No Escape

Every once in awhile you hear of somebody getting transferred or getting a new job overseas. Growing up in an affluent Detroit suburb and where you know a lot parents working for the auto industries, it wouldn't be uncommon for a kid to move to a foreign country or the opposite where the foreigners move over here. It's culture shock filled with change both ways. As somebody who really struggles with change, the idea of moving of overseas is very out of the question unless absolutely necessary.

Those same cultural shock and changes are presented to us in the 2015 film No Escape. The Dwyer family has just moved from Austin, Texas to Southeast Asia due to the dad Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) getting transferred by his company. After only spending one night in town, the Dwyer family finds themselves in a coup where Americans and Jack himself is the main target.

What is quite interesting is that director John Erick Dowdle is involved with this. Dowdle is a director who's had a straight line of good horror films he's put out through the years. With the plot and big names actors, it seems as though he's now going in a different direction. The plot itself is original for sure and can find an audience. Coups of course are found throughout history but No Escape doesn't give a clear explanation as of why this is happening in the movie. Ideas of waters and some type of business greed are topics are out there and hinted at in one scene but in the end, it is just not clear. The first scene is even more of a question mark and even though it's described as a poor country with a lot of poverty, I could have really taken at least a scene or two showing local cops. Basically a group of guys who have some of The Warriors inspirations to them are losing it over water and they start a coup. I am serious here.

The sad thing really is that the movie is shot pretty well. It's really gives us great images especially it's roof scenes and you feel the culture shock. With a rape scene and some pretty intense action scenes, you can't say No Escape is not at least a little exciting. The pacing though is still all over the pace and it get tiresome when the film just can't stop throwing action scenes at you.

The lost cause in No Escape is the characters. It is nice to see Owen Wilson stepping out and playing a different role for him. The always likable Lake Bell plays the mother Annie Dwyer and it is beyond refreshing to see her get another lead role after a fantastic lead role in In a World two years ago. Action star Pierce Brosnan plays Hammond; a spy and we have no idea as to why he's in this country and he appears unevenly. We just need more characters ultimately because it is beyond depressing just watching a family with small girls stuck and scared in coup for three acts nor can they full carry this film without it sagging a little.

For what it's trying to be, No Escape surely could have been much worse. That said, it might be time for Dowdle to go back to making movies about the Paris catacombs, serial killer tapes and trying to figure who's the devil on a elevator because his ideas on government are not up to his usual high standards. No Escape is only something to watch again because of how well it's made but Dowdle's other films have a much higher "rewatch" quality.              

2.5/5

As Above, So Below

 

The idea of horror films being placed in one setting is not uncommon. The main idea of this is to put emphasis on the setting and to make for a claustrophobic film. The Blair Witch Project of 1999 or Evil Dead of 1981 involved settings in the woods and never left it once it was entered. In The Descent of 2005, the only setting was a cave. In Paranormal Activity of 2007, the setting was one house in San Diego. The list of horror films with a single setting could go on and on.    

As Above, So Below's director John Erick Dowdle is somebody who is very overlooked in the film world and is slowly turning into my favorite horror director around. His first film Poughkeepsie Tapes from 2007 never got a proper release through the theater and or on disk and can only be found on the internet but it got rave reviews from the few that did see it. Quarantine was a 2008 remake of a Spanish film that was set only in a apartment. In 2010, he puts out Devil which had a very interesting plot about a group of people trapped in an elevator with the devil being one of them. The film was so overlooked that the trilogy that was originally planned around it was cancelled. Now in 2014, his As Above, So Below is a horror movie following a very similar formula using claustrophobic ideas and the "found-footage" filmmaking technique. This is also kind of a Dowdle "formula film" but still, As Above, So Below is a very fun ride.                      

The movie follow around Scarlet Marlowe (Perdita Weeks) a middle-aged woman who's father has committed suicide and who's on a quest to continue her father's goal of finding the Flamel stone which can grant everlasting life. After going down to the catacombs beneath Paris to search for the stone with a group of explorers, strange hauntings and happenings occur.               


From the above plot described, it would seem like this is a magical-type adventure filled with fantasy. Well yeah, you could say that would be true but barely because unlike most horror films, As Above, So Far Below is quite full of culture, including Parisian, European and even the Middle East. Being set in Paris, it's uses European ideas and obviously has a French vibe. Lead character, Scarlet gives off such a vibe of being smart that she comes off as being a scholar. Once we enter the catacombs, it is full of many horror ingredients and to say this would be different ending for a found footage film would be quite correct.



Yes, it is silly for this to be a found-footage film because it really serves no purpose in the film. Even more problematic, these characters aren't very rich in substance and they are kind of all over the place but still the acting is far from a problem and just about everyone has a backstory which isn't necessarily common in these type of plots. The catacombs idea is quite original and brings a different vibe to the film but it becomes even more interesting once the film puts psychological and also metaphysical ideas on top of it. It's not the type of horror film that is going to outright scare you but at least you are going to be creeped out by the concept and for crying out loud, it is shot in the real catacombs of Paris which contain the remains of 6 million dead people!
    

In the end, As Above, So Below could be described "as Blair Witch in catacombs" or a really messed up version of "The Goonies". Anyway, As Above, So Far Below is an innovative shock to the horror genre in 2014. A film that literally came out of nowhere for me.



4/5