In the supernatural thriller / horror film "What Lies Beneath" Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire Spencer, the wife of Dr. Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford), who is suffering from "empty nest syndrome." After her college-aged daughter Caitlin (Katharine Towne) leaves home, Claire begins to pass her time by playing solitaire on the computer and watching her new neighbors. However, Claire begins to experience strange things in her house: doors opening by themselves, framed pictures fall for no apparent reason, and a ghostly apparition appears in her bathroom. As it turns out, her house is haunted--and there is a murder mystery tied to its haunting. The rest of the film's plot involves the standard "Whodunit" scheme, as the killer's identity is revealed in the end. To reveal any more of the plot would be unforgivable. In this connection, what is unforgivable is the film's trailer: this film has the kind of trailer which serves to reduce greatly one's enjoyment of it. And that is too bad, for there is not much to enjoy about this film in the first place.
But first, to give credit where credit's due, I must admit that "What Lies Beneath" does have its moments--especially during its first act. During that time the film manages to be a pretty engaging suspense thriller ala Hitchcock. It mostly goes for atmosphere and mood, rather than the "cheap" scare which has become a staple of contemporary teenage horror flicks (e.g. a "shock" scene accompanied by loud music--"Thump!"). In fact, the film pays homage (rips off?) to Hitchcock's "Rear Window" in a subplot that ultimately turns out to be a red herring of sorts. Also, as mentioned above, "What Lies Beneath" begins as another supernatural ghost story ala "The Sixth Sense." Speaking personally, since I loved "The Sixth Sense," my interest was piqued during the first act of "What Lies Beneath."
Let's see: Hitchcock, "The Sixth Sense"--sounds like a good formula for a winning movie, right?
Well, not quite. For "What Lies Beneath," despite its superficial homage to "The Sixth Sense" and the Master, is ultimately a very shallow film. In short, the problem with this film is that its screenplay ultimately shows what lies beneath its shallow, eerie surface: a cliche-ridden and totally predictable plot device and an ending which effectively destroys any tension and suspense which the film was able to generate during its first two acts. The film has a supernatural (and promising) beginning but an all-to-human (and lame) ending. There are probably more horror cliches during the final 30 minutes or so of this film alone than there are in both "I Know What You Did Last Summer" films put together. Yes, it is that bad. In fact, towards the end, when the tension and suspense should have been the greatest, I found myself repeatedly giggling and laughing at how ridiculous this film was becoming.
This defect is all the more heinous because Robert Zemeckis' direction is very good (as usual) throughout much of this film. It's too bad that his talents were wasted on such a badly-written script. With a much better script, "What Lies Beneath" could have been an effective supernatural thriller which could have rivaled last year's "The Sixth Sense" (or at least "Stir of Echoes"). But as it turns out, my advice to moviegoers who have any sense is to skip this film and to let its sleeping dogs lie.
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