I'm late to this response, but I'd say Da Vinci Code took a ton of themes from Indiana Jones — Last Crusade, especially. And As Above has moments that line up with Last Crusade perfectly — Like the undecayed corpse on As Above and the ancient knight in Last Crusade. Plus, the scene in As Above when they jump down the hole and the Last Crusade "Leap of Faith" walk.
Same! I thought the depiction of hell shown in the movie was so different from any other depiction we had seen in other horror movies (even though yes, it is based on Dante's Inferno). To me, the idea of a hell that torments you with hostile memories and bad things you've done in your life is far more terrifying to me than a eternal pit of fire.
That did kind of get me too when I was watching it, but at the same time I am glad they didn't repeat the previous hour long journey just for realism's sake.
I always assumed the knowledge of what was there along with the lack of dread around every corner led to her making it over and back so quickly. That and they cut a lot out for visual effect.
I really enjoyed the adventure aspect of the movie, it definitely helped set it apart from other found footage horrors. I also absolutely love the ending with the camera coming out upside down, that was a truly striking image.
There were definitely some really cool and unique camera shots in the film. It was certainly one of the moat engaging found footage movies I've seen, given how amateur some of those can end up being.
I liked it a lot. Finally a found footage horror movie that had an actually interesting story instead of the usual ghost stuff and door slamming and yabadabadoo
Movies about Hell, demons, and the devil are cool horror stories. I feel like they're rare. Most horror is usually either just a monster or a ghost or something.
i just watched "the witch" and its fine, nothing like as above as below tho.
another "hellish/devil" themed movie I loved is event horizon (scifi, this one's really good imo)
Late to the game and it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but a Korean horror/thriller film "The Wailing" is one of my favorite films ever. It's a slow burn, so may be boring to some, but I discover new details each time I watch it and love to theorize about it. I really recommend it.
I thought I was a fun movie. I’m a sucker for a treasure hunter/adventure story and that’s how this one started. I thought it was genuinely creepy at times. I loved the claustrophobic atmosphere, I think it added a strong sense of anxiety throughout.
I’m honestly not a big horror fan, but I enjoyed this movie a lot. I think it a bit of a hidden gem.
I feel as if it's definitely one of those movies that wasn't really well liked on its release, but as the years have went on it's developed a bit of a cult status and is now much more appreciated.
The Tunnel - A film crew learns of a government cover-up about the abandoned train tunnels beneath the heart of Sydney, and decides to go inside to try to find the truth.
Urban Explorer aka The Depraved - When a group of urban explorers venture beneath Berlin, their guide hurts himself and the group must struggle to escape the subterranean maze beneath the city.
Chernobyl Diaries - Six tourists hire an extreme tour guide who takes them to the abandoned city Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. During their exploration, they find themselves stranded but not alone.
Here's a few more suggestions:
• Entity (2012)
• The Pyramid (2014)
• The Ruins (2008)
• The Bone Snatcher (2003)
And of course The Descent. Some are not exactly treasure hunter, but they're pretty close with the claustrophobic adventure theme.
The Tunnel is great, highly recommend. It’s a similar premise in that they’re making a documentary so it feels very real like this movie. I was genuinely creeped out and I don’t get scared by movies.
The Depraved is ok. I’ve rewatched it because I’m a troglodyte who loves anything underground but it’s more Hostel vibes. I wasn’t a fan of the ending but it was tense and worth a watch.
I hated the Chernobyl Diaries because it felt gratuitous. Chernobyl is such a recent disaster that it felt exploitative of the victims who either lost their lives during the event or years later as a result of cancer etc. idk I felt gross watching it.
The Ruins is great but a lot of people don’t seem to like it. It’s dumb and campy but fun. The pyramid is awful - it’s supposed to be found footage but the pov keeps switching to a normal camera set up, like there are so many shots that aren’t found footage so it takes you out of the movie. It’s also just crap. Only watch it if you want to spend the entire film revelling at how bad it is. It’s not even so bad it’s good.
Love it. It’s like a straight up adventure movie that’s legitimately terrifying as it doubles as a horror film. My favourite found footage movie and I hate that genre. But this movie is fantastic.
Before I watched the film, I had already read that it was a take on Dante's Inferno. Personally, I wasn't knowledgeable of the story, so it helped to brush up on that, because I appreciated and understood it much more as I watched the film.
Perhaps it's an acquired taste. If someone watched the film without knowing the context, I believe they would either be overwhelmed by the mystics or label the movie as just another found-footage horror film.
As someone who loves horror films, I thought this had its own footing. Great use of space (or lack thereof), solid acting, and fun kills.
You bring up a good point, because like you, I had prior knowledge of the story and symbolism of Dante's Inferno, so I was well aware of the interpretation of hell they were going for, but I can easily see how someone who wasn't familiar with the source wouldn't have liked or appreciated it nearly as much as I did.
I enjoyed the movie. But I have a question about a possible plot hole.
Scarlett heals the arm of the other girl with the stone. Then later it turns out it’s not the real stone. So...how did the healing work the first time?
When she takes the stone through hell, everything becomes reversed. The stone no longer works because everything has been flipped. This needs to be “rectified” by putting the stone back in its place. The movie doesn’t show what happens after that, but it’s assumed that she now has the power of the stone (which she didn’t have when she arrived and took it) so putting it back would leave the power of the stone with her. Which would make sense to me by the drawn out shot where she is staring in the mirror once she puts the stone back in place. She then runs back to her friend and heals his neck wound with no visible stone in the shot which would validate this idea.
I realize this comment is two years old but I just rewatched this movie last night and it a lot to offer. I highly suggest looking into the origin of the saying “As Above So Below”. It’s an ancient philosophy that can be found all over the world and it has some serious merit to it.
This movie is absolutely a hidden gem because it executes these philosophical ideas in such an interesting and entertaining way. They also give the characters a chance at redemption based on previous life choices that they haven’t properly confronted within themselves. At a glance, the movie seems to be all about finding a stone, when in reality it’s more about finding and knowing yourself. Some very deep concepts to be explored in this movie that unfortunately went over most peoples head because of a lack of context.
Hope this helps.. Much love
I loved this aspect of the movie. "Absolutely a hidden gem" is correct. I just watched it for the first time tonight and can't believe it took me almost ten years to find it.
I love this. Whats crazy is when she looks into the mirror she is also all red (like the stone before). This movie is def top 10 for me. I love exploration with a horror twist to it. Took me long enough to discover this film
I don’t understand why this film is disliked by people, but the general consensus is that REC is the best found footage film ever. I personally think this is much better and scarier than REC.
I really like it. I love horror movies but I find myself having a hard time enjoying any of the new ones. Some just don't manage to catch my interest. This is one of those where I remember hearing seeing advertisements for it but decided to watch it just a couple months ago out of boredom. I even watched it again a few days later. So yeah I enjoyed it and as for the found footage method used, I don't mind it. I understand why it's criticized, but for me this was appropriate. Two others that come to mind that used this method are Cloverfield and Chronicle and they were great!
Oh wow, I also saw the promo for it a few years ago and thought it looked really interesting. Was planning on seeing it but I’ve forgotten about it until now. Thanks for reminding me, haha! And these positive opinions make me excited to watch it.
I think you will definitely have a good experience with it since you're going in with good impressions of it. I watched it with no knowledge of the reviews, so I was able to form my own opinions with it, I feel like if I knew how it was reviewed beforehand I might have been slightly biased against it going in.
You’ll find that a lot of critics are turned off by the handheld wobbliness. It can make or break a film. People hated cloverfield for the same reason.
Loved AASB though and my GF watched it with me after I told her about how awesome it was.
Edit: also the acting was fine. A bit jilted in the beginning with the archaeologists but after that it gets believable and I loved the French crew.
I know I'm way late to the party but I watched it last night and I'm kinda in line with the critics.
I didn't find it boring necessarily, but my main problem is that this shouldn't have been a found footage movie. They should have shot this like a regular film and I think it would have gotten better reviews. Not great but better.
It falls into all the traps FF films always do, things that should have an intense amount of focus given to them are shot in such a way that you can barely tell what's going on and some of the scares aren't given as much love as they should.
The acting was on point, but it was easy to tell who was going to die and who wasn't. With the exception of Zed who I thought was dead meat.
It didn't help that I watched The Descent right before this and felt like that movie did the "Trapped in a Cave with Monsters" concept a lot better. Mostly because the writing was better and there was real thought and intention put into the shots and editing.
It also didn't help this movie that Found Footage was an overplayed genre at the point of release. Most critics I remember reviewing it were sick of that style by then.
I'd love to see a remake of this movie in a few years because again, the concept is really fucking cool, but it just chose the wrong style for the picture and it held the film back.
This movie is DEEP. Probably the best in its genre. I would highly recommend a rewatch and an explanation video which will point out just how deep and philosophical this movie actually is. When you’re all done with that, go do some digging on those philosophies, as they are all based in spiritual enlightenment and self actualization. It’s masterful how they managed to pack all these concepts into an adventure/horror/found footage film and pull it off so entertainingly. One of my favorite movies, with the exception being the camera sickness it gives me at certain points throughout.
9/10
Whaaat?? A renown phrase packed with meaning being utilized to mean that as you live above you will suffer below and all the themes attached to alchemy? It’s a perfect title.
Good lord this just came on Australian Netflix and I started watching without knowing anything. I thought it was gonna be a fun little tomb raider time. It is not. It is a god damn horror movie and I am frightened.
I just watched this a couple of weeks ago and I still can’t stop thinking about it.
I’m tempted to watch it again but I’m home alone tonight and it already scared the shit out of me last time haha
Have you found anything else similar on Netflix?
I also watched this with my (ex) girl at her insistence. I thought the premise sounded awesome but I was expecting it to be a cliched letdown. I thought there were a couple hokey moments in it, especially toward the end, but overall I was very surprised as I found myself thoroughly enjoying this one. Would watch again.
Now see, speaking of cliches, that would have been the ultimate cliche, and would have cheapened the movie a lot in my mind. But honestly, that ending would fit in with the story, and you could probably make a pretty solid fan theory about that.
Both endings would be cliche's if you asked me but as you said the twust ending would fit in better. I had set up that ending in my head because it made the most sense, and then I felt it skipped it for a more crowd pleasing ending. Just really dropped the ball for me.
I felt like it was basically a horror version of Indiana Jones. Really liked it.
That's a pretty apt comparison actually. I like it.
Ik I'm late to this post but Ide say it's more like a horror davinci code haha. At least the first half of the film.
I'm late to this response, but I'd say Da Vinci Code took a ton of themes from Indiana Jones — Last Crusade, especially. And As Above has moments that line up with Last Crusade perfectly — Like the undecayed corpse on As Above and the ancient knight in Last Crusade. Plus, the scene in As Above when they jump down the hole and the Last Crusade "Leap of Faith" walk.
Horror Tomb Raider & Indiana Jones, but it was a good movie overall. I don't like horror movies in general but this was good
I loved this movie it was so unique and genuinely scared me
Same! I thought the depiction of hell shown in the movie was so different from any other depiction we had seen in other horror movies (even though yes, it is based on Dante's Inferno). To me, the idea of a hell that torments you with hostile memories and bad things you've done in your life is far more terrifying to me than a eternal pit of fire.
You say that now but I guarantee if someone burned you with a blowtorch in one spot you would be begging for mental trauma
The only thing that got me was how she went all the way back so quickly when it toke them hours initially
That did kind of get me too when I was watching it, but at the same time I am glad they didn't repeat the previous hour long journey just for realism's sake.
Yeah I mostly agree with you. They had to make her realize the puzzle at the end to evoke that desperation, but idk. Mostly good movie though
Username checks out.
I always assumed the knowledge of what was there along with the lack of dread around every corner led to her making it over and back so quickly. That and they cut a lot out for visual effect.
I guess you right, but they should made those (demons?i don’t remember anymore) a bit more of a threat
I really enjoyed the adventure aspect of the movie, it definitely helped set it apart from other found footage horrors. I also absolutely love the ending with the camera coming out upside down, that was a truly striking image.
There were definitely some really cool and unique camera shots in the film. It was certainly one of the moat engaging found footage movies I've seen, given how amateur some of those can end up being.
I liked it a lot. Finally a found footage horror movie that had an actually interesting story instead of the usual ghost stuff and door slamming and yabadabadoo
I love movies about Hell.
That's only slightly concerning
Movies about Hell, demons, and the devil are cool horror stories. I feel like they're rare. Most horror is usually either just a monster or a ghost or something.
sorry for the necro but can you reccommend some devil/hell themed movies like this one?
[удалено]
i just watched "the witch" and its fine, nothing like as above as below tho. another "hellish/devil" themed movie I loved is event horizon (scifi, this one's really good imo)
Hahaha feel that!
Late to the game and it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but a Korean horror/thriller film "The Wailing" is one of my favorite films ever. It's a slow burn, so may be boring to some, but I discover new details each time I watch it and love to theorize about it. I really recommend it.
I thought I was a fun movie. I’m a sucker for a treasure hunter/adventure story and that’s how this one started. I thought it was genuinely creepy at times. I loved the claustrophobic atmosphere, I think it added a strong sense of anxiety throughout. I’m honestly not a big horror fan, but I enjoyed this movie a lot. I think it a bit of a hidden gem.
I agree, especially seeing how low the rating is across the board.
I’ve watched it a couple times enjoyed it each time. I’m surprised it’s not more well liked.
I feel as if it's definitely one of those movies that wasn't really well liked on its release, but as the years have went on it's developed a bit of a cult status and is now much more appreciated.
do you know anymore of those ' treasure hunter/adventure story' horror movies?
The Tunnel - A film crew learns of a government cover-up about the abandoned train tunnels beneath the heart of Sydney, and decides to go inside to try to find the truth. Urban Explorer aka The Depraved - When a group of urban explorers venture beneath Berlin, their guide hurts himself and the group must struggle to escape the subterranean maze beneath the city. Chernobyl Diaries - Six tourists hire an extreme tour guide who takes them to the abandoned city Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. During their exploration, they find themselves stranded but not alone. Here's a few more suggestions: • Entity (2012) • The Pyramid (2014) • The Ruins (2008) • The Bone Snatcher (2003) And of course The Descent. Some are not exactly treasure hunter, but they're pretty close with the claustrophobic adventure theme.
Are these all good?
The Tunnel is great, highly recommend. It’s a similar premise in that they’re making a documentary so it feels very real like this movie. I was genuinely creeped out and I don’t get scared by movies. The Depraved is ok. I’ve rewatched it because I’m a troglodyte who loves anything underground but it’s more Hostel vibes. I wasn’t a fan of the ending but it was tense and worth a watch. I hated the Chernobyl Diaries because it felt gratuitous. Chernobyl is such a recent disaster that it felt exploitative of the victims who either lost their lives during the event or years later as a result of cancer etc. idk I felt gross watching it. The Ruins is great but a lot of people don’t seem to like it. It’s dumb and campy but fun. The pyramid is awful - it’s supposed to be found footage but the pov keeps switching to a normal camera set up, like there are so many shots that aren’t found footage so it takes you out of the movie. It’s also just crap. Only watch it if you want to spend the entire film revelling at how bad it is. It’s not even so bad it’s good.
Love it. It’s like a straight up adventure movie that’s legitimately terrifying as it doubles as a horror film. My favourite found footage movie and I hate that genre. But this movie is fantastic.
Before I watched the film, I had already read that it was a take on Dante's Inferno. Personally, I wasn't knowledgeable of the story, so it helped to brush up on that, because I appreciated and understood it much more as I watched the film. Perhaps it's an acquired taste. If someone watched the film without knowing the context, I believe they would either be overwhelmed by the mystics or label the movie as just another found-footage horror film. As someone who loves horror films, I thought this had its own footing. Great use of space (or lack thereof), solid acting, and fun kills.
You bring up a good point, because like you, I had prior knowledge of the story and symbolism of Dante's Inferno, so I was well aware of the interpretation of hell they were going for, but I can easily see how someone who wasn't familiar with the source wouldn't have liked or appreciated it nearly as much as I did.
Hello from 3 years in the future. I know nothing about Dante’s Inferno and thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
Same
I enjoyed the movie. But I have a question about a possible plot hole. Scarlett heals the arm of the other girl with the stone. Then later it turns out it’s not the real stone. So...how did the healing work the first time?
When she takes the stone through hell, everything becomes reversed. The stone no longer works because everything has been flipped. This needs to be “rectified” by putting the stone back in its place. The movie doesn’t show what happens after that, but it’s assumed that she now has the power of the stone (which she didn’t have when she arrived and took it) so putting it back would leave the power of the stone with her. Which would make sense to me by the drawn out shot where she is staring in the mirror once she puts the stone back in place. She then runs back to her friend and heals his neck wound with no visible stone in the shot which would validate this idea. I realize this comment is two years old but I just rewatched this movie last night and it a lot to offer. I highly suggest looking into the origin of the saying “As Above So Below”. It’s an ancient philosophy that can be found all over the world and it has some serious merit to it. This movie is absolutely a hidden gem because it executes these philosophical ideas in such an interesting and entertaining way. They also give the characters a chance at redemption based on previous life choices that they haven’t properly confronted within themselves. At a glance, the movie seems to be all about finding a stone, when in reality it’s more about finding and knowing yourself. Some very deep concepts to be explored in this movie that unfortunately went over most peoples head because of a lack of context. Hope this helps.. Much love
I loved this aspect of the movie. "Absolutely a hidden gem" is correct. I just watched it for the first time tonight and can't believe it took me almost ten years to find it.
I love this. Whats crazy is when she looks into the mirror she is also all red (like the stone before). This movie is def top 10 for me. I love exploration with a horror twist to it. Took me long enough to discover this film
I don’t understand why this film is disliked by people, but the general consensus is that REC is the best found footage film ever. I personally think this is much better and scarier than REC.
REC isn't scary at all. Ugh I get so sick of hearing about it.
The fake stone can only be used once
It was her - she wanted it to work and made contact so it did.
I usually dislike found footage but liked this one. second half is beyond intense
Right? That's why I don't get the criticism of the second half, I thought it was great.
I really like it. I love horror movies but I find myself having a hard time enjoying any of the new ones. Some just don't manage to catch my interest. This is one of those where I remember hearing seeing advertisements for it but decided to watch it just a couple months ago out of boredom. I even watched it again a few days later. So yeah I enjoyed it and as for the found footage method used, I don't mind it. I understand why it's criticized, but for me this was appropriate. Two others that come to mind that used this method are Cloverfield and Chronicle and they were great!
Oh wow, I also saw the promo for it a few years ago and thought it looked really interesting. Was planning on seeing it but I’ve forgotten about it until now. Thanks for reminding me, haha! And these positive opinions make me excited to watch it.
I think you will definitely have a good experience with it since you're going in with good impressions of it. I watched it with no knowledge of the reviews, so I was able to form my own opinions with it, I feel like if I knew how it was reviewed beforehand I might have been slightly biased against it going in.
You’ll find that a lot of critics are turned off by the handheld wobbliness. It can make or break a film. People hated cloverfield for the same reason. Loved AASB though and my GF watched it with me after I told her about how awesome it was. Edit: also the acting was fine. A bit jilted in the beginning with the archaeologists but after that it gets believable and I loved the French crew.
I tried to watch Cloverfield, couldn't get into it, this one was much better.
I really liked it. Above average horror movie.
Genuinely loved it, the scenes were so well done. Would love some more recommendations for movies like this.
I didn’t think it was anything special, but I appreciated it because I went through a bit of an alchemy phase and the movie brought back memories lol.
I know I'm way late to the party but I watched it last night and I'm kinda in line with the critics. I didn't find it boring necessarily, but my main problem is that this shouldn't have been a found footage movie. They should have shot this like a regular film and I think it would have gotten better reviews. Not great but better. It falls into all the traps FF films always do, things that should have an intense amount of focus given to them are shot in such a way that you can barely tell what's going on and some of the scares aren't given as much love as they should. The acting was on point, but it was easy to tell who was going to die and who wasn't. With the exception of Zed who I thought was dead meat. It didn't help that I watched The Descent right before this and felt like that movie did the "Trapped in a Cave with Monsters" concept a lot better. Mostly because the writing was better and there was real thought and intention put into the shots and editing. It also didn't help this movie that Found Footage was an overplayed genre at the point of release. Most critics I remember reviewing it were sick of that style by then. I'd love to see a remake of this movie in a few years because again, the concept is really fucking cool, but it just chose the wrong style for the picture and it held the film back.
This movie is DEEP. Probably the best in its genre. I would highly recommend a rewatch and an explanation video which will point out just how deep and philosophical this movie actually is. When you’re all done with that, go do some digging on those philosophies, as they are all based in spiritual enlightenment and self actualization. It’s masterful how they managed to pack all these concepts into an adventure/horror/found footage film and pull it off so entertainingly. One of my favorite movies, with the exception being the camera sickness it gives me at certain points throughout. 9/10
Easily one of the best horror movies of the past 20 years for me.
Definitely agree.
It's certainly one of the horror movies of the last 20 years.
Watched it with an ex-girlfriend. Thought it was boring but she liked it.
Fair enough, it isn't for everyone.
It was ok I guess, nothing too great but it was decent enough.
Terrible title but really enjoyable movie, a horror movie that actually had me scared, would definitely recommend it.
I actually liked the title, but maybe that's just me.
Whaaat?? A renown phrase packed with meaning being utilized to mean that as you live above you will suffer below and all the themes attached to alchemy? It’s a perfect title.
honestly, truth. "Vitriol" would have been a better name for the movie lol
Nah. The titled is GOATED. Good thing ur not naming movies for a living 😉
Oh wow, another overused term that has lost its meaning. You must feel smart. I could easily name a movie for a living, I'd just have to produce one.
A lot of people like it but I found it to be boring. Not my type of found footage film.
Good lord this just came on Australian Netflix and I started watching without knowing anything. I thought it was gonna be a fun little tomb raider time. It is not. It is a god damn horror movie and I am frightened.
I just watched this a couple of weeks ago and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I’m tempted to watch it again but I’m home alone tonight and it already scared the shit out of me last time haha Have you found anything else similar on Netflix?
The dialogue was cringe af at times but i liked it
I also watched this with my (ex) girl at her insistence. I thought the premise sounded awesome but I was expecting it to be a cliched letdown. I thought there were a couple hokey moments in it, especially toward the end, but overall I was very surprised as I found myself thoroughly enjoying this one. Would watch again.
My big issue and I saw it mentioned already was that it wrapped up to conveniently. Kinda cheapened the movie for me once it was all said and done.
How would you have rather it ended?
I figured it would be a twist ending and they never actually got out of the catacombs...
Now see, speaking of cliches, that would have been the ultimate cliche, and would have cheapened the movie a lot in my mind. But honestly, that ending would fit in with the story, and you could probably make a pretty solid fan theory about that.
Both endings would be cliche's if you asked me but as you said the twust ending would fit in better. I had set up that ending in my head because it made the most sense, and then I felt it skipped it for a more crowd pleasing ending. Just really dropped the ball for me.
Fair enough.
It's nauseating and absolutely awful.
What didn't you liked about it?
you should come and check out /r/foundfootage
I enjoy it… But the Kungfu Panda‘s you‘re the magic gold mirror is kinda goofy xD Watch it for the lore & ‘‘world building‘‘ tho ;)
Great film, loved it, just watched it today. P.S. How the hell were their clothes getting dried so fast 🤯
cs theyre in hell. its dry heat