Mikel3 Warning: Please skip these comments if you are offended by the mention of religion in movie discussions Started watching 'Catacombs' on amazon prime yesterday afternoon. The story deals with a group that holds wild parties in the catacombs below Paris. They have loud music set up, bars, a stage, all sorts of things that would seem to be impossible given the location. Since it's illegal to do this they constantly change the location of the parties so that the police can not find them. They say in the film that there are many hundreds of miles of catacombs below the city. This is probably an extreme exaggeration for the sake of the story. The description of the plot at the IMDb intrigued me "On her first trip to Paris, a young woman hits a party in the Catacombs, the 200-mile labyrinth of limestone tunnels under the city that's lined with the remains of 7 million people. Separated from her friends, she becomes convinced that someone or something is chasing her." Sounds interesting right? So I put on the film. Right off viewing it was hard, it's one of those movies that seems to think people have such a short attention span they have to flash from one scene quickly to another or we will lose interest. It wasn't done constantly; there were periods of normal scenes where we have time to adjust to what we are looking at. I held out for about a half hour or so to see what was ahead, hoping they might stop the irritating quick changes. The final straw for me was when one character started telling some back story about a satanic like group. They showed images of important Christian religious figures being defiled. Like the the head on a statue of the Virgin Mary being smashed up and more. This to me was upsetting so I simply turned off the movie. I've noticed that Christianity has become an easy target in many films and other media now a days. It's become a target while other religion's symbols have not, perhaps for fear of retribution by them. Can you imagine a movie showing the destruction of the Koran for instance and the up roar that would create ? Too bad these sort of scenes seem to be used for shock value. Anyway, I don't recommend the film for the reasons stated.

MBunge Catacombs is about as basic as scary movies get. It's a pretty girl in the dark with a flashlight trying to get away from a guy in a goat mask. Occasionally, these filmmakers work way too hard to try and convince the audience (and probably themselves) that they're doing something more sophisticated and they throw a nihilistic twist in at the end. None of that disguises the fact that this entire script could have been written on the back of a cocktail napkin.Victoria (Shannyn Sossamon) is the quiet repressed sister who gets invited to Paris by her free spirited sibling Carolyn (Pink). Yeah, the pop singer Pink is in this thing. She's listed in the credits under her real name, so I wasn't expecting to see her. When she popped up on screen, I disgustedly said out loud "Oh, for God's sake". Not because I expected her to be terrible in the film, which she sort of is, but because I look more like Shannyn Sossamon's sister than Pink does. David Spade would have been more convincing in the role. Sossamon is a slim, dark, angular beauty. Pink looks like a very pretty bulldog that was dunked in peroxide. Imagine watching The Godfather and instead of Sonny Corleone looking like James Caan, he looked like Charles Nelson Reilly. That's the effect Pink has in this movie.Anyway, Carolyn introduces Victoria to her Eurotrash friends and then takes her to an illegal dance party in the catacombs under the streets of Paris. Victoria gets told the story of a killer in a goat mask who lives in the catacombs, winds up separated from everyone and unsurprisingly winds up getting chased through the catacombs by the goat mask killer. She gets away from him, literally wanders around in the dark for about a half hour where nothing happens and as she's just about to escape from the catacombs, the big nihilistic twist kicks in. I've seen worse twist endings, but that doesn't mean this one is any good.There are parts of Catacombs that are really bad, where every visual cliché from every heavy metal music video or horror movie of the last 10 years gets thrown onto the screen. There are other parts, though, that are actually affecting. This film is a bit like those "ghost hunter" shows you find on basic cable. It's silly and contrived and your first instinct is to snicker at it, but the rough simplicity of a frightened person alone in the dark, wondering what's going to happen next, can still get to you.The story begins and ends with bursts of high energy, but there's a whole lot of nothing in between. None of the characters rise above the generic. You do get to see some random naked boobs, but not from the titular stars of this production. And what violence there is, is more suggested than graphic.Catacombs is a horror movie for Amish teenagers. If you've never seen a horror movie before, you might find it exciting. If you're at all familiar with the genre, you'll recognize this as another sub-mediocre entry. I'd probably have harsher things to say about this movie, except I watched Rob Zombie's Halloween II earlier this week. In contrast with that shambling monstrosity, I'm forced to recognize a certain level of competence in this film. So, if you ever watch a horror movie so awful it makes you feel like the director has propped open your mouth and urinated down your throat, you might get some enjoyment out of watching Catacombs. Unless your aesthetic standards have been pushed down that low, you're probably better off avoiding it.

mario_c It's a (very!) dark suspense thriller that uses the Catacombs of Paris as setting. Almost the entire plot is passed in the Catacombs, just the first 30 minutes are outside. I liked this film especially because of four main reasons: 1) The dark setting and the way suspense was created. 2) The camera work; especially some shots in the dark and the "flashing scenes" (at the techno parties and when the main actress is running through the catacombs). At parts the camera assumes really frantic movements following the leading actress! 3) The soundtrack: the electro music and the dark and creepy sounds. 4) The final twist! I think the film ended in an amazing way, probably the better way possible! I appreciated the first twist, when she found it all was nothing but a prank, but the way she reacted was amazing! For me it was unexpected but great!Excluding the leading actress, who did a regular job, I didn't appreciate the acting though. It definitely could have been better. Some of the FX either, but generally this film was a good surprise, especially the last minutes and the mentioned twist.

MrGKB ...of being trapped in the catacombs of Paris, final resting place of millions of bones. Shannyn "A Knight's Tale" Sossamon plays a beautiful wallflower type (yeah, right, I know) who comes to Paris at the invite of her Sorbonne-attending sister (yeah, right), played by Alecia "Pink" Moore, who has no business pretending to be an actress. The rest of the cast are Eastern European unknowns, which is amusing given the film is ostensibly set underneath the City of Lights. Why didn't they just stick with being a cheap rip-off of "Phantom of the Opera" or something more marketable? Where was the love interest? Why should we care about this poor little dimbulb? How was it that someone actually thought Pink could act? Or that audiences enjoy extended exposure to strobe lighting? Or that mobile ad-hoc parties can be held in the Parisian catacombs on a regular basis? It's a limp story, shot well enough by Maxime "The Hills Have Eyes" Alexandre, spliced to within an inch of its life by fledgling editor Josh Rifkin, and directed with leaden hands by David "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" Elliot and neophyte Tomm Coker. Mr. Coker should stick with comic books. I haven't seen "G.I. Joe..." and don't intend to be looking for it, so the jury remains out on Mr. Elliot.Nevertheless, the verdict is clear on "Catacombs." Good for Sossamon geeks and insomniac viewing only, and preferably for free. Ill-advised for rental, no pity for purchase. This one's a stinker. Gets a four from me strictly for showing what can be done with a limited budget; otherwise it's a deuce or worse.