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Quickie Review - As Above, So Below

Why this movie was done in the found footage genre, I'll never understand. It completely detracts and distracts, in that it is terribly done and adds tons of plot holes that didn't need to exist. That being said, it's shot beautifully at times and had it been done simply as regular movie, would have been much more effective. Think of it as The Descent, but with an actually decent premise. It has a beautiful cast, which definitely helps, but the pretty faces don't always show acting chops and some scenes, which should be powerful, fall flat on their faces. The lead however is solid, if not a little naive to the very mythology she's supposed to be an expert in.

Now here's where the Internet trolls are prowling. It's a basic telling of Dante's inferno and examines Martinism. A form of hermeticism in line with the religion based on alchemy. Now, obviously there aren't many people who are going to pick up on this and I'll admit, I did think it was about free masons, but looked up French angles of hermeticism and found Martinism, so no, watching this, I wasn't completely clear, but without giving away a thing, I knew exactly what had to be done from a certain crucial point. I also know plenty about the Bible, so I understood some of the metaphorical stuff within. 

If you strip away all the educational stuff, the movie is a complete dud. If you watched it without realizing it's about Dante's Inferno, then you were simply along for the bumpy, hand-held ride. That being said, it isn't without it's excitement, especially for those who are claustrophobic. To be honest, the only scary parts happen within the first 45 minutes and being that the entire first 30 are devoted to the set up, that's not a lot of horror. This is a film that could be debated as being very cerebral, but that would just feed the trolls, because at the end of the day, only the premise is clever, the rest is just a low budget telling of a classic tale and if you believe it, possibly our existence.

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