The Only Way Out is Not to Play

We continue to watch streaming horror - this time we picked As Above, So Below (2014). Although it had some elements in common with the last batch (young persons researching the supernatural), it was mostly completely different. And perhaps not altogether successful.

It starts in Iraq with star Perdita Weeks clandestinely searching the underground tunnels for mystical artifacts - right before they blow them up. When she tragically survives (hah!), we segue to Paris, where she is being filmed by Edwin Hodge - so this becomes sort of found footage here. They meet up with her friend Ben Feldman, an eccentric researcher and guerilla clock repairman. The goal - to find the philosopher's stone hidden by alchemist Nicolas Flamel. This section here is sort of a combination Indiana Jones and Dan Brown.

The search will lead to the catacombs of Paris, so they hire a rogue spelunker guide, along with his girlfriend and friend. So this crew of 6 descends into the catacombs. It takes a while for the horror to take over from the adventure. There are tunnel collapses, squeezes through piles of human bones, and a meeting with a tunnel rat who was supposed to have died down there years ago. He is pretty much mad.

Then the cameraman dies, falling off a rope down a hole. Then a few more, and all along they have to keep heading down. It becomes a mantra - The only way out is down. By the third act, the horrors get more metaphysical: moving gargoyles, rivers of blood, a burning car. Then, shall I spoil it? OK, here goes.

They find the philosopher's stone. It actually heals one of their wounded. But an alchemical symbol reminds them it is not the real stone - they get that as well. (I won't spoil it, but it's pretty stupid). The survivors, now only Weeeks, Feldman, and the spelunker's friend, keep going down and down, through more and more claustrophobic and, I guess, symbolic and mystical passages. Finally - big reveal - they find a manhole in the floor of the cavern. They climb down it and come up in a street in Paris. Upside down of course. The end.

I sort of like the whole idea of the catacombs - we recently saw the Lupin episode that went down there. I also love alchemical mysticism, but not when done no better than Dan Brown. Also, the wait to get to the horror was interminable. Then the horror was weak, So I guess I'm saying this one didn't work out.