The Pyramid is a 2014 horror movie directed by Grégory Levasseur.
A team of archaeologists discover a vast pyramid buried under the Egyptian desert. As they investigate, they get lost within a complex labyrinth inside the pyramid. As they venture farther and farther in order to escape, the group soon realizes that they are being hunted.
The Pyramid provides examples of:
- Adventure Archaeologist
- Artistic License – Biology: The cats in the pyramid survived thousands of years via cannibalism. It is however possible they are also zombified/immortal somewhat, as the wall scriptures speaks of a spell of immortality.
- Furthermore, the Sphynx cat, despite its name, did not originate in Egypt and specifically not ancient Egypt (or anywhere else for that matter) as it was first bred in 1960s.
- Artistic License – Religion: For a movie based so heavily around Egyptian mythology - and that features Anubis as the main villain - it sure gets a lot of Egyptian mythology wrong.
- Black Dude Dies First: Technically, there are no black characters, but the Arab characters seem to be picked off a lot faster than that white characters, even when the Arabs are the only ones armed.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Nora almost makes it completely out of the pyramid, but she collapses from exhaustion and is approached by a little boy once she awakens. When the boy starts playing around with the camera, Anubis shows up and snatches the boy right before the credits roll. Nora's fate is ultimately left up to the imagination, though her odds are dismal given her state by the end of the film.
- Buried Alive
- Chekhov's Gun: almost Fitzie (the cameraman) finds a gun and explicitly takes it. He ends up firing a few shots at Anubis once it chases them up the vent. Nora's father also is seen preparing 2 flares "to scare off the dogs" inside the pyramid. They do end up scaring off first the zombie cats, then Anubis himself as Nora stabs him with one. The team also find a hatched/axe early on, keeping it for "carbon dating and study". Nora later uses the blade to first cut through her restraints before Anubis takes her heart, and axes him in the neck with it to escape.
- Covers Always Lie: The poster seems to intentionally hint that the villain is a mummy. It's actually the god Anubis.
- Curse of the Pharaoh: A group of archeologists investigate an Egyptian pyramid long buried underneath the sands only to discover it is actually a prison for Anubis, who is very hungry.
- Daddy's Girl: Deconstructed. Nora is Dr. Holden's daughter and clearly inherited his love for archaeology. While this would be viewed as endearing in most situations, Nora's pretty insistent on getting her way and does not always see eye to eye with her father on methods of research.
- Doomed Predecessor: The party enters the pyramid through a somewhat out-of-place tunnel. They later realize it was dug by an earlier expedition when they discover the body of one of those explorers. His Apocalyptic Log (dated almost 120 years earlier) describes how he and his companions were trapped inside and mentions an escape route they'd been looking for.
- Dramatic Irony: Nora gets a phone call from her mother asking if she's in danger because of the nearby rioting, and Nora assures her that they'll be safer staying at the dig site.
- Everybody Hates Hades: In Egyptian Mythology, Anubis is
Lawful Neutral at his worst and was said to have a great compassion for humanity, merely a judge for the already dead in much the same way a toll-keeper would punch your card to be let into the afterlife. Here he is the Big Bad of the film, portrayed as an Animalistic Abomination hunting down the archeologists and doing his judge thing while they're still alive. - Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Soldier, nicknamed "Captain Egypt" by Fitzie.
- Face-Revealing Turn: Anubis.
- Final Girl: Nora survives to the end credits... barely.
- Found Footage Films: The film uses this technique, except when it doesn't.
- To elaborate; it BEGINS as a found footage movie, but as the film progresses more and more traditionally-shot bits seep in until by the climax the actual found footage shots have been almost abandoned.
- Hypocrite: When the group enters the pyramid, Dr. Holden tells everyone not to touch anything while inside. Guess who is the one who touches something and sets off a sand trap? He also finds a secret door switch when the team is stuck in a room.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sunni.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: What Anubis is, is never really established. He could be an actual god, an alien, or just the only member of an otherwise extinct species of monsters.
- Sand Is Water: Once a trap is set off in the pyramid, an entire corridor fills with sand and Nora almost drowns in it.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Anubis. The feral Sphynx cats somewhat count as well.
