Never Trust a Tomato: As Above, So Below

courtesy of universal pictures

Welcome to the segment of second chances, where I give you fresh perspectives on critically underappreciated horror flicks and persuade you to see them in a different light. On the docket today is As Above, So Below—the 2014 found-footage mind trip that explores everything Hell and magic have to offer.

Are We Absolutely Sure What Direction We’re Going?

The film centers on its ridiculously impressive protagonist, Scarlett Marlowe. She’s an Indiana Jones-Lara Croft hybrid, an archaeologist with several degrees who’s fluent in heaps of languages.

courtesy of universal pictures

Using her deceased father’s research, she intends to locate the notorious and ever-elusive Philosopher’s stone. (No, Harry Potter didn’t invent that).

Collecting strays along the way with varying motivations for joining her, Marlowe leads the rag-tag group underground for a much more sinister tour than they expected.

 Unpacking The Lore

The characters’ experience in the catacombs dips its skeletal fingertips into every paranormal puddle, from ghosts to demons to psychological torment and back again. It’s a delightful mixed bag of mythical treasure, science-magic, theistic afterlife, and real-life historical mysteries.

The Philosopher’s Stone: Probably Not Worth all the Terror

According to alchemical lore, the Philosopher’s stone is a substance that turns any metal into gold and brings people back from the dead. Legend says that it was discovered by 17th-century scribe Nicolas Flamel, who used its power to achieve immortality.

courtesy of warner bros. pictures

The Catacombs: Not Nearly as Wholesome as Brushing a Cat

The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries—dating back to 1774—that hold the remains of over six million people. The tunnel network was created to help with the city's overflowing cemeteries. The depth and magnitude of this “Empire of Death” is staggering, less than two of its 200 miles is open to the public, though some brave souls choose to explore its uncharted territory. Vacation, anyone?

Dante’s Inferno: The Levels of Hell in Their Cinematic Glory

My favourite aspect of As Above, So Below is its connection to Inferno—a section of Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic poem, Divine Comedy. It explores Dante’s journey through the nine concentric circles of Hell. Through foreshadowing and creative parallels, As Above, So Below honours that concept by mirroring some of those levels as the characters descend further into the catacombs.

Massive props to the screenwriters and director for taking “the devil’s in the details” so literally. Easter eggs and nerdly nuggets of this caliber elevate the experience and leave me devouring all the in-depth analyses I can find.

Take These W’s

As Above, So Below lacks the low-quality shakiness of other found footage due to it canonically being a “documentary.” The setting is captured in glorious high-definition, and most impressively—it was filmed in the ACTUAL catacombs. You can almost feel the thickness in the cave’s air and taste the dust that shoots out from the ancient stones.

Moreover, the scenes in tight spaces do a tremendous job of creating a disturbingly claustrophobic viewing experience. DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE BEFORE EXPLORING A CAVE. Seriously, these white-knuckled moments will derail your entire spelunking mission (or rock collecting, I don’t know you).

courtesy of universal pictures

courtesy of universal pictures

Finally, the movie’s biggest selling point I can throw at you is its exploration of psychological torment. (Yikes, 1408 and now this? Juice Demon has a thing for brain torture, alert the media). Rather than having throwaway characters only meant to die gruesome deaths, each member of Marlowe’s troupe has a special significance through their backstory.

All the characters have a “sin” they haven’t atoned for that’s paid for through torment or death. Through each horrific encounter with the evils of the catacombs, the characters and the audience are forced to contemplate the concepts of morality, innocence, guilt and grief. As Above, So Below is a beautifully-crafted parallel of internal and external demons that exposes the painful complexities of humanity, and it deserves your unbiased consideration.

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PICREW RIGHTS BELONG TO @COZMICCHU, DESIGN BY JUICE DEMON

Juice Demon

Juice Demon is a harbinger of chaos from a dark dimension. She daylights as a student in the Professional Writing Program at Algonquin College. She is an enthusiast of carefully curated horror movie marathons, bonfire cracklings, and imagining the alternate universe in which Willem Dafoe is cast as The Joker.

Hall of Hallowed Horror: 1408

courtesy of metro-goldwyn-mayer

Welcome to the first installment of Hall of Hallowed Horror, where I take deep dives into my absolute favourite horror films to honour their legendary status. Today’s showcase features the paranormal-psychological triumph that is 1408, based on a 1999 short story in Stephen King’s audiobook collection, Blood and Smoke.

Dedicated to the real ones who understood the reference in my last post.

courtesy of walt disney studios

At the heart of this pulse-pounding tale is the jaded soul of middling author and weary cynic Mike Enslin, played masterfully by John Cusack. Enslin is a faithless man with a played-out plan, staying overnight at supposedly haunted locations to chance a paranormal encounter for his 10 Haunted Hotels series. None of them spark his interest or yield any results, validating his nihilistic outlook.

 “Even if they did [exist], there’s no god to protect us from them is there?” – Mike Enslin

Until, that is, he gets a mysterious postcard from the fictional Dolphin Hotel in New York City with a cryptic message.

courtesy of metro-goldwyn-mayer

Enslin—with the help of his agent—scores a meeting with the hotel manager Gerald Olin, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Their ten-minute discussion is effectively the last scene of the movie that isn’t possessed by the sinister presence occupying room 1408.

(1 + 4 + 0 + 8 = 13 that’s quick maths. On the “fourteenth” (13th) floor no less. Lots of spooky number action going on.)

Cusack and Jackson navigate this battle of wits brilliantly. The pushback is clearly the first excitement Enslin has had in his career in a while, and he clings to it. Meanwhile, Olin just wants him the fuck away from that room. The audience catches on—to deliciously suspenseful effect—that Olin’s warnings are sincere as they are bone-chilling. Inevitably, Enslin finds himself standing in front of the creaky, discoloured door of room 1408 and takes his first dreaded step inside.

Why It Works

The success of this movie isn’t in the individual scares, but the white-knuckled build-up that puts any slasher to shame. From the POV shots that put you in the room alongside him to the eerie silence only broken by Enslin speaking softly into his trusty recorder, the film’s restraint leading up to its main event pays off beautifully. By the time the room reveals its evil to Enslin, you’ve been thoroughly primed and brought to the edge of fright without the use of a single trope.

courtesy of metro-goldwyn-mayer

I say “evil” because it’s an important distinction. Ghosts have a mortal life driving their presence, whereas what lies in room 1408 is inhuman—making it all the more vicious of a foe. It will push its occupants to the brink until they take their own life, and will pull every sadistic trick in the book to get them there. From their deepest well of grief to their most guarded weaknesses and fears, the evil in 1408 wields its victims’ minds with deadly accuracy.

Some Grievances

I’ve previously mentioned my distaste for excessive jump scares. While most here are executed effectively—using realistic sounds of the room rather than loud instrumentation—there are some that rely on clichés. There are also three endings to 1408 depending which version you’re watching. Only one of them is worth keeping.

courtesy of metro-goldwyn-mayer

If you know, you know. ;)

1408 adeptly handles the classic “haunted” plot while maintaining an underlying thread of humanity. Horror is at its peak when it balances external and internal terrors—grounding its message to remind you how dreadful the human experience can be without any supernatural assistance. Aided by its strong performances and intimate attention to detail, 1408 cements itself as a modern-day classic, and joins a long line of successful adaptations of the work of Stephen: King of Horror.

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PICREW RIGHTS BELONG TO @COZMICCHU, DESIGN BY JUICE DEMON

Juice Demon

Juice Demon is a harbinger of chaos from a dark dimension. She daylights as a student in the Professional Writing Program at Algonquin College. She is an enthusiast of carefully curated horror movie marathons, bonfire cracklings, and imagining the alternate universe in which Willem Dafoe is cast as The Joker.

Paranormal Cinema: The Awakening

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image CREATOR: DIANE DIEDERICH | cREDIT: GETTY IMAGES/VETTA

So it begins … my chaotic tribute to cinematic horror, my bloody valentine to the paranormal on film, my last will and testament to the illest thrills and chills.

Here lies Juice Demon, in the realm where entertainment and horror collide.

Since this is a paranormal blog, I must abide by its limitations—meaning there are many films of other horror genres I dare not venture into, so as to avoid endless meta-tangents and philosophizing that could derail our collective theme. But first, the basics.

Here's Horror :D

From the French word “orror”—meaning “to shudder or bristle”— horror in its simplest definition is a condition marked by fear. In an art form, the horror genre should unsettle its audience through the use of narrative, auditory cues and visual elements. Basically, if you’re at a premiere and the theatre doesn’t periodically erupt in pearl-clutching shrieks, then consider the film’s horror card revoked.

Horror films have different origins around the world. These origins range from ancient folklore passed down through various cultures to the local paranormal encounters that gained such notoriety that they were elevated to narrative non-fiction and beyond.

Now of course, there are somewhat-official genres and subgenres of horror … but this is my ship, and I am its captain, so I will be taking some liberties:

Ø  Psychological. Codename: Cerebral killer (Yikes).

Ø  Slasher. Codename: What did you even trip on?! 

Ø  Monster. Codename: Stomp and chomp.

Ø  Found Footage. Codename: Heavy breathing.

Ø  Paranormal. Codename: Ghostly realms. 

Finally, my chosen genre (and what some would argue to be the original in horror). Paranormal films should include some combination of: ghosts, ghouls, demons, spirits, possessions, powers, the afterlife, witchcraft, and other inexplicable happenings of this nature. They’ll likely have a title that begins with “The Haunting Of” or a rickety house on its poster with an eerie light shining from within. Or it will literally have the word “paranormal” in it, like the massively popular Paranormal Activity franchise. (I gave up after the third one).

From The Cabin in the Woods to The Babadook, you’ll find avid enthusiasts on all levels of intensity and style. So what drives these fanbases? What exactly is so fascinating about being horrified? 

I won’t bother trying to come up with a magical, universally-applicable answer. Instead, I’ll dive into some Juice Demon lore. The first paranormal horror movie I can remember seeing was The Grudge. Now this will age me terribly, but I remember watching this on a portable DVD player about half the size of a laptop. When it was over, I was scared to turn off the lights. I can remember vowing never to watch anything like it again.

It was a morbid curiosity that led me to watching the disc’s special features. The reminder of it being fiction renewed my spirits, and from then on I immersed myself in the genre. Over time, my attempt to kill my fear through desensitization turned into a fierce adoration.

So what makes my adoration so persistent? What keeps it alive?

Perhaps the answer is philosophical. The notion that humans exist in a chaotic and purposeless universe is what characterizes absurdism (the belief system I would choose at gunpoint). It is the conflict between searching for inherent meaning in life and accepting that there might not be any to be found. Depressing? Maybe, but I see it as a perpetual state of wonder. To me, the “not knowing” is the fun part of existing. Some even believe that subjectivity—a rejection of a clearly-defined reality—is the basis of the horror genre as a whole.

I love science (abysmal high school grades aside), but what I love even more are the things that manage to remain elusive to its parameters. The paranormal challenges the world we know, and that disruption taps into a curious fascination I’ve always had with absurdity and chaos.

Maybe the obsession comes down to biology, and my brain just loves the adrenaline (dopamine—thanks again, science!)

Or maybe (at the heart of it) there is a dreamy, romantic notion that defines my relationship with paranormal horror. Maybe teetering on the edge of fright and wonder is my favourite reminder that I’m alive and real.

I wouldn’t call myself an executive authority on the genre by any means. I don’t enjoy every niche subgenre, and I’ll admit to a healthy distaste for the over-reliance on jump scares. However, the overarching classification of paranormal horror contains some of my absolute favourite films. Ghost stories are classic, timeless and ever-evolving. And Ghost Writers?

the real ones will get this reference

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PICREW RIGHTS BELONG TO @cozmicchu, design by juice demon

Juice Demon is a harbinger of chaos from a dark dimension. She daylights as a student in the Professional Writing Program at Algonquin College. She is an enthusiast of carefully curated horror movie marathons, bonfire cracklings, and imagining the alternate universe in which Willem Dafoe is cast as The Joker.