AS ABOVE SO BELOW: MOVIE STORY LINE

AS ABOVE SO BELOW:  MOVIE STORY LINE

Characters:

  Perdita Weeks------------ as Scarlet Marlowe, a young alchemy scholar, who has been focused on retrieving the Philosopher's Stone for many years
  Ben Feldman-------------- as George, Scarlet's old love interest, the only one that can translate the language of evil
  Edwin Hodge-------------- as Benji, Scarlet's friend and motivated cameraman.
  François Civil-------------- as Papillon
  Marion Lambert---------- as Souxie
  Ali Marhyar----------------- as Zed

STORY LINE:
    As Above So Below Movie Story Line open up to a bus just crossing over the Iranian border. A woman, Scarlet Marlowe (Perdita Weeks) is speaking into her camera, saying she has come to Iran to search for a piece of history about to be lost in a hidden catacomb that is about to be demolished by the government.

    Scarlet goes to the home of Reza  a man who is willing to help her. Scarlet and Reza go down but notice soldiers are down there as well.  Reza wants to leave in fear of his family but Scarlet begs for a few minutes. They find the inscription Scarlet was looking forward and amazed by what she finds. She then takes a chisel to it to Reza’s surprise. Scarlet counters they are going to blow it up away. She knocks it away to find a bull statue, the Rose Key.It is covered in markings. Scarlet begins to read them as sirens wail. The blast is imminent. Reza tells her they need to leave now but Scarlet refuses saying this was what her father spent his entire life searching for.

    Reza runs and Scarlet says she will be right behind him. She quickly captures the rest of the statue on film and runs, as the blasting commences. She dodges debris all around her and nearly gets lost. Thankfully, she sees the entrance where she first went in and Reza drags her out. Scarlet tells him she got the markings on film and now has the next step to finish her father’s work. Reza cautions her against looking for the Philosopher Stone. Her father looked for it, and his quest was a path to madness.

    The plot follows documentary maker Benji (Edwin Hodge) as he records the efforts of the brilliant and notorious university lecturer Scarlett, who is a young alchemy scholar, continues her dead father's work searching the mystery of the legendary ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ , created by Nicholas Flamel .Scarlett is driven by an infectious tenacity and a personal debt to her father, who was driven to suicide in pursuit of the stone. This Philosopher’s Stone’  supposedly provides the elixir of life and possible immortality, etc . After finding the Rose Key in a cave in Iran, she travels to Paris. She then enlists the help of George, her former lover whom she abandoned in Turkey while in pursuit of the stone.
Along with Benji the cameraman, they translate some Aramaic runes she uncovered in Flamel's headstone, a riddle that leads them to a point underneath the streets of Paris.

    Scarlett believes that the stone is hidden in the catacombs of Paris .She then enlists the help of a guide called Papillon, his girlfriend Souxie, and friend Zed to search the Catacombs beneath Paris, France. And so an enthusiastic young woman with a passion for chasing historical myths leads a team of explorers underneath the streets of Paris, to hopefully discover an ancient artefact that could change the world and, of course, more than they bargained for.

    George explicitly refusing to go, but is driven into the caves with the group when they are spotted by police.  After crawling through a narrow tunnel which collapses, they find themselves before a door that Papillion is reluctant to breach, as the only people who have gone through, including Pap's friend the Mole, have never been seen again.

A team delve deep into the twisting catacombs that exist under the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls.But as they venture further below the famous catacombs, into the uncharted maze of bones, they discover just what was supposed to be contained in this city of the dead and they begin to realize their lives have been turned upside-down. Because its Hell down there…

     Earlier on their venture, they encounter some female Cultists whom are singing satanic rituals and have possessed appearances. After proceeding deeper into the catacombs, they encounter the Mole, who agrees to guide them out, and informs them that the way out is down. They eventually find a tomb with a preserved Templar Knight, a mound of treasure, and the Flamel Stone. Removing the stone, Scarlett realizes too late that the treasure is a trap, and the room collapses. The Mole is lost under the rubble and is abandoned by the group.
With the Flamel Stone, Scarlett heals the group's injuries. They find a drawing of a door on the ceiling along with a Gnostic Star of David, symbolizing "As above, so below," meaning there is a door hidden in the floor. Going through the opening, they find a tunnel with "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" in Greek, identical to the entrance to Hell.

    Passing through, they find a dark reflection of the room they just left, including the Mole, who attacks and kills Pap's girlfriend, Souxie. They realize they must continue and go deeper. Along the way, Benji the cameraman is pushed to his death down a hole by the lead female cultist, who caught his eye in Paris and again, while singing the satanic rituals. Later they encounter a burning car and occupant, presumably an incident from Pap's past who pulls in Papillon and sinks into the floor.

    Now the group has only  Scarlet, George, and Zed. As they continue down the catacombs, they see a robed figure.The three of them look at the robe figure as he sits in a chair. He gets up after a minute and looks at them. The three run.
As they continue they see apparitions of Satan and other terrifying spirits. Statues in the wall come to life and bite open George's throat. After trying to drag him further, George murmurs "Vitriol," another riddle from earlier, and Scarlett realizes the Flamel stone itself is yet another trap, and that only by returning it will she find the real stone.

    She races back to the crypt and finds a polished mirror, which gives her the magical abilities of the stone. She returns to George and kisses him, healing his wounds, and explains out everything they have experienced and deduce if that they are actually in a circle of hell, they are being tormented for their guilt about past incidents, such as George's brother who drowned and her father who committed suicide. Zed also admits that the ghost of a child they've been seeing is his, though he has repeatedly denied it. Scarlet says if they take a leap of faith and rectify their guilt, they have a chance. If they don’t, they’re dead anyway. The three hold hands and  jump down a deep hole that Scarlett found, before the creatures get them, landing at the bottom.They land, bruised but alive. Looking around, Zed doesn’t see any exits and freaks out that everything was for nothing. However, Scarlet thinks about the phrase that has defined much of their journey, As Above, So Below and figures out there is an exit on the floor.

Scarlet and George discover a manhole and after figuring out how to get it open, climb through and the three finds themselves back on the streets of Paris. They quickly cover the manhole back up, sealing the entrance. Zed exhales in relief and shock while Scarlet and George silently embrace, all three traumatized by the ordeal.

This movie AS ABOVE SO BELOW is a journey into madness and terror that goes deep into the human psyche to reveal personal demons that come back and haunt us.