In this edition of The Silver Lining, we’ll be covering Grégory Levasseur’s Egyptology-based Found Footage flick, The Pyramid.
Acclaimed director Alexandre Aja first rose to notoriety as a member of the early 2000s French Extremity movement after shocking audiences with the intensely gory Haute Tension (A.K.A. High Tension/Switchblade Romance). While this peculiar little slasher flick eventually led Aja to an international career as a celebrated director and producer, part of his success can be attributed to his friend and frequent collaborator, Grégory Levasseur.
From Haute Tension to The Hills Have Eyes and even Piranha 3D, Aja has always been backed up by Levasseur, who co-wrote and produced most of his projects. That’s why it stands to reason that the director would eventually pull a few strings and scramble together a budget for Levasseur to direct his first feature film, which would come in the form of a unique Found Footage endeavor.
Set in modern-day Egypt, 2014’s The Pyramid chronicles a duo of archeologists (Ashley Hinshaw and Denis O’Hare) and a cameraman (James Buckley) who stumble upon a mysterious structure buried beneath the Egyptian desert. When their remote-controlled drone is attacked by something hidden within this newfound pyramid, the group decides to investigate, leading to a claustrophobic thrill ride featuring lethal traps and ancient curses.
With a genre-based dream-team behind the scenes, an interesting setting and a unique setup for a Found Footage flick, it seemed like The Pyramid was primed to be a terrifying throwback to the Egyptology-inspired classics of yesteryear.
SO WHAT WENT WRONG?
While The Pyramid technically wasn’t a flop, making nearly $17 million on a $6.5 million budget, most of that profit came from international audiences, as the film severely underperformed in the United States. This disappointment wasn’t limited to the box-office, however, as the film was also poorly reviewed by critics, with the movie currently sitting at a dishearteningly low 13% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Media outlets accused the flick of falling victim to several classic Found Footage blunders, such as relying on amateurish photography and paper-thin characters to tell a shallow story – not to mention more than a couple of instances of less-than-convincing digital effects work. In general, critics agreed that the flick lacked both the polish to make it a fun thriller and the grungy production techniques that are supposed to make Found Footage projects convincing in the first place.
To make things worse, there were several complaints about the film’s seemingly insensitive depiction of the 2013 Egyptian Revolution, with the script using the real-world event as a mere plot device rather than a nuanced political movement with serious real-world consequences. Egyptologists also pointed out a series of historical gaffs, such as the villainous depiction of Anubis (who was a mostly benevolent god in the original mythology) and the film not being aware that humans only began breeding sphinx cats in the 1960s.
Of course, the biggest issue here is The Pyramid’s lack of commitment to the Found Footage formula, with the film lazily relying on impossible camera angles and unclear points of view to tell its story. While hybrid filmmaking techniques can make for an interesting experience, the lack of narrative focus here kind of defeats the purpose of making a Found Footage movie, as it’s hard to be immersed in the story when this “documentary” suddenly shifts to an impossible third-person shot.
Ultimately, the movie’s reception was so absurdly negative that 20th Century Fox actually refused to finance a physical release in most countries, cruelly burying the flick like the titular pyramid.
THE SILVER LINING
The Pyramid may not be an undiscovered classic, but I’d argue that there are enough interesting ideas here to make it worth revisiting despite its admittedly lazy approach to Found Footage and clunky script (which Levasseur and Aja didn’t contribute to). At the very least, the film doesn’t deserve its reputation as a snoozefest when it’s really a tightly paced expedition with plenty of legitimately thrilling scares.
For starters, the movie’s Egyptian setting already makes it stand out from most other low-budget studio horror flicks, especially when it makes an effort to color the experience in with some well-constructed atmosphere and plenty of historical intrigue. In fact, by the end of the movie, I was left wishing for a Found Footage take on The Mummy, with Levasseur’s film exemplifying how a more grounded approach to genre filmmaking could take the Universal Monster back to its terrifying roots.
And speaking of terrifying, there are some intensely scary moments towards the end of the flick, with the night-vision-heavy Anubis sequence being a particularly solid example of Found Footage visuals becoming the stuff of nightmares. The CGI might get in the way of some of these frights (especially when feral cats are involved), but there’s no denying that the ideas on display here are interesting and, more importantly, genuinely creepy.
At the end of the day, I believe The Pyramid is a fun midnight movie with a handful of gnarly deaths and a memorable finale. Your mileage may vary according to how easily you can stomach the flick’s non-diagetical failings and general lack of historical accuracy, but I’d still recommend this one to fans of other claustrophobic Found Footage movies like As Above So Below and The Tunnel. Just be sure to stock up on catnip if you dare to venture inside this cursed tomb.
Watching a bad movie doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad experience. Even the worst films can boast a good idea or two, and that’s why we’re trying to look on the bright side with The Silver Lining, where we shine a light on the best parts of traditionally maligned horror flicks.
The post ‘The Pyramid’ – Egypt-Set Found Footage Horror Makes for a Fun Midnight Movie [The Silver Lining] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.