As Above, So Below

There are six million skeletons resting in a sprawling, 200-mile maze beneath the streets of Paris, and most tourists are perfectly content to see the "safe" five-block radius curated by the city. But 2014 gave us a movie that asked the uncomfortable question: "What if we just kept going until the laws of physics stopped making sense?" As Above, So Below arrived at the tail end of the found-footage explosion, a time when audiences were getting a bit tired of shaky-cam teenagers screaming in the woods. Yet, this film managed to claw its way out of the "genre-trash" pile by leaning into high-concept alchemy, Dante’s Inferno, and a sense of claustrophobia so thick you can almost taste the limestone dust.

I watched this for the first time while wearing a headlamp because the power had gone out in my apartment—I felt like part of the crew until I tripped over my cat, which, honestly, provided a better jump scare than most mid-2000s horror flicks.

The Smartest Person in the Sewer

The film follows Scarlett (Perdita Weeks), an archeology prodigy who is basically Lara Croft if she had a PhD and a total lack of a survival instinct. She’s searching for the Philosopher’s Stone, the legendary artifact her father died obsessed with. Perdita Weeks plays her with such a terrifying, singular drive that you almost forget she’s leading her friends into a literal death trap. She recruits George (Ben Feldman, who most of us recognize from Mad Men or Superstore), a guy who specializes in repairing ancient clocks and speaking dead languages.

Unlike many horror films of this era where characters make bafflingly stupid decisions, Scarlett and George are actually quite capable. They solve riddles, translate Aramaic on the fly, and use logic to navigate the underworld. It makes the eventual descent into madness feel earned. When the environment starts reflecting their personal traumas back at them, it’s not just a ghost story—it’s a psychological reckoning. I’ve always felt that found footage only works when the camera being there is the scariest part of the room, and here, the narrow POV makes every corner feel like a tightening noose.

Real Bones, Real Terror

What sets this apart from its contemporaries—like John Erick Dowdle’s previous work on the Quarantine remake—is the sheer authenticity of the setting. The production actually secured permission to film in the real Paris Catacombs, making it the first film crew ever allowed in the off-limits sections. There’s a grit here that CGI can’t replicate. When you see Edwin Hodge or François Civil (who plays the guide, Papillon) squeezing through a tunnel filled with actual human remains, that look of genuine distress on their faces isn't always acting.

Turns out, the crew had to deal with some pretty wild conditions. They couldn't bring in heavy lighting rigs, so they relied almost entirely on the headlamps worn by the actors. They also had to dismantle an old car and rebuild it piece by piece deep within the tunnels for one of the film's most unsettling visual beats. Apparently, the "La Taupe" character—the creepy friend who went missing years prior—was played by an actor who stayed in character by lurking in the dark corners of the tunnels between takes. If you have a PhD in archeology and see a guy who's been living in a bone-tunnel for two years, maybe don't follow him.

The Redemption of a Genre

When As Above, So Below first hit, critics were largely dismissive. It was easy to write it off as another "shaky-cam" cash-in. But looking back from our current vantage point, it’s clearly a cult classic that was ahead of the curve. It successfully blended the "escape room" logic that became popular years later with a deep, nerdy love for Hermetic philosophy. The title itself is a famous maxim from the Emerald Tablet, suggesting that the microcosm reflects the macrocosm—or, in this case, that the hell you find underground is just a mirror of the hell you carry inside your head.

The film also captures that 2014 transition perfectly. It uses the digital aesthetic of the GoPro era to create a "you are there" sensation that feels more urgent than the polished digital horror of today. It’s a movie that rewards repeat viewings because the background is constantly shifting. Those statues you saw three minutes ago? They’ve moved. That hooded figure? He’s been following them since the second act. It’s a treasure hunt that turns into an exorcism, and it remains one of the few found-footage films that actually sticks the landing with a satisfying, logic-bending finale.

This is a nasty, intelligent little trip that manages to make a five-million-dollar budget feel like a grand descent into the abyss. It’s not a perfect film—some of the jump scares are a bit "standard-issue" for the 2010s—but the atmosphere is top-tier. If you’re a fan of urban exploration or just like seeing smart people get tested by supernatural puzzles, it’s a journey worth taking. Just don’t blame me if you start feeling a bit itchy the next time you’re in a crowded elevator.