What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath is a Hitchcockian horror suspense film directed by accomplished director Robert Zemeckis, who is well known for films such as Romancing the Stone, Back To The Future, Forrest Gump, and Castaway. This is the first film for his newly founded production company ImageMovers, and was distributed domestically by Dreamworks Pictures, and internationally through 20th Century Fox, and was a huge success grossing $291.4 million in the box office against its $100 million budget.
What Lies Beneath stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Norman Spencer, in a role that definitely goes against type for the famous actor, as in this film he gets to play the villain. Michelle Pfeiffer plays his wife Claire Spencer, who starts seeing the ghost of a young woman in their bathroom. Katharine Towne plays Caitlin Spencer, the daughter of Norman and Claire Spencer, who in the beginning of the film leaves to go to college. The film also stars Diana Scarwid as Claire's best friend Jody, James Remar and Miranda Otto play the Spencers neighbors the Feurs, Joe Morton plays Claire's therapist Dr Drayton, and Amber Valletta plays Madison Elizabeth Frank a young girl that disappeared a year before the events of the film.
The film is well cast, with two huge A-list actors with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Harrison Ford showing that he can play the cold and calculating evil character very well, but it was Michelle Pfeiffer that is the real star of this film. In Pfeiffer's performance as a middle-aged housewife struggling with their daughter moving away for college, who then begins to be haunted by a ghost in the bathroom of their house. She conveys the emotion of the character, and the sense of questioning her own sanity really well, and it is easy to believe her as she reacts to the horror of the reality of what is happening. Her character is one that the viewer can feel empathy as well as sympathy for, the way she portrays the obsession, and then the true horror of the realization of the fact that the man that she loves is actually a monster guilty of a terrible thing.
What Lies Beneath has a screenplay by Clark Gregg and based on a story by Sarah Kemochan and Clark Gregg, and shows a strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock's horror suspense films. The story isn't super original, and at times almost feels like a rip-off of Hitchcock, though that in itself isn't really a problem, because to pay homage to the master of suspense and to use similar tropes is only natural, and really this film is quite similar in many ways with the 2011 film adaptation of Stephen King's Bag Of Bones (honestly often times I get the two films confused in my mind). What Lies Beneath works really well in the acting of the main characters, as well in the beautiful sets and overall look of the film. However the film seems to drag on at an agonizingly slow pace, and in some parts it loses its magic and feels a bit cliche and hokey, taking the viewer out of the real horror of the film.
Though What Lies Beneath was a box office success, it didn't fare so well with the critics, giving it mixed to negative review, and the film holds a below average ranking on online film review sites. I have watched this film several times over the years, and honestly I feel like it is an effective film, and that it is overall really well done, other than the pace feeling a bit too slow at times, which in my mind takes away from the suspense of the film, I do think that overall it is a really well done film. I wouldn't say that this is a must-see film, but it is one I do highly recommend checking out, if even just for the great performance by Michelle Pfeiffer, or the chance to see Harrison Ford as the "bad guy", or even just for the beautiful sets and tones of the film. I also really like that the film is set in Vermont, and that many of the locations used are locations that I am familiar with, I feel a better connection to a film that takes place in familiar places. Although anyone who knows Vermont very well, will find a few things strange, as in the film takes place in or near Burlington VT, but bridge that they cross that is stated to be near their house, and it seems like they have to cross the bridge to get into Burlington, is actually the Crown Point Bridge at the southern end of Lake Champlain, the house for the film was constructed in the Daughters Of The Revolution State Park in Addison VT near the bridge, however the bridge crosses from VT into NY which doesn't make sense in the setting of the film, nor would it make too much sense that their house would be in Addison VT, but seem so close to the university in Burlington VT where parts of the film take place. I am familiar with the bridge and Addison VT though as sometimes that is the route that I take when I travel west, because of the beautiful scenic views of that area, though the bridge was torn down in 2009 and was reconstructed.
So overall a good film, and worth watching, not as great as the classic Hitchcock films that were the inspiration, but it pays homage to them quite well. Not a film that I am compelled to watch often, but I do tend to enjoy it whenever I do watch it. Worth checking out, but not a must see, it is well made, and well acted, with a decent story, and seeing these two actors in a horror-suspense film is quite a joy. So if you are looking for a slow paced horror-suspense film, you could definitely do worse.
What Lies Beneath stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Norman Spencer, in a role that definitely goes against type for the famous actor, as in this film he gets to play the villain. Michelle Pfeiffer plays his wife Claire Spencer, who starts seeing the ghost of a young woman in their bathroom. Katharine Towne plays Caitlin Spencer, the daughter of Norman and Claire Spencer, who in the beginning of the film leaves to go to college. The film also stars Diana Scarwid as Claire's best friend Jody, James Remar and Miranda Otto play the Spencers neighbors the Feurs, Joe Morton plays Claire's therapist Dr Drayton, and Amber Valletta plays Madison Elizabeth Frank a young girl that disappeared a year before the events of the film.
The film is well cast, with two huge A-list actors with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Harrison Ford showing that he can play the cold and calculating evil character very well, but it was Michelle Pfeiffer that is the real star of this film. In Pfeiffer's performance as a middle-aged housewife struggling with their daughter moving away for college, who then begins to be haunted by a ghost in the bathroom of their house. She conveys the emotion of the character, and the sense of questioning her own sanity really well, and it is easy to believe her as she reacts to the horror of the reality of what is happening. Her character is one that the viewer can feel empathy as well as sympathy for, the way she portrays the obsession, and then the true horror of the realization of the fact that the man that she loves is actually a monster guilty of a terrible thing.
What Lies Beneath has a screenplay by Clark Gregg and based on a story by Sarah Kemochan and Clark Gregg, and shows a strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock's horror suspense films. The story isn't super original, and at times almost feels like a rip-off of Hitchcock, though that in itself isn't really a problem, because to pay homage to the master of suspense and to use similar tropes is only natural, and really this film is quite similar in many ways with the 2011 film adaptation of Stephen King's Bag Of Bones (honestly often times I get the two films confused in my mind). What Lies Beneath works really well in the acting of the main characters, as well in the beautiful sets and overall look of the film. However the film seems to drag on at an agonizingly slow pace, and in some parts it loses its magic and feels a bit cliche and hokey, taking the viewer out of the real horror of the film.
Though What Lies Beneath was a box office success, it didn't fare so well with the critics, giving it mixed to negative review, and the film holds a below average ranking on online film review sites. I have watched this film several times over the years, and honestly I feel like it is an effective film, and that it is overall really well done, other than the pace feeling a bit too slow at times, which in my mind takes away from the suspense of the film, I do think that overall it is a really well done film. I wouldn't say that this is a must-see film, but it is one I do highly recommend checking out, if even just for the great performance by Michelle Pfeiffer, or the chance to see Harrison Ford as the "bad guy", or even just for the beautiful sets and tones of the film. I also really like that the film is set in Vermont, and that many of the locations used are locations that I am familiar with, I feel a better connection to a film that takes place in familiar places. Although anyone who knows Vermont very well, will find a few things strange, as in the film takes place in or near Burlington VT, but bridge that they cross that is stated to be near their house, and it seems like they have to cross the bridge to get into Burlington, is actually the Crown Point Bridge at the southern end of Lake Champlain, the house for the film was constructed in the Daughters Of The Revolution State Park in Addison VT near the bridge, however the bridge crosses from VT into NY which doesn't make sense in the setting of the film, nor would it make too much sense that their house would be in Addison VT, but seem so close to the university in Burlington VT where parts of the film take place. I am familiar with the bridge and Addison VT though as sometimes that is the route that I take when I travel west, because of the beautiful scenic views of that area, though the bridge was torn down in 2009 and was reconstructed.
So overall a good film, and worth watching, not as great as the classic Hitchcock films that were the inspiration, but it pays homage to them quite well. Not a film that I am compelled to watch often, but I do tend to enjoy it whenever I do watch it. Worth checking out, but not a must see, it is well made, and well acted, with a decent story, and seeing these two actors in a horror-suspense film is quite a joy. So if you are looking for a slow paced horror-suspense film, you could definitely do worse.
Comments
Post a Comment