As Above, So Below (2014)
Directed by John Erick Dowdle
No — As Above, So Below is not woke, scoring 10 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
A found-footage descent through the Paris catacombs in search of Nicolas Flamel's philosopher's stone, with a female polymath at the center and a camera operator trailing her every anxious breath.
Consciousness Markers
The cast is naturally diverse, with a female lead and several French actors of varied backgrounds, but this reflects ordinary ensemble casting rather than any deliberate representational statement.
The protagonist is a capable female polymath and archaeologist, but the film treats this as a genre convention (a female-led adventure) rather than advancing any feminist argument.
Themes of sin and confession surface in the descent, but they are woven into the horror narrative rather than delivered as a sermon.
The closing log line rejects material treasure in favor of 'the truth,' a faint anti-materialist gesture, but the film is otherwise a straightforward treasure hunt.
No LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or themes appear anywhere in the film.
The film engages no racial themes or commentary; the diverse cast exists without any racial consciousness.
There is no environmental or climate-related content in the film.
No body-positive themes or messaging are present.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are depicted.
The film draws loosely on Dante's Inferno and the legend of Nicolas Flamel, but this is mythological borrowing, not a revisionist rewriting of history.
Why it received this score
A found-footage descent through the Paris catacombs in search of Nicolas Flamel's philosopher's stone, with a female polymath at the center and a camera operator trailing her every anxious breath. The film is competent, clammy, and largely uninterested in saying anything about the world above ground. Its cultural footprint is modest. What it does possess is a leading woman, Scarlett Marlowe, who solves riddles, reads Aramaic, and out-thinks every man in the tunnel. The Dowdle brothers have stated plainly that they wanted an Indiana Jones picture with a female lead, which places the achievement squarely in the register of genre convention. A capable woman in an adventure film is not a thesis. It is a casting decision, and a welcome one, executed without commentary.
The ensemble is diverse in the ordinary way that ensembles are now diverse: a British lead, an American, and a handful of French performers of varied backgrounds. Nobody remarks on it. Nobody is asked to. This is the quiet, unremarked integration of a working cast, and it registers as nothing more than that. The film contains no LGBTQ content, no racial argument, no environmental concern, no body-positive messaging, and no neurodivergent characters. It draws on Dante's nine circles and the legend of Flamel, but borrowing mythology is not rewriting history. The sins of the characters, confessed in the dark before the final drop, are woven into the horror mechanics. Nobody stands at a lectern.
The lone gesture toward a message arrives in the closing title card, where Scarlett declares that her search was never for material treasure, only for the truth. It is a faint shrug at greed, delivered after ninety minutes of characters chasing gold and immortality. We are left with a tidy, sweaty little chiller that wants to frighten us and mostly does, while advancing no social program of any kind. Refreshing, in its way. The catacombs remain the catacombs.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
When a team of explorers venture into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.
Questions about As Above, So Below
Is As Above, So Below woke?
No — As Above, So Below is not woke, scoring 10 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does As Above, So Below have any woke elements?
Very few. None of the 10 markers reaches 30, the level where a marker counts as present; the highest is Representation Casting at 20.
How does As Above, So Below compare to other 2014 movies?
It ranks #130 of the 303 films from 2014 we've scored; their average is 13. The wokest is Selma (68).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.