Katakomben (As Above, So Below)
U.S.A. 2014

Opening 11 Sep 2014

Directed by: John Erick Dowdle
Writing credits: Drew Dowdle, John Erick Dowdle
Principal actors: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, François Civil, Ali Marhyar

Whoever has gone on a tour through Paris’ catacombs (only a small portion of its 300 km length is officially accessible) knows how creepy they are. Piles of skulls and bones seaming the dark and narrow paths under the city of love are a perfect setting for a horror shocker...

Scarlet, the beautiful British heroin of this horror tale, is determined to find the long lost tomb of a famous medieval alchemist and its valuable world-shaking treasures, as she believes. Little does she know that she endangers her whole team and friends by unleashing the demons....within.

This found-footage shocker annoyed me throughout the first half of the movie. Seriously, haven’t we all suffered enough with the shaky, Blair Witch Project ego filming and its many successors? After 10 minutes I looked around, to see where the waste bags were. They have them on planes, why not in this theater where I get sick just by trying to follow the movie!?

I would love to tell you what happened then, but just when I got used to the filming technique and I could suppress my urge to throw up on this roller coaster ride, the story just got so unbelievably scary that I had to close my eyes. If there’s a scary pale child sitting in the dark corner coming out of nowhere and creeping the hell out of me, there is no way I will continue to watch the movie. I did, however, peek through my fingers every now and then to be able to follow the main plot somehow.

The DaVinci Code meets Blair Witch Project meets horror and throw in a little romance on the side (for all the lovers out there) was not all that impressive due to its failure to really excite me, apart from the last 30 minutes. The pale scary kid did, however, save the horror for me. Still, not a fully convincing horror story. If you like good horror movies, this is not yours, if you like creepy moments, go for it. (Karen Eve Malinowski O’Shaughnessy)