Welcome to the segment of second chances, where I give you fresh perspectives on critically underappreciated horror flicks and persuade you to see them in a different light. On the docket today is As Above, So Below—the 2014 found-footage mind trip that explores everything Hell and magic have to offer.

Are We Absolutely Sure What Direction We’re Going?

The film centers on its ridiculously impressive protagonist, Scarlett Marlowe. She’s an Indiana Jones-Lara Croft hybrid, an archaeologist with several degrees who’s fluent in heaps of languages.

Using her deceased father’s research, she intends to locate the notorious and ever-elusive Philosopher’s stone. (No, Harry Potter didn’t invent that).

Collecting strays along the way with varying motivations for joining her, Marlowe leads the rag-tag group underground for a much more sinister tour than they expected.

 Unpacking The Lore

The characters’ experience in the catacombs dips its skeletal fingertips into every paranormal puddle, from ghosts to demons to psychological torment and back again. It’s a delightful mixed bag of mythical treasure, science-magic, theistic afterlife, and real-life historical mysteries.

The Philosopher’s Stone: Probably Not Worth all the Terror

According to alchemical lore, the Philosopher’s stone is a substance that turns any metal into gold and brings people back from the dead. Legend says that it was discovered by 17th-century scribe Nicolas Flamel, who used its power to achieve immortality.

The Catacombs: Not Nearly as Wholesome as Brushing a Cat

The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries—dating back to 1774—that hold the remains of over six million people. The tunnel network was created to help with the city's overflowing cemeteries. The depth and magnitude of this “Empire of Death” is staggering, less than two of its 200 miles is open to the public, though some brave souls choose to explore its uncharted territory. Vacation, anyone?

Dante’s Inferno: The Levels of Hell in Their Cinematic Glory

My favourite aspect of As Above, So Below is its connection to Inferno—a section of Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic poem, Divine Comedy. It explores Dante’s journey through the nine concentric circles of Hell. Through foreshadowing and creative parallels, As Above, So Below honours that concept by mirroring some of those levels as the characters descend further into the catacombs.

Massive props to the screenwriters and director for taking “the devil’s in the details” so literally. Easter eggs and nerdly nuggets of this caliber elevate the experience and leave me devouring all the in-depth analyses I can find.

Take These W’s

As Above, So Below lacks the low-quality shakiness of other found footage due to it canonically being a “documentary.” The setting is captured in glorious high-definition, and most impressively—it was filmed in the ACTUAL catacombs. You can almost feel the thickness in the cave’s air and taste the dust that shoots out from the ancient stones.

Moreover, the scenes in tight spaces do a tremendous job of creating a disturbingly claustrophobic viewing experience. DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE BEFORE EXPLORING A CAVE. Seriously, these white-knuckled moments will derail your entire spelunking mission (or rock collecting, I don’t know you).

Finally, the movie’s biggest selling point I can throw at you is its exploration of psychological torment. (Yikes, 1408 and now this? Juice Demon has a thing for brain torture, alert the media). Rather than having throwaway characters only meant to die gruesome deaths, each member of Marlowe’s troupe has a special significance through their backstory.

All the characters have a “sin” they haven’t atoned for that’s paid for through torment or death. Through each horrific encounter with the evils of the catacombs, the characters and the audience are forced to contemplate the concepts of morality, innocence, guilt and grief. As Above, So Below is a beautifully-crafted parallel of internal and external demons that exposes the painful complexities of humanity, and it deserves your unbiased consideration.

Juice Demon

Juice Demon is a harbinger of chaos from a dark dimension. She daylights as a student in the Professional Writing Program at Algonquin College. She is an enthusiast of carefully curated horror movie marathons, bonfire cracklings, and imagining the alternate universe in which Willem Dafoe is cast as The Joker.