Catacombs

I thought it was a refreshing horror film, due to the complete crap lately. I have been to the Catacombs in Paris and know first hand how creepy and historical the place is. This movie was obviously a low budget film, yet it captured the damp and horrifying mood of the Catacombs to a T. Also, the actors put out a performance that I thought was quite good.( Pop singer " Pink " wasn't horrible at all) and the directing was well done.

I loved the use of light and darkness throughout the film. In my opinion, there is nothing more terrifying than being in a state of complete darkness. The story of the satanic cult was a little over the top, considering it actually produced a "satan" child. The plot twist , in my opinion, ruined the film. Of course, as in any "scream" flick, there are always some cheezy and predictable parts, but overall, I found it entertaining. Definitely, think the ending could have been thought out a little better. Scratch that, A lot better. Take out the crazy twist, ....much better. Over all though, a good, not great, horror film.

This film has amazing potential including the mysterious underground catacombs of Paris, a rave in the crypts, weirdos galore including the lead -- even a goat monster on the prowl. Unfortunately, while it offers some entertainment value, it devolves into a jumble of underground in the dark shots that are not patched together well, and in the end, nothing much to take it beyond the potential and into the realm of a good movie.

With hundreds of miles of catacombs to play with you would think they could have dreamed up some interesting places to stop. Maybe the Nazi bunker which is down there would have added some creep. Or a secret meeting place of a cult. An old crazy recluse. I mean, something more than endless stairs and passageways and pools of water and places that look like the attic of an old house in need of a rummage sale. There's just nothing to make you go "Wow!" or prickle the hairs on the back of your neck.

It doesn't help that the attractive lead is an asexual emo queen. Sure, she's been through a lot, but most of her actions consist of screaming and running, followed by more screaming and running, topped off by more screaming and running. By the end she is thoroughly unlikeable mess with no real redeeming qualities, and that's before the real "end" which I won't spoil here.

Actually the best part of the movie was the flashlight. To steal a line from Will Smith: "I have GOT'S to get me one of those." Not only does it last forever, and display immunity to immersion in water, it survives falling ~100 feet onto hard concrete and doesn't lose a lumen in the process. Hmmm. The fact that the flashlight steals the show says something about this movie. Not a bad movie. Just not a good one.

Sub-par acting all around along with an especially horrible performance by Pink, even by B-Movie standards. The premise is OK and even the beginning is not completely horrible, but then the action get relentlessly repetitive as are made character is chased and chased and chased some more, which does work for me at times but with nothing unique thrown in there to mix it up a bit then it just gets old fast. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, not only a twist but a twist that makes a little sense and actually works, it doesn't feel contrived and just thrown in at the end to screw with the audience. If your looking for a good horror movie you could do much better, but if you can stomach Pinks horrible attempt at acting for the length of this film (more power to you) then you could give this one a try, but only for it's unique ending.

The catacombs of Paris, a lesser known historical marvel of how Paris' over populated cemeteries were cleaned out and 7,000,000 human skeletons were arranged in a macabre maze underground!

So in 2007 when I heard it was the setting for a new horror movie I just had to see it! There's no cheap CGI, it's filmed on location.

Victoria flies from Boston to Paris to visit her sister, a drugged out drunk party girl. It's the role Pink was born to play.

Pink takes Victoria to a rock concert in the catacombs. And by "concert" I mean an orgy of drugs and alcohol. Predictably Victoria gets lost and chased by a goat headed monster said to haunt the catacombs. This goes on for 80 minutes and it's more boring than words can describe.

At least the ending is a good one. SPOILER WARNING!!! Eventually Victoria kills one of her pursuers only to discover this was all a prank by Pink and her friends. Ha ha ha. What it's a joke is that Victoria really did kill one of the friends out of fear. As Pink is cursing her Victoria beats all of them to death! Amen. They all deserved it for the hell they put her and the audience through.

Can't really think of single reason to see this film as they don't make use of the on location filming in the catacombs. Come on! 7,000,000 human skeletons and they couldn't come up with anything scary?

People are slating this as a "bad" film however it is a decent enough, unnerving thriller that doesn't quite give the feeling of crushing claustrophobia the Descent does, and doesn't quite set you on the edge of your seat like monster chase films such as Creep does...

Some camera shots are a bit too "arty" for my taste, and detracts slightly from the overall effect seeing as it is a horror film, however it is easy to see what they were trying to achieve with such closed in, minimal light sourced tunneled shots that fade into the distance only as the main character rounds the bend taking the torchlight out of shot.

But overall, a good enough film with a slightly transparent ending that will either have you smiling or groaning!