News
That Time Found-Footage Was Real…in the Catacombs!
Image Source Tommie Hansen
There have been a handful of films (i.e. As Above/So Below, Catacombs) that head deep into the legendary Catacombs of Paris, France.
Built for religious practice (with the bones of human beings), these tombs are also the place of mass desecration – millions of bodies were exhumed from Paris cemeteries and dumped deep into The Catacombs.
While homeless find shelter in The Catacombs, visitors need a tour guide to avoid getting lost in the seven levels of the 200-mile network of “old caves, tunnels and quarries”.
The criminally underrated As Above/So Below took horror fans deep into The Catacombs in a fresh take on the found-footage subgenre. And while many of these found-footage horror films claim to be inspired by true stories, As Above/So Below does not, which is weird considering there is a true story just as terrifying.
Years ago, ABC Family aired a special on The Catacombs (below), which focused on a camcorder discovered deep within.
Allegedly, in the early 90’s, a man decided he’d explore The Catacombs on his own. He never resurfaced, although his camcorder and cassette were found.
What’s on it will give you chills.
In the video, you’ll see the man (at 288 feet below street level) catch a glimpse of “something”, panic, and begin to run. He eventually drops the camcorder, which continues to film the nothingness of The Catacombs – you know, straight out of a found-footage horror movie.
The ABC documentary alleges that the location of this event is what’s truly terrifying – the entrance to the “Gates of Hell.”
Yikes.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
You must be logged in to post a comment.