What Lies Beneath

What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American psychological supernatural horror film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Clark Gregg, based on a story by Sarah Kernochan and Gregg. It stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, with Diana Scarwid, Joe Morton, James Remar and Miranda Otto appearing in supporting roles. It was the first film released by Zemeckis' production company, ImageMovers. The original film score was composed by Alan Silvestri.
What Lies Beneath was theatrically released on July 21, 2000, by DreamWorks Pictures and 20th Century Fox. While it received generally mixed reviews from critics, who praised Pfeiffer's performance while criticizing the screenplay, the film was a box office success, grossing $291.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $100 million, 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 Zemeckis and Pfeiffer for Best Director and Best Actress, respectively. At the 7th Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Ford and Pfeiffer won Favorite Actor – Suspense and Favorite Actress – Suspense, and Scarwid was nominated for Favorite Supporting Actress – Suspense.
Plot
Former cellist Claire Spencer and her husband Norman, an accomplished scientist and professor, live a quiet life at their lakeside home in Vermont. Their relationship is strained, particularly after Claire's daughter, Caitlin, leaves for college. Claire notices their new neighbors, Mary and Warren Feur, have a volatile relationship and, after Mary is unseen for several days, suspects Warren may have killed her.
Claire believes she sees a woman's body in the lake, and senses an unseen presence in the house. A framed article about Norman falls off his desk and shatters, leading Claire to discover an odd key inside a vent. She finds her bathtub mysteriously filled, and sees another woman's reflection in the water. Confiding in a psychiatrist, Claire and her mystic friend, Jody, hold a failed séance. She finds the bathtub filled again with the message "You know" written on the steamy mirror, while her computer inexplicably types the initials "MEF".
Convinced she is haunted by Mary's ghost, Claire confronts Warren, but Mary is alive and well, explaining that she went to stay with her mother in Providence after a fight with Warren. On the back of Norman's article, Claire finds a story about a missing woman named Madison Elizabeth Frank — "MEF". She tracks down Madison's mother and visits her daughter’s bedroom, where she steals a lock of Madison's hair and notices a photo of her wearing an unusual necklace.
Performing a ritual from a book, Claire attempts to conjure Madison. Seemingly possessed by her spirit, she aggressively seduces Norman, shocking him by speaking as Madison until she drops the lock of hair. Becoming herself again, Claire recalls a repressed memory about Norman's affair with a student, Madison, which he admits happened during a rough patch in their marriage. Claire leaves to spend the night with Jody, who reveals that a year earlier, she saw Norman arguing with a woman at a café in Adamant, a nearby town.
Returning home, Claire finds Norman unconscious in the tub, which he assures her was an accident and not a suicide attempt. He tells her that an unstable Madison confronted him at home when he ended their affair, but denies killing her. Standing on the dock with Madison's hair, Claire is pulled into the lake by an unseen force, spotting a jewelry box matching Madison's necklace. Norman pulls her to safety, and together they burn the lock of hair.
Claire's suspicions return when Norman claims not to know the café in Adamant, where she sees the same necklace and jewelry box at a nearby shop. Recovering the box from the lake and 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 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.
Norman places Claire in the bathtub, filling it with water to stage her suicide. As he removes Madison's necklace from Claire's neck, her face contorts into Madison's corpse and he jerks back, smashing his head on the sink and knocking him unconscious. As the water level rises, Claire recovers enough to partially turn off the tap and dislodge the plug, barely surviving drowning. She flees in Norman's truck, but he climbs on and attacks her. They crash into the lake, dislodging Madison's car and her body while Norman tries to drown Claire. Madison grabs Norman, allowing Claire to escape as Norman drowns and Madison's ghost drifts away. Later that winter, Claire places a rose on Madison's grave.
Cast
Michelle Pfeiffer as Claire Spencer, Norman's wife.
Harrison Ford as Dr. Norman Spencer, a successful college professor and scientist, Claire's second husband.
Diana Scarwid as Jody, a mystic and Claire's best friend.
Miranda Otto as Mary Feur, Norman and Claire's neighbor.
James Remar as Warren Feur, Norman and Claire's neighbor and Mary's husband.
Katharine Towne as Caitlin Spencer, Claire's daughter and Norman's stepdaughter.
Ray Baker as Dr. Stan Powell
Joe Morton as Dr. Drayton, a therapist whom Claire visits upon Norman's urging.
Amber Valletta as Madison Elizabeth Frank, a murdered young woman with whom Norman has had an affair.
Wendy Crewson as Elena
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 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 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.
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 the film 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." Roger Ebert awarded the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times: "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 endZemeckis 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 (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 himself would never have done.
Accolades
See also
List of ghost films
References
External links
2000 horror films
2000 thriller films
2000s American films
2000s ghost films
2000 psychological thriller films
2000s psychological horror films
2000s supernatural films
American thriller films
American ghost films
American haunted house films
American psychological horror films
American supernatural horror films
2000s English-language films
Films about amnesia
Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships
Films set in country houses
Films set in Vermont
Films set on lakes
Films shot in Vermont
Adultery in films
Films scored by Alan Silvestri
Films produced by Robert Zemeckis
Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
DreamWorks Pictures films
20th Century Fox films
ImageMovers films