Psycho's Movie Reviews #286: What Lies Beneath (2000)

What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple who live in a haunted house. It was the first film by Zemeckis' production company ImageMovers. The film opened in 2,813 theatres in North America, and grossed $291 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of the year. It received mixed reviews, but was nominated for three Saturn Awards.

Plot

Former cellist Claire Spencer and her husband Norman, an accomplished scientist and professor, live a quiet life in Vermont. Their relationship seems slightly strained, particularly after Claire's daughter, Caitlin, leaves for college. Claire notices the new neighbours, Mary and Warren Feur, appear to have a volatile relationship. After Mary is unseen for several days, Claire suspects Warren may have killed her.

While by the lake next to their house, Claire believes she sees a woman's body in the water. She later discovers an odd key inside a heater vent. After unusual occurrences and sensing a presence in the house, Claire and her mystic friend, Jody, hold a failed séance. Claire later finds the bathtub filled with hot water and, "You know," written on the steamy mirror. Claire's computer inexplicably types "MEF" repeatedly. Claire becomes convinced it is the missing Mary's spirit, but Norman discounts this. Several days later, Mary returns home alive and well, explaining she went to her mother's in Rhode Island after a fight with Warren.

A framed newspaper article about Norman mysteriously falls off his desk and shatters. On the article's reverse side, Claire reads a piece about a missing woman named Madison Elizabeth Frank. Madison's initials are "MEF." Claire tracks down and visits Madison's mother, who shows her Madison's bedroom. While there, Claire steals a lock of Madison's hair, and notices a photo of her wearing an unusual necklace.

Later that night, Claire, holding Madison's hair, performs a ritual from a book. She conjures Madison, whose spirit possesses her. While still possessed, Claire aggressively seduces Norman. Madison, speaking through Claire, shocks Norman. Claire, dropping the locket of hair, immediately becomes herself again. She then recalls a repressed memory about Norman's affair with a student. Norman admits it happened during a rough patch in their marriage. Claire leaves and spends the night with Jody, who reveals that a year earlier, she saw Norman arguing with a blonde woman at a café in Adamant, a nearby town.

Claire returns home and finds Norman unconscious in the tub. He seemingly recovers and claims it was an accident and not suicide attempt. He denies killing Madison. Norman later finds Claire standing on the lake dock. Claire, holding Madison's hair lock, is pulled into the water by an unseen force. Dragged to the bottom, she sees a jewellery box with the same symbol as Madison's necklace. Before she can grab it, Norman has jumped in and pulls her to the surface. They then burn the lock of hair.

Claire later visits a shop in Adamant. Claire sees a jewellery box with the same design as the one in the lake. Claire recovers the box from the lake and unlocks it with the key she previously found. Inside is Madison's necklace. Norman changes his story, claiming Madison killed herself in their house. He says he pushed her car into the lake with her body inside. Norman agrees to confess to authorities, but Claire discovers he dialled 411, and faked the conversation. Norman paralyzes Claire with halothane, and admits he murdered Madison when she threatened to expose their affair.

Norman places Claire in the bathtub, filling it with water to stage her suicide. He spots Madison's necklace around Claire's neck. When Claire's face seems to contort into Madison's corpse, Norman jerks back and smashes his head on the bathroom sink, rendering him unconscious. As the water level rises, Claire recovers enough from the paralysis to partially close the tap and then dislodge the stopper, barely surviving drowning. Norman has left the bathroom and she finds him seemingly unconscious downstairs. She flees in the couple's truck. As she crosses the bridge over Lake Champlain, Norman, hiding in the truck bed, attacks Claire, who frantically dials 911 on her cell phone. The truck careens down the embankment into the lake. As it sinks, it dislodges Madison's car. Madison's corpse floats toward the couple as Norman tries to drown Claire. Madison grabs Norman's arm, shocking him, which allows Claire to escape. Norman drowns and Madison's corpse drifts away. Later that winter, Claire places a red rose on Madison's grave.

Production

Documentary filmmaker Sarah Kernochan had adapted a personal experience with the paranormal as a script treatment featuring a retirement aged couple dealing with restless but compassionate spirits. DreamWorks commissioned a rewrite from actor-writer Clark Gregg. This script was later delivered in 1998 by Steven Spielberg himself to his director friend Robert Zemeckis, who had signed a deal for DreamWorks to distribute the films of newly founded production company ImageMovers, and announced interest in doing a thriller film. Harrison Ford then signed to star on the film, even agreeing to clear room in his schedule for the project. Michelle Pfeiffer then followed as DreamWorks started to deal with 20th Century Fox regarding the film's distribution. Ford and Pfeiffer were Zemeckis' first and only choices for the lead roles. Fox agreed to distribute both What Lies Beneath and Zemeckis' other project Cast Away, with the thriller having DreamWorks doing the domestic distribution and Fox the international one.

Zemeckis filmed What Lies Beneath while Cast Away was shut down to allow Tom Hanks to lose weight and grow a beard for his character's development. As Gregg had to remain with production for rewrites, he had to decline Aaron Sorkin's offer to read for a major role in Sports Night - though Sorkin would later write for Gregg a minor role in the final episodes of the series.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film holds a rating of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 126 reviews with an average rating of 5.50/10 with the site's consensus stating that "Robert Zemeckis is unable to salvage an uncompelling and unoriginal film." The film received a score of 51 on Metacritic based on 35 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

The New York Times wrote that, "at the start, Zemeckis zaps us with quick, glib scares, just to show he still knows how, but his heart isn't in this kind of material anymore. His reflexes are a little slow." The Los Angeles Times called it "spooky with a polished kind of creepiness added in... What Lies Beneath nevertheless feels more planned than passionate, scary at points but unconvincing overall." The Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Lacking a smarter screenplay, it milks the genuine skills of its actors and director for more than it deserves, and then runs off the rails in an ending more laughable than scary. Along the way, yes, there are some good moments." Time Out thought that, "after a slow build that at times makes every hair stand on end – Zemeckis rolls out every thriller cliché there is. A pity, because until then it's a smart, realistically staged, adult-oriented and extraordinarily effective domestic chiller." Empire wrote: "The biggest surprise is, perhaps, that what emerges is no masterpiece, but a semi-sophisticated shocker, playfully homaging Hitchcock like a mechanical masterclass in doing 'genre'. The first hour is great fun... It's an enjoyably giddy ride, certainly, but once you're back from the edge of your seat, you realise most of the creaks and groans are from the decomposing script."

Michelle Pfeiffer received some positive notice for her performance. Roger Ebert called her "convincing and sympathetic."

In his review, Ebert said that he felt the problem with Zemeckis' desire to direct a Hitchcockian film was to involve the supernatural (the film contains several musical, visual and plot references to Psycho and Vertigo, among other Hitchcock films), which he believes to be something Alfred Hitchcock himself would never have done.

What Lies Beneath opened in 2,813 theatres in North America and grossed $29,702,959 for an average of $10,559 per theatre. The film ended up earning $155,464,351 domestically and $135,956,000 internationally for a total of $291,420,351 worldwide, close to triple its production budget of $100 million.

Budget $100 million

Box office $291.4 million

My Review

As the "haunted house" chiller seems to currently be in vogue, it comes as no surprise that all the big studios should jump on the bandwagon - after all, they're hoping for another Sixth Sense. This tale in particular is an old-fashioned ghost story free of the ludicrously poor CGI special effects which have ruined fare like The Haunting remake. While it certainly passes the time and is well worth watching, be warned that this is no Sixth Sense. What it is, is a derivative thriller only worth watching due to the direction and actors involved.

Firstly, the bad points. As is the case with a lot of films today, this film desperately needs some originality. The story of a woman being haunted in a house alone is a very old one indeed and What Lies Beneath is content to rehash a lot of the clichés we associate with haunted house fare - the ancient creaking door scene for one. Another flaw is the film's bloated running time - at two hours and ten minutes, this one will give you cramp and for no reason, either. Some subplots and scenes - such as the psychiatrist interludes - could happily be hacked from the script with little effect. A lot of the scenes in the film are needlessly prolonged, and some careful pruning could have added some excitement. Strangely enough, in the finale, the opposite occurs and about fifty mini scenes are packed into ten minutes - this is where all the excitement has been stored, and the sudden adrenaline rush seems a bit hurried and desperate in itself.

Another problem is the so-called "horror" content. For me, this film works better as a thriller for many reasons. Every time there's a pause, or a potentially scary moment in this film, you just know things are building up to a jump scene, where somebody or something appears suddenly in the film and there's a loud burst of music on the soundtrack. The classic example of this would be somebody turning around and bumping into somebody else suddenly. This happens in What Lies Beneath a lot. A heck of a lot. While this kind of basic shock tactic works, it's just horror at its most simplistic and therefore rather disappointing. You won't find any of the creepiness of The Sixth Sense around here.

The acting from seasoned veterans Pfeiffer and Ford is excellent, as to be expected. With Pfeiffer you would expect nothing less, and it's refreshing to watch a respected actress appear in a film like this now that it's fashionable as opposed to the wealth of TV actresses appearing in such fare in a television format throughout the nineties. As for Ford, he plays a deliberately boring character for much of the film but really comes into his own towards the end; he's cast against type and great with it. As for the other actors, the underrated Joe Morton is wasted as a pointless psychiatrist while Diana Scarwid is an exceptionally irritating friend of Pfeiffer's. James Remar thankfully pops up to put in a nice imposing performance.

Packed with red-herrings, lots of clichés, and enough references to Hitchcock to make you sick, this is a flawed but interesting film and a darn sight spookier than many previous offerings in the '90s. CGI is thankfully shoved aside in favour of more old fashioned scares, with the ugly computer animation only popping up a couple of times. One exceptional scene - this film's highlight - does for the bathtub what Psycho did for the shower, with a prone and paralysed Pfeiffer lying in a bathtub slowly filling with water. A horrific concept expertly done, immediately followed by the film's best scare. Other things to watch out for include plot holes (Pfeiffer retrieves a buried casket from underwater single-handedly), one moment of painful violence, and the crazy "chase" ending which really gets the adrenaline pumping. The ending of the film is predictable but effective. What Lies Beneath may not be a masterpiece in this particular genre, but it's well worth a watch. 7.6/10