Freak Show : Movie Review : The Pyramid (2014)

The Pyramid is something that should have been kept buried

Director : Grégory Levasseur
Starring : Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare, James Buckley, Daniel Amerman
Studio : 20th Century Fox, Silvatar Media, Fox International Productions
Release Date : December 5, 2014

It's been a long time since I was able to post some movie reviews here in my blog. And I'm so glad to be back on track again!
Now, for my latest post, I am gonna be reviewing a horror movie from last year, which I have finally seen just now on home media.
So come on in and let's take a trip deeper inside The Pyramid.

Plot: A team of archaeologists discover a mysterious pyramid buried under the Egyptian desert and decide to explore it, only to discover that some things were never meant to be uncovered...

A Crappy Storyline
Well, isn't that the most unique plot you've ever heard. A band of people exploring some place they've never been before and getting hunted by someone ... or something.

Sounds familiar, right? It's because this storyline has been used and recycled in countless horror movies over and over for the past years. And that's one of the many reasons why this movie just didn't clicked with audiences and critics alike during it's release. I actually saw another found-footage movie last 2014 which shares a similar storyline. As Above, So Below, anyone? That one was way more scarier and somehow more effective than this film.

Stupid Characters
One of the worst things that a horror film can have are the oh-so-stupid characters that have plagued us ever since. Those characters who would choose the most idiotic decisions ever. And yes, they are present here in this film.

but there's one character who somehow got my attention: James Buckley's Terry "Fitzie" Fitsimmons. He stands out of the rest of the characters because he is the only one who thinks rationally. He also gave an acceptable reason on why people in Found-footage horror films still kept on filming even if there's some freaking Egyptian monster-god that's already chasing them.

Shaky-cam trick
Another weakness of this film is that it doesn't take it's found-footage genre seriously. It has some shots coming from the documentary crew, some shots from a camera-wielding robot named 'Shorty', then it shifts to some regular camera shots. It's similar to another found-footage film way back 2012. Remember Chernobyl Diaries? The one starring Jesse McCartney? Yeah. He starred in one of these low-budget found-footage flicks. And that one was just horrible. Both of them. These two movies didn't took their chosen genre seriously and it ended up just looking confused on what it really wants to be.

Another thing is that it didn't used it's Shaky-cam trick to it's advantages when it comes to scares. As Above, so Below uses this trick to elicit more scares, but The Pyramid doesn't. It just uses the trick to... honestly, I really have no idea. Probably, just to add up to the pile of other Found-footage horror flicks that has plagued us before.

The Only Good Thing...
Well, to it's credit, the film does manages to build up a sense of dread. It's claustrophobic setting was really put into good use. And it did have some really cool scares.
Another thing that I somehow liked in the film was it's use of gore. All the horror fans out there would get their load of blood and guts and satisfy their craving for heads getting smashed or hearts getting ripped off from the characters.

Final Verdict
So how did the film hold up?
Well, for a Found-footage film, it's a crappy one. I don't really get why they still pushed the idea of having it shot in this way and mixed it with normal shots along the way. But for a regular horror flick, this one is somehow manageable. It has a bit of dread, jump scares and gore to satisfy one's craving.