A maverick archaeologist (Perdita Weeks), aided by a group of urban explorers, goes hunting for antiquities in the Paris catacombs. After a few worrying mishaps, they find themselves lost inside a found footage horror film.

Found footage, exemplified by features such as The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007), is a fantastic technique for horror cinema. Generally shot from a first-person point of view with the camera presented as being operated in-scene by one of the characters, it limits the point of view and therefore enhances a film’s sense of suspense or the unknown. There is no real omniscient point of view, as one might get from a more conventional horror film, just the same panicky experience the viewer might have if they experienced the horror for real.

It is a popular form of horror movie for low budget or new filmmakers, because generally it can make a film much cheaper to make. That also makes it a very crowded style of cinema, since it is so easy to attempt. Sadly it is much more difficult to do well, and therein lies the rub. As Above, So Below falls into the middle of the pack for my tastes: while it is effective and frightening in fits and starts, it does not coalesce as a singularly strong work. The film’s earlier scenes are fairly pedestrian – a common problem with found footage – and its climax is needlessly confusing. Whether or not scenes in-between are worth it or not is really going to come down to personal taste: some viewers treat the shaky visual technique akin to fingernails on a blackboard.

The story of As Above, So Below is an ambitious but faulty blend of supernatural horror and Indiana Jones-style adventure. Protagonist Scarlett Marlowe (Weeks) is a prodigious scholar and archaeologist following in her dead father’s footsteps by hunting for Nicholas Flamel’s fabled ‘philosopher’s stone’. A National Treasure style of clues lead her and her accomplices into the catacombs beneath Paris, where things take on an increasingly nightmarish and supernatural tone. The film struggles to blend it together: one of the strengths of found footage is its comparative realism and immediacy, and this jars with the early scenes’ sense of cut-rate adventure. It is why the film’s second half capably exceeds its first. Once it is working exclusively to a style and a genre it becomes far more watchable – and even enjoyable, now and then.

A half-hearted attempt to resolve the question of what precisely is occurring arguably does more damage than simply going hell-for-leather into inexplicable nightmares. Often it can be very effective to leave an audience to piece together an explanation themselves, but here there is simply too little material with which to achieve that. The screenplay gives precious little depth to its characters, and with all of the frightened scrabbling around in the dark there is little space to flesh them out. Performances are generally functional rather than inspired. Perdita Weeks in particular is playing a slightly dull stereotype with little room to show her own invention or talent. It is a similar problem for her cast mates, including Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, Marion Lambert, and François Civil: they are there to be menaced and murdered, not to be interesting in their own right.

Director and co-writer John Erick Dowdle demonstrates a capacity to be a decent horror director, but he fails to find a satisfying story here. It is not his first attempt either, having previously worked on The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), Quarantine (2008), and Devil (2010). He has not directed a horror film since, denying us a chance to see if his skills improve. As it stands, As Above, So Below is a deeply flawed diversion with more promise than success.