RELEASE DATE: 23rd January 2015
RATING: 18
RUNNING TIME: 89 Minutes
GENRE: Action, Thriller
STARRING:  Ashley Hinshaw, James Buckley, Denis O’Hare, Christa Nicola, Amir K, Faycal Attougui, Philip Shelley, Ait Hamou Amine, Omar Benbrahim
DIRECTOR: Grégory Levasseur
WRITERS: Daniel Meersand, Nick Simon
PRODUCERS: Alexandre Aja, Mark Canton, Pavlina Hatoupis, Mohamed Hefzy, David Hopwood,
PRODUCTION BUDGET: N/A
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-pyramid

FIRST THOUGHTS

My jaw is not dropping but I still find the concept to be almost mind blowing.

WHY WATCH IT?

The film is set just outside Cairo, where a group of docie-filmmakers and archaeologists have discovered an ancient, one of a kind, three-sided pyramid in the region. Amidst the 2013 Egyptian youth revolt, that poised great threat to the future of the rare discovery. The film easily captivates the viewer in its establishing shots with fast cuts that visually mention the violent uprising in the city and the fate of the crew in between the commotion. The shots and story eventually move outside the violent city and to the sun stricken desert where the pyramid is and the team makes camp.

The action in the film begins when the team commences with their pilgrimage to the ancient architecture to soon find out that it is of labyrinth design. After failed attempts to finding an exit, the team soon discovers the pyramid has obstacle traps and mythical predators that they should worry about. The narrative build up is exciting, the characters are poised with challenges that the audience will find captivating to sit through and watch whether or not they can make it successfully.

The team is led by Dr Miles Holden who is portrayed by the only actor who could hold a decent performance in the film, Dennis O`hare (Dallas Buyer Club, The Judge), his choices for authority and leadership for his character came through clearly, however as a collective the cast lacked that chemistry that makes your shoulders spasm when a scary scene comes out unexpectedly. A mentionable actress in the film is Ashley Hinshaw (Agent Carter, About Cherry) her line of work show that she is working herself out of the “unknowns” bucket but I reckon it’s a couple of more years until she`s a household name as her performing skills are yet to be given ten thousand hours to mastery. The performances were filled with a lot of over the top acting from the ensemble which will make the audience fail to emotionally engage with the cast with O’Hare as an exception.

Looking at the story, Hollywood is hitting it right on the nail in manipulating the stories behind world wonders like pyramids. With this film, we`re  talking about a mixture of Egyptian Mythology, Western Astrology and some unreferenced philosophical proverbs in the dialogue and direction. Gregory Lavasseur who has directed mainstream horror films like The Hills Have Eyes and Mirrors, tried his best to make the story and the motivation make sense by using the above mentioned subjects but it was too much and cheap. Another peculiar choice of cinematography was a mixture found footage and conventional, unmotivated camera shots and angles. It does not make sense but I guess it’s a matter that made sense in his directing treatment.

FINAL WORDS

The film looks and sounds really cool. It has a confusing storyline and rudimental performances however the visual/special effects and action scenes compensate its mediocrity.

RATING

6 /10

REVIEWED BY:

@Vusumzi92