AS ABOVE SO BELOW (Via Vision)

As Above So Below
Via Vision

The Stats
Video: 1080p High Definition
Audio: DTS-HD 7.1 (LPCM 2.0 available in menu)
Subtitles: SDH

Buy it HERE from Diabolik or HERE from Via Vision (AUD)

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

As Above So Below comes to Blu-ray from Via Vision. Director John Erick Dowdle (and his co-writer brother Drew Dowdle) capitalize on their Found Footage cache (The Poughkeepsie Tapes) to make As Above So Below, this first production to legally film in the Paris catacombs! This Via Vision release features fun packaging and enlightening commentaries and interviews, adding insight to what is a very enjoyable Found Footage outlier. 

The Movie: 4 star

I am not a Found Footage guy by nature. For some folks, that's their jam, and while I can rattle off a handful of FF movies that I think absolutely own bones, I usually go into watching one with a bit of skepticism. So when I tell you that As Above So Below is one of my favorite examples within the genre, know that it didn't end up near the top of the heap on a whim. Saying that this is one of my favorite examples of Found Footage will potentially rankle some more hardcore FF enjoyers because, admittedly, As Above So Below does everything it can to differentiate itself from the rest of the pack. It has a reasonable budget for starters, access to unique locations, and frequently dips its toe into other genres like Raiders of the Lost Ark-style adventure, and The Da Vinci Code-style puzzle-solving thriller. These are things I inherently enjoy, having grown up idolizing Indiana Jones, and I appreciate the ways these choices expand the boundaries of what a Found Footage film can be!

Scarlett (Perdita Weeks) is, for lack of a better term, a tomb raider looking to carry on the research obsession of her late father: finding the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary key to Alchemy. Following clues found in Iran in the kind of thrilling, high-energy opening sequence you don't often get in Found Footage, Scarlett finds herself headed to the catacombs under Paris with a small crew in tow. Among them, a documentary filmmaker named Benji (Edwin Hodge), fellow adventurer George (Ben Feldman) with whom she has some kind of past, and local urban explorers Papillon (François Civil), Souxie (Marion Lambert), and Zed (Ali Marhyar). While most of the cast are vague archetypes, the relationship between Scarlett and George does just enough to widen the scope of the world that, when the film ends, I find myself wanting to know more about them.

The nature of Found Footage makes it a really tempting genre for inexperienced filmmakers because, in general, it doesn't have to look what we in the industry call "super good". Similar budgetary constraints mean most FF films reuse the same locations: the wilderness, some abandoned buildings, etc.; rinse and repeat. None of these are negatives necessarily, but it can get monotonous. Being able to film in not just Paris, but the actual catacombs (!) is a come-up on a grand scale.

Story and performance-wise, As Above So Below skirts a very fine line. Some of the turns, and the performances around them, can be corny at times, but when balanced with the grittiness, tension, and genuine claustrophobia of the rest of the film, they feel like someone turned the pressure-release valve. Some of the effects or scares may feel a little chintzy, but the overall ambition of the rest of the piece more than makes up for them.

The Packaging: 4 stars

The Limited Edition from Australian label Via Vision is rad! The box cover is a lenticular version of the cover image--a concentric design of skulls leading down to an inverted Eiffel Tower--that's just very fun. Inside is the Blu-ray in a discrete case and an envelope with six photo-cards from the film. The sturdy outer box is always a plus. Nobody wants their packaging to fall apart from normal wear-and-tear.

The Video: 3.5 stars

Since this is a Found Footage film which uses some digital bodycam style footage, with occasional stylistic digital distortion, there's some built-in visual hiccups. It's also only like a decade old, but still: this looks great. The amount of variety that director and co-writer John Erick Dowdle and cinematographer Léo Hinstin manage to wring out of these catacomb locations is impressive, and even on a blu-ray, the details pop: subterranean dust picked up in a headlamp, or the occasional pops of color on ancient hieroglyphics.

I think the fact that this is Found Footage actually works to trick the audience somewhat. I kept being pleasantly surprised by certain moments and scenes, visually. The script, co-written by brothers John Erick and Drew Dowdle, is extremely well-paced, with long stretches of cavern or tunnel traversal broken up by puzzle or trap rooms, which are seen in greater detail, for longer, and generally lensed with a bit more control and care. These moments are where As Above So Below really separates itself from the majority of other, similar in concept Found Footage films.

The Audio: 3 stars

I use a three-channel soundbar, simply to keep my tv from vibrating itself apart. To that end, the 7.1 audio wasn't going to be where I staked my claim on this one, though I did check it out during a few key scenes. Overall, both settings had the same problem, though it was much less pronounced in the 2.0 mix. That problem is: volume. Though As Above So Below doesn't feature a standard score, it does occasionally use sound to scare you. Which means, every so often, things get loud in a very rumbly, or droning, sounds-of-the-damned sort of way.

On both audio settings, my soundbar buzzed quite a bit in these sequences, though significantly less-so on the 2.0. In addition to that, much of the dialogue is pretty quiet when contrasted with the louder moments, which is one of my pet peeves. I like to find a volume level and then never have to grab the remote again. It breaks the immersion for me. But that aside, this sounds great. I mentioned that the film is light on traditional score, though they did get composer Keefus Ciancia to create sort of soundscapes that wouldn't sound out of place in the catacombs, which, once I started listening for them, I found really creative and well-utilized.

The Special Features: 4 stars

I was previously familiar with As Above So Below, so when I threw this disc in for the first time, I jumped straight to Alexandra Heller-Nicholas's extremely well-researched commentary track and bonus features, and they really gave me a new appreciation for the film. Heller-Nicholas recites a number of very informative quotes gathered from various interviews with the filmmakers and cast, as well as pointing out several filmmaking techniques used throughout, and when I later went back to watch the film, I really enjoyed looking out for them.

Heads up that the Inside 'As Above So Below' featurette is from a previous Universal / Legendary release, but the other special features are specific to this disc.

• Audio commentary from film critic and author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• To Hell and Back - video essay by filmmaker and Dread Central editor-in-chief Mary Beth McAndrews
• Beyond the Catacombs - interview with actor Ben Feldman
• Shooting Underground - interview with director of photography Léo Hinstin
  
• Inside 'As Above / So Below' - archival featurette
• Theatrical trailer

• Limited Edition packaging also includes six photo cards

In Summary: 4 stars

Everyone wants different things from a horror movie, and that's great, but it does make recommending a horror film occasionally feel a bit daunting. Even more so when that film falls into a subgenre with a passionate fanbase. Still, I honestly feel like As Above So Below is a pretty high-quality film and a very fun example of what horror can be: conceptually diverse.

This also means that (* Robert Stack, Unsolved Mysteries voice *) if you or someone you know is looking for a way into the Found Footage genre, and especially if you enjoy the more adventure film style aspects present here, As Above So Below is a solid recommendation. This release specifically also has the added bonus, for aspiring filmmakers, of offering plenty of insight into the filmmaking process on a project of this type through the included special features.

"THE OUTWATERS" (2022)

The Outwaters
Directed & written by Robbie Banfitch
Starring Robbie Banfitch, Angela Basolis, Scott Schamell, Michelle May
Currently unrated
Runtime 1 hour, 40 minutes

“The Outwaters shows that Found Footage is the Haiku of Horror Filmmaking”

By Allison Yakulis & Hunter Bush

Hunter Bush: Filmmakers are always fighting against limitations. Sometimes it’s an idea that can’t be realized, sometimes it’s having a very slim budget, sometimes it’s just scheduling constraints. Regardless, they’re all roadblocks between a filmmaker and their ideal finished project. Creative filmmakers find ways to not just work around their limitations, but to work with them; use these hurdles to their advantage.

Found footage, as a genre, works within limitations. You don’t need professional gear, actors, or cinematography. The almost user-generated nature of the conceit also allows for narrative gaps that can help with pacing and budget. Even still, within the sub genre of found footage, some films are more inventive or innovative than others. With The Outwaters, writer/director/star Robbie Banfitch may have used the limitations of a young filmmaker more creatively than any other example I can call to mind.

Allison Yakulis: To me, found footage is a genre fraught with mediocre efforts. It has enough structure to delineate it as its own genre, is cheap enough that anyone with access to any sort of camera can film in this style, and when actually done well is considered a triumph in monetizing art as it is, again, cheap and accessible to produce. Of course, when it’s done poorly there’s a lot of shaky camera, often in the dark, to hide seams and give the appearance of a novice photographer, and in some of the most egregious instances it breaks the “rules” and depicts sequences that no camera handheld or otherwise could’ve picked up. Found footage is the haiku of horror filmmaking: beautiful in its simplicity when well-executed, but too frequently lackluster or incoherent due in large part to the perception that anybody can do it.

Overall I enjoyed The Outwaters. In fact, I would argue it’s in the top of its genre, on par with films like The Blair Witch Project (1999), Cloverfield (2008), and Host (2020). When this film hits, it hits hard and cuts deep. Is it a perfect film? No, it’s laggy in parts of the third act with a few nighttime sequences that are too dark and chaotic to glean a meaningful understanding of what is actually going on. In these moments it started to lose me as a viewer. Banfitch carefully arranges his setting, characters, goals, and scope, but when given a slow burn setup I expect a splashy, manic ending. An impartial editing for pace would give the drop-at-the-end-of-the-rollercoaster feeling, rather than the emotional whiplash I felt.

There are moments in this movie that are so arresting, so wickedly gleeful that it’s going to stick with me for years, I can feel it already. 

HB: The basic premise of The Outwaters, just so that we’re all on the same page, is that four friends go into the Mojave desert to film a music video: aspiring director Robbie (Banfitch), his brother Scott (Scott Schamell) who will function as an assistant, hair & makeup stylist Ange (Angela Basolis), and Michelle (Michelle May) the video’s star. Michelle is a singer, and the quartet’s plan is to just film a bunch of beautiful footage of a glamorous looking Michelle in the natural splendor of the Mojave.

Low budget found footage can get a little repetitive, right? There’s usually only a few locations, because they’re shooting on the cheap. Outwaters almost suffers from this but, for my mileage, every time we repeated a gag or location, Banfitch at least tried to make it feel different. The flick is divided up into three memory cards recovered after the film’s events, and things build in a very by-the-book manner. The first card is all preliminaries; getting to know the characters and how they interact. Card two is getting to the desert, filming a music video, and some spookiness that’s light enough to be laughed off the next day. Card three is not just the most concentrated supernatural madness, but it keeps changing; recontextualizing what I thought was going on. To be clear, what I mean is not just what my guesses were for what the movie was, but actually changing what I thought things I had already seen meant.

Early on, having only seen the trailer (which to be fair is mostly darkness, blood and yelling), after the characters find a fire ax stuck into the crest of a low hill, I figured that I was settling in for a The Hills Have Eyes type survival horror. That was a guess and it was wrong. That’s not what I’m talking about. The reliance on darkness (full dark, no stars; absolute blackness) means your mind’s eye is taking fragments of shapes glimpsed in a flashlight beam and trying to use the sonic information being presented (footfalls, scraping across the desert floor, yelling, panting, *noises*, etc) to form an image of what might be happening. Then something else would happen that would change all those mental images. This third act basically functions as that parable of the blind men and the elephant, which I think is fascinating. I won’t go into specifics I guess because The Outwaters should be experienced with the least foreknowledge possible. 

AY: Hunter had also mentioned in our discussions that the conceit of filming a music video allows for more artistic flairs than many other found footage-type films. When you make one of your characters a filmmaker or cinematographer, that can be a really smart move to allow some nice, attractive, old-school camera use to establish setting and dole out some eye-candy before things get weird and shaky. He noticed it, and yes, I really dug that too. It not only fleshes out a character but it gives these early sequences an excuse to be fun and beautiful and light and arresting, improving the overall visual quality of the film and providing a nice counterpoint to the darkness and gore in the latter half.

Tropes or pitfalls, you decide. It’s these very things that take me out of other found footage films that The Outwaters generally executes or subverts pretty well. It makes a lot of smart choices, selecting a beautiful location that photographs excellently and feels remote, going for practical effects and sharp editing, often using suggestion and indirect shooting to let your imagination do the heavy lifting.

How do you feel about found footage as a genre? Do you prefer it steeped in realism? A way to tell a story creatively and within a rigid framework? Or do you find it a difficult style to work within/enjoy as a viewer?

HB: What Allison said about Found Footage being the Haiku of Horror Filmmaking is absolutely spot-on. With The Outwaters, if you get too hung up on the narrative you’d be missing the point. Robbie Banfitch has crafted something that seems very simple, but he’s gotten every ounce of impact from it. What it might lack for you in traditional logic it more than makes up for as a masterwork of form. It truly shows that with enough creativity and sheer will, you can manage fantastic things even when working within constraints.

AY: I think Hunter and I both recommend this movie and I agree that it should be viewed without knowing specifics - it is at its best and most fun when it blindsides you. I think where our feelings diverge is in this third act. I was anticipating similar clarity as in earlier sequences and felt restless when presented with lots of sound and little picture (the lagginess I mentioned earlier) - I didn’t have enough suggestion as to what was going on so these parts started to lose me rather than sharpen my nerves. Yet they would be interspersed with enough weirdness or clear daylight views or, yes, references to earlier locations or events that I could reorient myself into what was still a very surreal “distemporal” narrative; in fact, it really stuck the landing for me and I walked out happy at the end. In summation I think our feelings differ as to whether The Outwaters is a credit to, or the exception in, its horror subgenre.

The Outwaters should be available on Screambox in January 2023, after a limited theatrical run.