 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Pyramid • Year: 2014 • Country: USA • Director: Grégory Levasseur • Main cast: Ashley Hinshaw, James Buckley, Denis O’Hare • Runtime: 89 minutes • Production company: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox International Productions (FIP), Silvatar Media • TRAILER
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Does anyone remember having seen the movie The Pyramid (2014) back in late 2014 or early 2015 when it had its theatrical release worldwide? Probably not, because the movie was such a box office failure and the people from 20th Century Fox passed on the promotion and decent distribution of the film. The movie fell into oblivion until this month, when it was recently added to the Netflix catalog (at least in the German territory). And what is my opinion after watching the movie last night? Stay away from it.
I’ve always had interest in the mysteries of the pyramids and ancient Egyptian culture in general. Then, when I saw Grégory Levasseur was the director of the movie I didn’t hesitate to go for it and give it a try. Grégory Levasseur was the writer of the first movies directed by French horror filmmaker Alexandre Aja, Furia (1999), Haute tension (2003), The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Mirrors (2008). Also, he wrote the scripts of other movies produced by Aja, like P2 (2007) and Maniac (2012) (both directed by Franck Khalfoun, another filmmaker in the orbit of Alexandre Aja). Those were good movies, with a good story development, and some of them are horror referents of the new century. Then, what happened with The Pyramid (2014)? Let’s go in detail.
The Pyramid (2014) is the first movie directed by Grégory Levasseur, and it surprises somehow that him being a well-recognized screenwriter he chose somebody else’s script for his debut. Because the design of the characters is extremely bad, being nothing but a conglomeration of all the bad topics and cliches one can find in all the movies of this sort. The same is to mention about the situations happening in the movie, and especially the conversations. It is true that the set decoration of the insides of the mysterious pyramid of the title is not that bad, but it’s neither spectacular. And, for sure, not good enough to salvage the entire movie.
So what’s the plot of this film? An archaeological team formed by a veteran archeologist and his daughter (something never seen before, right? Note the irony here, please), together with a filming crew (another semi-found footage flick, how original), find a new pyramid and decide to check its interiors by themselves before the political forces take over their discovery. Inside of the ancient building they will find labyrinthine corridors, deadly traps, strange creatures and even other dangers that I don’t want to mention so I don’t ruin maybe the only almost-interesting point of the picture. Don’t make the same mistake I made thinking this could be some sort of minor Indiana Jones-like title, because although the filmmakers slightly touch the myths and mysteries of ancient Egypt this is overall a horror movie. And not a good one. And the characters will never have the charism of the archeologist superstar portraited by Harrison Ford. But it’s not a total fault of the actors, they are more or less average, not extraordinarily bad. The main problem is the awful script, and the direction is on the same level.
Overall, The Pyramid (2014) doesn’t bring anything new. In fact, it’s nothing about a collection of all the bad things one can find in horror adventure movies. Hollow and dull. Totally unnecessary.
RATE: 3/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2799166
