The Pyramid
The Pyramidovercomes thin writing and an inconsistent found-footage format to deliver a horror movie experience that actually fulfills its promises.
InThe Pyramid , unexampled and old styles of archeology collide as daughter / daddy squad Nora ( Ashley Hinshaw ) and Holden ( Denis O’Hare ) embark on the world - changing breakthrough of a pyramid bury under Egyptian desert , which antecede any previously known structure in the realm . When the political upheaval fence in them pass on a febrility sales talk , Nora and Holden are place out of the dig site and back to the states .
Old - school Holden wants to trace protocol , but the young , more ambitious Nora want to use modern technical school to sneak a peek inside the pyramid - a conclusion wholeheartedly supported by her robotics expert boyfriend and the documentary crew shoot the expedition . When Holden reluctantly agrees , they send a robot scout into the structure ; when that scout fails to deliver , the team opts to venture in after it - despite many hieroglyphic warnings about what lie in hold back indoors .
Marking the directorial launching of longtime horror movie writer Grégory Levasseur ( longtime henchman withHills Have EyesandHigh Tensionhorror auteur Alexandré Aja),The Pyramidovercomes sparse committal to writing and an discrepant bump - footage format to save a horror picture show experience that actually carry out its promises .
As a music director , Levasseur has clear larn a lot from Aja on how to construct different types of scares - each as in force as the others . From stick out scares to sustained scenes of gore and horror to psychological monstrosity outs , the movie does a good line of work of maintain the tenseness ratchet up to mellow levels , while still providing several solid scenes of large payoff . No death is waste . The effects work is not too dandy , but since most of dirty work is done in muzzy swarthiness , the budgeted CGI does n’t weigh for most of the journey through practical ( and creepy ) set pieces .
On the technical front , Levasseur seems unsure about the format or flair of movie he wants to work with . The film is present to be found - footage at the outset , but often violates that convention by including arbitrary shots that completely break found - footage logic ( i.e. , random shot of a character from a non - FF perspective ) . By breaking its own rules ( albeit often for the rice beer of good cinematography and visuals ) , the filmmakes it hard to justify the jumbled , shaky - River Cam circumstances of footage that are stage in true found - footage perspective . The impression is that the data formatting is being used presumably to implement POV constriction that allow for more things like flashy leap scares and unfounded imagination . In the end , though , it ’s just waterlogged and inconsistent filmmaking from a first - timer .
The level - by the comparatively untried squad of Daniel Meersand and Nick Simon - heaps shard of Egyptian mythology on top of thinly - draw case and half - search themes . In short : it ’s not that in effect of a story of mythos , beyond the moment - to - moment , compass point - to - spot advance of scares ( As Above , So Belowdid something standardized , better ) . It ’s an unfortunate down spiral , because at the onset , it seems like the movie will have a core to it , introducing ideas like generational struggle , world political sympathies , and how ancient myth may link up to the modern world we go in . But none of that stop up run anywhere once the soundbox count starts to heap up .
True Bloodalumni Ashley Hinshaw and Denis O’Hare make for a upstanding lead pair ; the latter does weaselly pretension like a pro , while the former makes for a astonishingly solid distaff protagonist .
Around those two we get supporting characters who seem well - develop , but are largely left undiscovered . This include the infotainment squad of Sunni ( Christa Nicola ) and her camera operator Fitzie ( James Buckley ) , as well as Egyptian robotics expert , Zahir ( Amir K ) , and Egyptian soldier Shadid ( Faycal Attougui ) . The characters are all a step above the usual horror motion-picture show fodder , and the actors playing them are suitable , but the movie itself does little with them ( peculiarly Shadid , who seems to be strictly as a plot equipment , and minuscule else ) .
In the end , The Pyramidis a well - than - excepted entry in the prospicient list of forgettable see - footage horror movies . With the repulsion writing style looking thin until the end of the year , what ’s entomb here may turn out to be worth your while for the meanwhile .
P-057 (from left) Fitzie (James Buckley), Sunni (Christa-Marie Nicola), Nora (Ashley Hinshaw), and Holden (Denis O’Hare) make a shocking discovery inside a lost pyramid unlike any other in the Egyptian desert. As they unlock the horrific secrets buried within, they realize they aren’t just trapped; they are being hunted. Photo credit: Didier Baverel.
TRAILER
The Pyramidis now playing in theatre . It is 89 minutes long and is Rated R for some repulsion fury and bloody images .
The Pyramid is a 2014 revulsion moving picture address by Grégory Levasseur . The tale come after a team of archaeologists who learn a mysterious pyramid beneath the Egyptian desert . As they venture deeply into the structure , they become trapped and must pilot deadly maw and ancient wight to live . The movie star Ashley Hinshaw , Denis O’Hare , and James Buckley .
