As Above, So Below

After a long time, a horror movie that captures our attention with its subject, grabs us by the throat with its trailer, and confirms with the film that good ideas (even if subtly collected and rewritten from elsewhere) still work in this underestimated genre. It would be very easy to criticize a few overly easy riddles that Scarlett effortlessly solves or even the premise itself, but that would take away from the fun of the whole concept. The found footage format finally makes sense again, and those few damn well-crafted moments (most of which are stolen by the black-haired girl) were so intense that I found myself cheering on the main characters more and more, even if it only meant they would get got around the next corner. (07/11/2015)

Considering how much I hate, despise and curse the found footage genre, As Above, So Below deserves nothing but praise and also that only uninteresting shit like Jessabelle and Ouija went to the cinema this year. Fortunately, the film is engaging and draws you in from start to finish, it doesn’t even have the typical 40 minute of uninteresting and epileptic boredom, here it more or less pedals along at full throttle all the time. The film maintains a perfect atmosphere, beautifully mixes mystery, adventure, historical and horror elements, it is shot in a very stylish way, no shaky camera, no grainy image; this is how it should look like! My only regret, however, is the lack of scares, although one of them was very decent. 80% (11/19/2014)

I really enjoyed that story at the beginning because I simply love mysteries, references to history, and alchemy. However, this film has a clear genre framework, and even though there are interesting moments in other parts, I was quite irritated by the fact that it's mostly just shouting and heavy breathing, and it's essentially a classic found footage variation, only this time with the philosopher's stone, which is indeed a novelty. And that's it. (01/12/2015)

From John Erick Dowdle, I had previously seen only the film Devil, which within its genre managed to function relatively well, featuring a decent atmosphere and a plot that wasn't offensive. However, his subsequent work As Above, So Below represents a dignified fall in quality in every respect, descending somewhere into the lowest levels. I'm not fond of using strongly emotionally charged outbursts of dissatisfaction, but here, the loss of my time really hurts and leads me to want to curse loudly. The film reminds me of a creation by a group of enthusiasts who, without any experience or support, made a video for their own amusement. On the same day I saw Hereditary by the talented Ari Aster, which surpasses Dowdle's chaotic, poorly edited desperation by several classes. On databases, they have nearly identical ratings... Well, I guess I don't have to understand everything... Overall impression: zero out of zero. (06/21/2024)

To me, it's a shame that the creators of As Above, So Below chose the fake documentary form, which limited them too much. For example, all the characters had to see the hallucinations/delusions/ghosts of others, which were also recorded by their cameras, and that made me more upset than intrigued. The attractive idea of the film gradually sort of drowned in it, and the finale, which was definitely supposed to be bigger, except for the great last “head down" scene, bored me. (02/22/2021)