# What Lies Beneath

What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Clark Gregg, who co-wrote the story with Sarah Kernochan. The film stars Harrison Ford as a university professor and Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife, who is unsure if their home is haunted by a ghost or if she is losing her mind. The film also features Diana Scarwid in a supporting role.
The first film by Zemeckis' production company ImageMovers, What Lies Beneath was theatrically released in North America by DreamWorks Pictures and internationally by 20th Century Fox on July 21, 2000. While it received mixed reviews from critics who praised Pfeiffer's performance and criticized Gregg's script, the film was a box office success, grossing US$291 million worldwide and becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of the year.
What Lies Beneath was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film at the 27th Saturn Awards, in addition to nominations for Best Director (for Zemeckis) and Best Actress (for Pfeiffer). At the 7th Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Ford and Pfeiffer won Favorite Actor – Suspense and Favorite Actress – Suspense, respectively, and Scarwid was nominated for Favorite Supporting Actress – Suspense.

## Plot

Claire Spencer and her husband Norman, an accomplished scientist and professor, live a quiet life at their lakeside home in Vermont. The Spencers' relationship is strained, especially after Caitlin, Claire's daughter and Norman's stepdaughter, leaves for college, and it is also a year since claire had a big car accident. Claire notices that their new neighbors, Mary and Warren Feur, have a volatile relationship, Mary indicates she is in danger and when she is unseen for several days, Claire suspects Warren may have killed her. Claire believes she sees a woman's body in the lake, her front door opens by itself and she senses a presence in the house. A framed article about Norman falls off his desk and shatters, leading Claire to discover an odd key. She finds the bathtub mysteriously filled and sees another woman's reflection in the water.
Norman is unsympathetic and critical of Claire's fear that the house is haunted and seems to have very little time for her and suggests she see a therapist who she eventually tells about seeing the woman, and remarks that they look alike, he is supportive of her finding out what's happening
Claire and her friend Jody then hold a séance and afterwards She finds the bathtub filled again, then sees message stating "you know" appears on the foggy bathroom mirror, and her computer inexplicably types the initials "MEF". Convinced Mary's ghost is haunting her, Claire publicly confronts Warren, only for Mary to appear next to him. She later learns that Mary went to her mother's house after the couple had a fight. Claire goes to a party where the hosts wife reminds her she had an argument with Norman the year earlier, asking her if she is ok. When Claire gets home the newspaper clipping falls off again & On the back of she finds a story about a missing woman named Madison Elizabeth Frank. She visits Madison's mother and steals a lock of Madison's hair, as well as noticing a photo of Madison wearing an unusual necklace, there is also a striking resemblance to Claire
Following a ritual from a book, Claire attempts to conjure Madison. Seemingly possessed by her spirit, Claire aggressively seduces Norman, shocking him by speaking as Madison until she drops the lock of hair, which ends the possession. Claire recalls a memory about Norman's affair with a student named Madison, which happened during a rough patch in their marriage, which Claire forgot about because of her car accident. Claire leaves to spend the night with Jody, who reveals that she saw Norman arguing with a woman at a café in the nearby town of Adamant a year earlier, but then Claire had her car accident so Jody felt she could not tell her, and Claire forgives her. Returning home, Claire finds Norman unconscious in the bathtub, along with a hairdryer, which he assures her was an accident. He says an unstable Madison confronted him at home when he ended their affair, but denies killing her. Standing on the lakeside dock with Madison's hair, Claire is pulled into the water by an unseen force; while underwater, she sees a jewelry box matching Madison's necklace in the photo. Norman pulls Claire to safety and they burn the lock of hair. Claire declares that the haunting is over
Claire and Norman seem to reconcile but her suspicions return when she suggests visiting Adamant & Norman seems not to know the town where Jody see him with Madison. Claire then goes to adamant where she sees the same necklace and jewelry box in a shop windows. She recovers the box from the lake, unlocking it with the key from Norman's office, she finds Madison's necklace inside. She confronts Norman, who says that he came home to find Madison had killed herself; in desperation, he pushed her car into the lake with her body inside. Norman agrees to confess and call the police, but Claire knows something isn't right and Norman attacks her and paralyzes her with [[halothane].
Norman admits to murdering Madison when she threatened to expose their affair to the dean, and mocks claire saying that he thought she must have known about Madison and made the ghost story up but then realised she believed it. He places Claire in the bathtub, filling it with water to stage her suicide. As he removes Madison's necklace from Claire, her face contorts into that of Madison's corpse. A horrified Norman jumps and violent smashes his head on the sink and knocks himself out. As the drug starts to wears off, Claire just manages to slow the water down and remove the plug as it goes over her head & barely escapes drowning. She slowly gets upright and makes her way out as the Drug wears off, past Norman who is bloody and seemingly unconscious on the floor. He wakes up as she tries to get the phone from under him & flees in Norman's truck, but he made it onto the boat trailer she left and attacks her. The truck crashes into the lake, Norman is stuck but also tries to drown Claire. Madisons car that Norman crashed into the lake with her body inside is underneath them & Part of the boat impales the roof, dislodging Madison's body from the sunken car. As Norman tries to drown Claire, Madisons corpse floats up, and seems to come to life & grabs him. Claire escapes and Madison's body is a corpse again, which drifts back down as her necklace falls from Norman's grip, showing he has drowned. Later that winter, Claire is at a grave with a red rose, she places it on the headstone with Madisons name and no sign of Normans

## Cast

* Harrison Ford as Dr. Norman Spencer
* Michelle Pfeiffer as Claire Spencer
* Diana Scarwid as Jody
* Joe Morton as Dr. Drayton
* James Remar as Warren Feur
* Miranda Otto as Mary Feur
* Wendy Crewson as Elena
* Ray Baker as Dr. Stan Powell
* Micole Mercurio as Mrs. Frank
* Amber Valletta as Madison Elizabeth Frank
* Katharine Towne as Caitlin Spencer
* Sloane Shelton as Mrs. Templeton

## 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 delivered in 1998 by Steven Spielberg 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 on to star in the film, even agreeing to clear room in his schedule for the project. Michelle Pfeiffer then followed as DreamWorks started to negotiate 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.
What Lies Beneath was filmed while production of Cast Away took a hiatus to allow Tom Hanks to lose weight and grow a beard. As Gregg had to remain with production for rewrites, he had to decline an offer to read for a major role in Sports Night; Aaron Sorkin later created a minor role in the final episodes of the series for Gregg.

## Reception
### Box office

What Lies Beneath opened in 2,813 theaters in North America and grossed $29,702,959 for an average of $10,559 per theater. It reached the number one spot at the box office upon opening, beating X-Men. 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.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, What Lies Beneath holds an approval rating of 47% based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Robert Zemeckis is unable to salvage an uncompelling and unoriginal film." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average 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." 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."
Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four. He praised Michelle Pfeiffer's performance, calling her "convincing and sympathetic", but commented, "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." He also stated that he felt the problem with Zemeckis' desire to direct a Hitchcockian film (What Lies Beneath contains several musical, visual and plot references to Psycho and Vertigo, among other Hitchcock films) was Zemeckis' decision to involve the supernatural, a device Ebert felt Alfred Hitchcock never would have done.

### Accolades

| Award | Category | Subject | Result |
| ASCAP Award | Top Box Office Films | Alan Silvestri | Won |
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Actor - Suspense | Harrison Ford | Won |
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Actress - Suspense | Michelle Pfeiffer | Won |
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Supporting Actress - Suspense | Diana Scarwid | Nominated |
| Golden Trailer Award | Best Horror/Thriller | Best Horror/Thriller | Nominated |
| Nastro d'Argento | Silver Ribbon for Best Male Dubbing | Michele Gammino | Won |
| Saturn Award | Best Horror Film | Jack Rapke | Nominated |
| Saturn Award | Best Horror Film | Steve Starkey | Nominated |
| Saturn Award | Best Horror Film | Robert Zemeckis | Nominated |
| Saturn Award | Best Director | Robert Zemeckis | Nominated |
| Saturn Award | Best Actress | Michelle Pfeiffer | Nominated |

## Remake

The film was unofficially remade in India as Raaz and released in 2002.