Review of As Above So Below [SPOILER ALERT]
I’m sick and tired of seeing bad reviews for what could easily be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. This movie has so many layers (3 to be exact ;p), but seriously, this is one of the deepest movies you will ever see. It makes you look at life and think differently.
First of all. IT IS NOT A HORROR MOVIE. DO NOT GO SEE THIS MOVIE FOR THE SOLE INTENTION OF GETTING SCARED.
Second of all. If you yourself gave this movie a bad review, it’s for one of the following reasons. A) You wanted to see a horror movie and didn’t get that. B) You lack the intellectual intelligence to perceive what went on during the movie. You are too dense to pick up on every single little thing that happened, and you missed out on the plot.
Okay, so on to the actual review of the movie.
The style of the movie takes a lot of personal preference to like. It’s largely like Forrest Gump in the way of how it’s a flashback. The movie actually takes place through a flashback. Scarlett is in an interview, (kind of documentary style), and she and the interviewer share Q&A’s, and all that stuff.
The way the movie is shot is also a bit of personal preference. It’s all from POV 1st person perspective cameras for the most part. But it’s in the style of recovered footage. Personally, I think it was brilliant.
One of the many things I really loved about this movie is the fact that after I saw it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not necessarily the movie itself, but how the movie made me think. It made me think about life. The movie’s message is one of the deepest I have ever felt from any movie I have ever seen. Imo, I think the movie teaches us that the only one who can save yourself, is you. When Scarlett finds the real stone, it isn’t actually a tangible stone. After she puts the red one back, she looks for the real stone. She sees a reflective surface, wipes the dust off of it, and the only thing she sees is herself. I believe that represents that SHE is the stone. And if it was anyone else looking into it, they would see that they are the stone. Only you can save yourself. 'Save yourself from what?’ you might ask… well that’s where the rest of movie comes into play.
Hell. The characters in the movie find themselves in hell. Linking it all to real life, what I can take from it is that Hell is technically kind of a place. There is one big Hell. Where Death presides. (the figure in the hooded black cape). Where the souls of the dead who go to hell rest. (those faces in the walls). But also, Hell is what YOU make it.
For every character, they had their own hell. The one’s that were never able to let go of their own hell died.
Souxie was supposed to go back into the catacombs to save La Tuape. She never let that go, hence why while they were in Hell, La Tuape brutally smashed her face into the ground and brutally killer her. ****Side Note about La Tuape. I think the reason why they ‘found him’, was because he was in purgatory. He died waiting. He died waiting for his friends to come back and get him. So his soul was waiting. He was in purgatory, which is why he was in between hell and heaven at first, but then went to hell, to follow Souxie, because he was her Hell.****
After seeing this movie two times I can not remember picking up on what Benji’s Hell was. I think the movie just killed him off because he was annoying to the rest of the group, and he was black so he naturally was not going to survive any horror.
Papillon never let go of the fact that he should’ve saved his brother from the car fire. Hence why while they were in Hell, he saw his own Hell face to face. He never could let go of the fact that his brother died at his fault, so his Hell consumed him, and killed him……literally. The car consumed him with fire and then ripped him deeper into Hell.****Note the scar on Pap’s hand that was earlier introduced in the movie. Benji asks Zed what the scar was from, and Zed being one of Pap’s closest friends, knew about the tragedy and said “we do not talk about that.”****
The reason why the other 3 characters survived was because right before they made their last jump from heaven back to the place in between, they all let go of their hell.
When Scarlett found the ringing phone and picked it up, it was her Father on the other end. It was the call that she missed, the call that could’ve saved her Father’s life. Later, she sees a vision of a noose. That’s because her Father’s death followed her everywhere she went.****Earlier in the movie when Scarlett was in Iran, right before the cave collapsed, she had a vision of a hanging body…symbolic of her Father’s death following her everywhere****When she confronts her Hell, which was her Father’s death, she apologizes for everything. She grasps on to the fact that it was her fault, but she lets it go, she apologizes, and apologizes again, and then the vision of her Father fades, and that is symbolic of her letting go of her Hell.
George nearly let his Hell consume him when he saw the vision of his brother Danny in the water. Right before they made the final jump, George confessed that it was his fault his brother died. He explained how he said he was going to come back, but got lost on his way. He could never let go of that, until that moment, and that’s why he survived. ****George was so afraid of going underground, and into caves, because his little brother died drowning in a cave. Later in the movie, he sees his brother’s face….in what other place than, underwater. You probably picked up on this, but I’m just connecting all the dots.****
Zed’s hell was a little less severe than everyone else’s. I think that has part to do with his character. He was very innocent, and young, and it seemed like he had his whole life ahead of him. And in his life ahead of him, he had a child, whom he never acknowledged as his. He never took care of it, or spent time with, he always put it off like it wasn’t his. Right before the final jump, he confessed his guilt, and exclaimed how he was going to do the right thing and take care of it, as a Father.
The movie then ends with them in a dark black room. They finally find an opening, and realize it can be pried open. They then realize it’s a manhole and they push down on it, and then they crawl upside down as they reversed the reversed gravity back to normal onto the streets of Paris. Mind-boggling and absolutely aw and what-inducing.
Do not forget that when this movie did have it’s scares, they were mostly jump scares and they were very, very scary. But up until Souxie’s death, the whole thing is so suspenseful. You’re just waiting for it. On the edge of your chair( or in my case, curled up and tensing, leaning away from the screen). But it was great because the scares weren’t nightmare inducing.
This movie managed to scare the shit out me, perplex the shit out of me, freak the shit out of me, woah the shit out of me. It managed to make me look at life differently. It made me question my religious and spiritual beliefs. It makes me want to live life a better person. With no regrets, not being afraid of anything, and living a guilt-free life by the side of my loved ones.
If you saw this movie, and didn’t take from it at least a little bit of what I did, I feel sorry. Sorry for you, that you were either literally too stupid to pick up on anything, or the fact that you went to the theater to see this for scares, rather than with an open mind. I feel sorry for the cast, the crew, the writers and producers that put this legendary piece of work together, because I know only a small percentage of all who see this movie will be in the same boat as me. And that’s a shame, because I can easily say that this movie changed my life. Hard for me to rank such an amazing movie. I don’t know what to give it out of 10……a 34? It’s seriously at least in the top 10 best movies I’ve ever seen.
Go see this movie. With an open mind. And an empty bladder.
