A couple of genuine shocks combined with the usually surefire scenario featuring a group of people trapped in an enclosed space and being picked off one by one give Gregory Levasseur’s horror film The Pyramid its only credible ingredients. As for the rest, the tiresome use of the overdone “found footage” motif along with some dreadfully substandard CGI effects make The Pyramid a promising horror film on paper but a veritable dud in actuality. It’s more silly than scary.
Studio: Fox
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 DD, French 5.1 DD
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Rating: R
Run Time: 1 Hr. 29 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray, UltraViolet
keep case in a slipcoverDisc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 05/05/2015
MSRP: $29.99
The Production Rating: 2/5
The screenplay by Nick Simon and Daniel Meersand for some reason makes these the most intellectually challenged pair of archeologists in the history of civilization. Twice they ignore hieroglyphic warnings about entering certain passages even though it’s very clear early on that there is something alive and very dangerous inhabiting this extensive underground crypt for which they have no maps and no technology at all with them to help them out of any predicament into which they stumble. And stumble they do into a series of shocking discoveries which cost members of the search party their lives. The movie spends the first forty minutes using the “found footage” motif so familiar to viewers of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield (to name two movies that used the technique the most successfully), but it doesn’t work well here no matter how stubbornly director Gregory Levasseur continues to fall back on it (but only in selected moments which makes its use even more ridiculous). Much more effective are a couple of shots NOT using the video cameras the explorers are toting with them when the camera goes up to the ceiling and peers down below to emphasize the smallness of the captives to their environment or in one specific shock moment, to get a great aerial shot of one unfortunate soul discovering one of the booby traps the hard way. The CGI creatures, however, are pitifully fake even in the low light levels of these underground crypts and are more laughable than scream-worthy. The dialogue is sometimes laughable, too, as the daughter and the videographer take turns whining about the danger they’re in or wasting time thinking they can do something for people who are obviously done for instead of doing whatever they can to escape their rather obvious ultimate fates.
With such a poor script, it’s to their credit that Denis O'Hare, Christa Nicola, James Buckley, and Ashley Hinshaw (especially the first two) are able to retain straight faces to play along with the silliness and contrivance of the narrative and actually make us care about their well-being. Less effective is the nothing boy friend role for Amir K making it obvious he’ll be the first to meet his maker. Faycal Attougui has some good scenes as a fierce soldier who demands the team’s immediate evacuation from the area and then who, naturally, finds something he wasn’t expecting when he goes looking for them after they disappear down the rabbit hole of the pyramid.
Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 5/5
Special Features Rating: 2.5/5
Promotional Featurettes (HD): very brief snippets of publicity materials for the movie.
- Fear (0:58): some hidden camera footage of audiences wincing and shrieking through a screening along with testimonials about the film’s effectiveness.
- Space Archeology (2:11): producer Alexandre Aja discusses the reality-based modern methods of satellites' aiding in archeological finds.
- Egyptian Myth (2:14) director Gregory Levasseur, producers Alexandre Aja and Mark Canton, and star Denis O'Hare discuss the film’s plot.
- Partners (1:28) producer Alexandre Aja and director Gregory Levasseur discuss their shared passion for horror films.
Art Gallery: twenty-eight color shots of behind the scenes looks at the production including models of the creatures.
Theatrical Trailer (2:19, HD)
Promo Trailers (HD): The Lazarus Effect, Wrong Turn 6, American Horror Story: Freak Show, among others.
Ultraviolet: code sheet enclosed in the case.
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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