Exploration is a simple concept to understand. We have our team of characters boldly going forth into the unknown. The "wilderness" though, is a more interesting idea here. This film relies a lot on the myth of the "Urban Wilderness", areas of the urban landscape that have been cut off and forgotten by the rest of society. A lot of horror movies and media rely on this idea, of wrapping the unfamiliar and dangerous in a skin of the familiar. And it's not like this myth isn't based in reality. There are numerous places around the world where abandoned industrial areas exist beneath the city streets. Instead of using a desert, mountain crags, or a jungle as the setting, this film opts to place its adventurers into an alien underworld right below our feet.
The cast of characters move through these hazardous tunnels, solving riddles and following clues, until eventually they reach the heart of the catacombs and find a hoard of treasure, alongside the sarcophagus of a Templar Knight. Nearby is a door, emblazoned with the Philosophers Stone, the Gnostic Star of David, as well as the phrase "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here" in Greek. This is a well known as the message that marks the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno. Having been cut off from the tunnel entrance, the explorer's only option is to move deeper into "Hell" and find another way out.
From this point on, the film takes a dive into the supernatural and ramps up its horror aspects as the remaining members of the teams travel through a dark reflection of the catacombs they had originally traveled through. This is where the movie gets it's title. The Star of David on the door was a representation of the Gnostic belief in "As Above, So Below". This is a concept used to different ends in the modern classic Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. The idea is lifted from Hermeticism, Sacred Geometry, alchemical philosophies, and medieval occult practices.
Again, we see a list of tropes not unfamiliar to the Adventure aficionado.
As a horror fan, I love when everybody in the film gets killed off. Normally, horror protagonists are put up against forces they have no chance of overcoming, and when they all end up dead in only re-enforces that horror for me, instilling the idea that we are lost a in a dangerous sea of stars. That being said, Scarlett and her ex don't die here. Because at its heart, this is not a horror film. Does it have scares? Yes. There is even a decent attempt at the feelings of claustrophobia and dread, though not as good as Descent. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, this film is an Adventure movie wrapped in horror dressings. Nothing hammers this home to me more than Scarlett's final line.
After escaping the confines of Hell, they emerge through a hole in the floor that actually ends up leading back to the streets of Paris. Before the credits roll, Scarlett tells us that her "Mission is to find the Truth."
In my post, The Art of Zazz, I mention that the search for "Truth"is something I find key to a good adventure. That is the essence of what drives Indiana Jones, Nathan Drake, and Lara Croft. That undying need for humanity to find some semblance of explanation for humanity's place in a far grander scheme.
So, is this movie any good?
Yeah. I think it's quite enjoyable. Perhaps not as a horror film, but as an adventure film it does have a very intriguing premise. Like all the films in the Found Footage genre, this one suffers from that annoying shaky camera, but surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as other entries. Especially Cloverfield. Loved J. J.'s idea, but that movie literally made me nauseous. I don't think this movie is any worse than any other in this particular catalogue. I do think it shines more brilliantly when you look at it as an Adventure as opposed to a Horror piece.
I hope this piqued your interest some. This will be the first in a handful of Horror themed posts throughout the month of October. Let me know what you think! We'd love to hear from you.
Oh! And Submissions are still open!
L. D. Whitney
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