MOVIE REVIEW: ‘The Pyramid’ Is A Fun, Yet Familiar Thrill Ride

Film: The Pyramid
Starring: Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O’Hare
Directed by: Grégory Levasseur

Capping off what can only be described as one of the worst years for mainstream horror in the last decade, 20th Century Fox has delivered a fun, yet familiar thrill ride with The Pyramid.

It’s August 2013 and the streets of Cairo are on the brink of complete chaos. The government and its citizens are fighting for reasons far too meaningful for a film like The Pyramid to try and explain, but it does, however, provide a great setting to begin a film that otherwise would need a solid twenty or thirty minutes before providing anything that could come close to being described as a scare. We’re introduced to a documentary team who, after learning about a pyramid being uncovered in Egypt, disregard numerous warnings to stay away from the war torn nation and journey inland with hopes of being the first to cover the mysterious discovery. What they find is more than they or the team responsible for the dig could have ever expected, and it will take everything they have to ensure they make it home alive.

The Pyramid is riddled with genre tropes and jump scares you can easily find in countless other films, but the way they’re woven together throughout the genuinely intriguing plot is something wholly unique to the minds of writers Daniel Meersand and Nick Simon. You can probably guess that the characters eventually decide to enter the pyramid, though in their defense they do their best to avoid ever needing to, and I would hope you could also infer from the fact this is a horror film that before long they discover it’s a lot harder to get out of an ancient structure than it is to get in. What you’re incapable of knowing is the true reason why they have become trapped, or what exactly the purpose of the structure they’ve discovered was when it was fully operational. Everyone assumes every pyramid is the same because we’ve never found one that was all that different. This one is different. This one is very different.

Grégory Levasseur has been working with producer Alexandre Aja since the pair threw the world of horror into a frenzy over Haute Tension in 2003, but The Pyramid marks his first time sitting in the director’s chair. He’s worked on his fair share of hits and misses of the years, but since he and Aja delivered Mirrors in 2008 Levasseur has been on a roll that shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. His screenplay for the Elijah Wood lead remake of Maniac brought added depth and brutality to a film many believed to be perfect in its original form, and we certainly cannot forget the wildly fun Piranha 3D (don’t worry – he had nothing to do with the sequel). The Pyramid is Levasseur’s most accomplished work to date, blending everything he’s learned over the last decade with just enough mythology and shaky cam to make it all feel new once more.

Before you go running for the hills over the news of shaky cam, take a breath and believe me when I say such sequences only account for 10-15% of the film’s overall runtime. Levasseur seem to have realized that audiences have largely tired of the found footage aesthetic, but there are moments where the first person perspective simply works best, especially when trying to build tension while following characters who find themselves running or crawling through dark and confined spaces. If more directors used found footage in this manner I don’t think the style would catch as much slack as it does today.

The cast of The Pyramid are only slightly above average, and that is largely thanks to a commanding performance by screen veteran Denis O’Hare. I have no idea what he’s doing in this film, but without him audiences would have been subjected to at least sixty minutes of late twenty-somethings screaming in the darkness. O’Hare is the rational anchor to everyone’s hysteria, and he gives you something to connect with even when things become surreal.

There will be some who are quick to judge The Pyramid as another example of rehashed ideas being thrown together in hopes of coming across as original. While I agree that the film does feature several prominent moments that feel lifted from iconic genre offerings, The Pyramid is much more than another film that leverages shaky cam for a few cheap scares. It’s a labyrinth of terror, slowly building to a heart-stopping finale. For what it is there is a lot to enjoy, and if you’re nerdy about history there is even more to explore and learn by digging into the ancient civilizations whose beliefs fuel the plot. It’s probably not the best horror film you have seen this year, or at least I hope it’s not, but having watched everything else I feel confident in saying you could do a lot worse at the cinema this weekend than paying to see The Pyramid.

GRADE: C+

Review written by James Shotwell

James Shotwell
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