With memorable characters, inventive scares, and plenty of action to keep you on the edge of your seat, AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (2014) is one of the stronger films to come out of the big found footage boom that started in the late 2000s. Its unique setting, deep within the Paris Catacombs, makes for a visually striking, truly unique found footage horror that I would recommend even to those who are lukewarm on the genre as a whole. The gimmick feels organic, even necessary to tell the story correctly, which is something that I can’t say about most found footage movies, and it elevates the scares to heights they may not have reached with a more traditional style. This is a great example of found footage done right.
Patrons voted on which of my oc thumbnails I would render up first, and Tobias eeked out a win!! it’s fun trying to slap as much narrative aesthetics as I can without spoiling any book events. :)
Shamans have been around now for millennia. Before anyone thought of the word witch we had the word shaman. There are a great number of parallels between the two that it is impossible not to see how one came from the other. Let’s look at the life of a shaman.
Nearly all shamans were first and foremost helpers in their community. They acted as doctor, preist and psychologist before those professions branched out into separate groups. Many shamans had altars where they would channel energy, meditate and seek guidance. Shamans are famous for using many different types of plants or compounds to get them into a different state of conciousness so they could enter the spirit realm and seek answers to help and heal. Sometimes a trance was induced naturally through drumming and chanting. At times it called for their client or patient to be the one in a trance state to bring them healing and answers. Shamans also used divination quite often, they made objects from natural materials around them. For example if living near the sea some shells might be collected and their different apects interpreted. Different bones were also a popular choice.
So as any witch could put together the beginnings of our craft no doubt owe quite a bit to ancient shamanism. As we pray and do ritual at our altars, meditate and change our consciousness before a spell, divine through runes or tarot and overall help our community with our craft we must recognize these aspects of shamanism in modern day witchcraft. I will not say that to begin in the craft one must first research shamanism but it is certainly something I think every witch should research at some time in their journey for where would we be without it?
Okay I’m finally free so I’m gonna start explaining the story I saw in my dream. Let me tell you that I hardly have dreams and for me to see an entire story and that too about the Miraculous characters, of course I had to write it down.
-It was a miraculous As Above So Below (sort of) AU. If you haven’t watched that movie you should it’s absolutely insane I love it.
-Nino & Alya were the main characters and were dating. Adrien and Marinette were side characters and not dating. They were a group of four friends who were discoverers and travelers, and Alya, being one of the main, was an archeologist. This role suited Alya so much oh my god. She was so dedicated to her work it was amazing to watch her.
Anyways basically Alya found out about an ancient relic containing information about the whereabouts of the Philosopher’s Stone that grants life. The stone was one of the miraculous I think. It was the same lore as the movie, that Alya wanted to find that stone in order to save her fathers entire life’s hard work. So the four set off for somewhere in a country. Idk where it was, but the journey was them in a convertible like fucking Nancy Drew lmao as they drove off across a desert to find the cave where the relic was.
They found a hotel close to the cave (wow) and they all slept in a room that was big but had, like, three beds in line like you’d see in a hotel room.
anyways, they put their stuff on the floor like the messy travelers they were. Cameras, bags, papers, everything scattered everywhere as they had the room booked for the week.
Day 1,
they set off for the cave. Long story short, found the base of the cave where the large stone relic was in all its ancient glory.
The info however, was in a language that even Alya couldn’t understand. Now if you remember the scene where Scarlett desperately tries to decode the meaning behind the words, that’s exactly what Alya tries to do. Nino has a hand on her shoulder as she tries to read it. When suddenly Adrien and Marinette hear the sounds of low sirens. You know, that deadass horrifying sounds like in the movie that make you pee your pants. That. Anyways.
Adrien tells Alya that he doesn’t think they should stay any longer.
Alya desperately shakes her head. She says she HAS to try. If they can decode it today they can move on to the next part of the mission. The sound gets louder. Nino squeezes Alya’s shoulder tighter and tells her that they REALLY should go now. She’s stubborn asf like Scarlett smh
The ground starts shaking and Marinette starts saying louder and louder to Alya that they really need to be alive if they want to continue and that they should run for now.
Suddenly the shaking gets too much and the sound gets so loud that they all clutch their heads and they faint.
When they wake up, they’re all in their hotel room. It’s the morning of the next day.
Day 2,
They have no idea how that happened, and as creepy and sus as the experience is for them they’re determined to not give up and Alya says that she needs to read the thing from beginning to end in order to start making sense of it. She wasn’t able to do that because of the mysterious sounds and then fainting. The recording they made of the words appear blank. In all the videos it looks like there isn’t anything written on the stone at all. So they set off again.
Btw did I mention that I really liked the fact that Alya and Nino were the main characters? Idk but the vibe in the dream was perfect.
This time before heading to the cave they went into a market to see different cultural things and get inspired. It was a happy time. They were enjoying themselves. You know like that small happy scene the movie gives you before shit goes down? Yeah.
Finally the fun comes to an end (alya and nino are busy being couples the entire time. Adrien just keeps staring at Marinette because.
You know the side characters+ not dating =might end up dating somewhere along the way.)
Anyways the mood dampens when they reach the cave. They prepare mentally, take deep breaths. Grab each others hands and set off again. They reach the base again. Set up their equipment. Alya starts trying to read again. Marinette’s kind of scared and her hands are shaking this time so Adrien grabs her hands for comfort because side character moment (okay lmao I’ll stop).
So while Alya is reading the relic, the sounds start again. They all tense up, but my kids are determined. Alya continues to read when this time, shadows start appearing around them. They all black out before they can even say anything about the shadows.
Again, they wake up, confused and scared, in their hotel room. It’s the same day but night time.
Day 3,
They’re all shaken up but preparing to head out again. As they’re in the room, Adrien feels like he saw one of the bags move on its own. He mentions it but since no one else saw it, they let it drop. It’s important to mention that as the days progress, they start noticing more and more paranormal activity. And it always occurs in their hotel room. Nowhere else.
Each day they try to go to the cave, something more horrifying than the last happens. Each time they wake up in the hotel room they’re more shaken up.
Day 4,
Marinette’s sick of this cycle. Nino is too, but every time he tries to tell Alya it ends in nothing but an argument and a lot of tears so he stops saying it. Adrien just wants to stay alive lmao.
On day four, as it’s night time and they just finish dinner, Adrien finds Marinette at the back of the hotel building. There’s some sort of garden there, and she’s standing in the middle of it, looking at and touching the flowers. Adrien calls her and she looks up. He walks up to her and tells her that for some reason he feels like something’s not right. He confesses to her that he’s scared, and that he always had a bad feeling about this mission from the start, but with the way things are looking and with how tonight he wanted to BET an even intense paranormal activity will take place in their room because its day 4, he feels like he needs to tell her his honest feelings before it’s too late. He tells her that he loves her no matter what happens in the end, or if they make it out alive or not. Marinette smiles and idk why she doesn’t confess in return but like she smiles and nods and hugs him so I’m guessing she did say it back and stuff. My brain was just lagging to put that little info in.
When they go back to the room they tell Alya and Nino about their confession. That’s the first good news Alya has heard in a week.
Day 5.
They repeat the process. But this time there is a heaviness that wasn’t there before. They’re stiff, but Alya says that she’s pretty sure she’s almost gotten all of it. The same sequence happens all over again. But this time real shit happens.
The ground is shaking and the sirens are deathdifying but it doesn’t even bother Alya much anymore. She’s steadying herself as she reads it out loud, when suddenly Adrien shouts “LOOK OUT”
A figure appears from somewhere. Wearing a black robe that covers its face and body completely. The sounds that start now are more core-shaking than the sirens. It’s a really horrifying scene trust me when I say that.
A green flame come’s out from the chest of the figure, and when that figure looks up, it’s just a skeleton. Marinette screams. But then, and this scene is really funny to me, the flame says that this skeleton is the guardian of the stone. It was given a spirit by Hades to protect the relic and it’s information (I gues you can say the hades au really got to my head huh). And then the figure lunges at Alya and she tries to run from it, but she falls and it grabs her foot. A hole opens in the ground that very much looks like it opens up in hell and then the figure tries to drag Alya into it. They’re all screaming and holding onto each other for support as Nino grabs Alya’s hand and tries to save her.
They do end up freeing her from the guardian’s clutches, but then a piercing scream in the cave makes them all lose consciousness.
As expected, they all wake up in their rooms with a jolt, this time looking at each other with wild looks, when the lights in the hotel room go out. And the scream from the cave erupts in the room. Suddenly there’s a lot of sounds, and when the lights come back on again, they find that every single thing in the room is destroyed or tossed around. The belongings and clothes are literally everywhere. The wooden beds are broken in half and flipped. The curtains are torn. Ngl it was very horrifying.
Anyways so while this was fun to write, I kind of woke up after this. Thank you for your time. If you have an ending in mind, please do let me know. I really want to know how it ends.
△“Gnosis is universal. You will see others asleep try and individualize gnosis, woe to those who try and separate themselves from the universality of the effects created by that which is gnosis! Be ye not fooled. Karmic law dictates there is cause and effect. The Involution and evolution is the shiva and the shakti. We are all made of the same structure, spine, nervous system, reproductive organs, and creative energy; this being true would also prove the fact that going into evolution or involution would produce the same effects on all of every man. If our anatomy is identical, which assuredly so, it is identical to all of everyone; the metaphysics and quantum physics would effect all of man in an identical fashion on all levels, whether it be atomically, cellularly, or psychologically.”▼
~ from net (Pics: 1. Yang - sacred masculine principle, 2. Late Hellenistic silver tetradrachm with God and Goddess of the island of Tenedos (off the northwestern coast of Anatolia), 3. Yin - sacred female principle)
The second in a series of images I’ve been working on. Just been enjoying working on the details and choosing some new colors and imagery to play around with. I’m looking to improve and try and work on a narrative of my own rather than that of a book or film, hopefully i’ll find a groove with the imagery I choose to do and think up some better stuff to work on. But this is a start! Might do a third and get some prints done, inbox me if you’re interested!
Made a start on this yesterday, think I’d had enough of drawing superhero’s lol I wanted to do something a bit different so I could try some things out as far as composition and color goes, and to come up with something more original rather than something from a film or book. Hope you guys like it, enjoy your bank holiday
