What Lies Beneath Movie Review (2024)

FAQs

Is What Lies Beneath a Good movie? ›

Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this formulaic but highly enjoyable supernatural thriller from director Robert Zemeckis. It's hard to fault Zemeckis for doing Hitchco*ck when he does it this well.

At trial the truth finally emerges and the identity of the killer is revealed. In the end, the killers are Rob's wife Sabrina and her lover Jonathan Hearn.

There is references to a murder. Sexual content is average - references to adultery, Claire acts sexy in a red dress in one scene, Claire and her husband mistake late night moaning sounds for sex from outside, so they get excited and hop into bed. That's about it. There is some strong language for a PG-13.

This is an old-fashioned Hitchco*ckian suspense thriller with a supernatural twist. You wouldn't expect a horror film about empty nesters being so intense, but Michelle Pfeiffer is giving her role everything she's got, and Harrison Ford's performance is enjoyably unexpected.

The best part of the movie is its visuals and lore. Lovecraft-esque fear of chtonic entities, hypnotic enigmatic lights coming out of nowhere and minimalistic synth soundtrack are making "What Lies Below" a thrilling eye-candy which is pretty much enough for a one-off horror movie.

As a low-budget disaster thriller, the film works well enough - but it's the commitment the supernatural "question" that makes Beneath worth checking out. Content collapsed. Although the actors and setting seem believable here, 'Beneath' ends up being much too predictable for a horror movie.

Norman grabs Claire's leg so that she cannot escape, but Madison's corpse grabs Norman, drags him to the bottom of the lake, and forces him to release Claire's leg so she can float to the surface. Once Norman was drowned, Madison's corpse flashes a creepy smile, pleased that he is dead and that Claire is safe.

Claire comes to her senses and the memory of her own car accident returns as she remembers that she had caught Norman and Madison together. Distraught by the discovery, she had crashed her car into a tree while driving in a rain storm.

Claire briefly mentions to Stan (Ray Baker) Baker and his new "squeeze" Elena (Wendy Crewson), while the four of them are dining in the restaurant, that Caitlin's father (and Claire's first husband), whose name was Michael Marlowe, was also a musician and that he died.

Norman agrees to confess and calls the police, but Claire discovers he dialed 4-1-1 instead. He paralyzes her with halothane, admitting that he murdered Madison when she threatened to expose their affair to the dean.

Who is the villain in What Lies Beneath? ›

Norman Spencer is the main antagonist of the 2000 horror film What Lies Beneath. He was portrayed by Harrison Ford, who also portrayed Allie Fox in The Mosquito Coast.

"What Lies Beneath" was shot on location in Burlington and Waterbury, Vermont. The house used in the film was actually built entirely for the film itself...from the ground up. It's on a site overlooking Lake Champlain on the Vermont side, near the town of Addison.

It had been a year since Dr. Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford) betrayed his beautiful wife Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer). But with Claire oblivious to the truth, Norman's life and marriage seem so perfect that when Claire tells him of hearing mysterious voices and seeing a young woman's image in their home, he dismisses her terror as delusion. Claire moves closer to the truth and it becomes clear that this apparition will not be dismissed, and has come back for Dr. Spencer and his beautiful wife.

What Lies Beneath / Film synopsis

A Plot Full of Twists and Turns

The beautiful house located at the DAR State Park never actually existed, so it was specially constructed and later torn down after filming had been completed. Below is a photo of the house under construction for the movie. Courtesy of the Facebook Group What Lies Beneath 2000.

The ghost of Madison Frank (Amber Valletta) helps Claire remember knowledge she'd deliberately tried to escape; Claire had known about the affair — she'd walked in on the pair before wrapping her car around a tree as she, understandably distraught, attempted to flee the scene.