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| Film vitals |
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· Year: 2000
· Directors: Robert Zemeckis
· Writers: Clark Gregg, Sarah Kernochan
· Cast: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer
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| Information |
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· Director Robert Zemeckis filmed this during a months-long break in filming on Cast Away to allow Tom Hanks to lose weight for his character in that film.
· It's conceivable that the two main characters were named after Trish Van Devere's character in The Changeling: Claire Norman. Of course, there's always Norman Bates . . .
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| Synopsis |
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Claire and Norman Spencer had the perfect life--wealth, happiness, a promising future. But when events cause Claire to believe their house may be haunted, she begins to suspect that nothing in her life is as it seems.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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97
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| ATMOSPHERE |
| GORE |
| HUMOR |
| SCARES |
| TENSION |
The review for What Lies Beneath is my white whale. I've tracked it down for nearly two years, unable to get a handle on how to approach it. I've bought the film and watched it about a half-dozen times, took notes, and started to review it at least twice. But I still can't get a handle on this slippery film--I know what I want to say, but I can't figure out how to say it. Assuming you're reading this, I've succeeded. Or at least I've reached some level of minor competence.
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| RATING |
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Horror movies are always a risky business. It is difficult to actually create something scary and intense, as there is always a very fine line between horror and ridicule, also, you cannot really profoundly scare people with old stuff: You have to be inventive and actually create something new, or, to present something old in a stunning new way, like Carpenter did it with 'The Thing'. While recently, there has been something like a boom of horror movies, this boom rather reveals itself as a mixture of lots of horror-wannabes with only some very rare original exceptions, like Blair Witch 2. Zemeckis now took up the task of making something like an hommage to Hitchcock's suspense-filled classics, especially with Psycho in mind, while trying to be original, too. And he succeeds brilliantly.
The first big coup is the casting of Harrison Ford. He is an acting genius, and everything he does feels authentic and profound, which is especially important with this film. But even more important than Ford is Michelle Pfeiffer here - as she's the lead. And she is superb. With those two, very strong leads, the movie's on its best possible track. Add some great Psycho-inspired music by Alain Silvestri, an intelligent plot, beautiful sets and scares both on the psychological as well as on the conventional level, and you get something like a new classic. Even more, the movie's not just solely chasing for effects, but delivering some nice ironic reflections on the paranormal - thus invoking the feel of ages past, of Robert Wise's The Haunting, Hitchcock's Vertigo and Psycho and also Carnival of Souls.
Especially interesting is the film's climaxing in one central scene: The bathtub. Isn't this a classic ideal: One movie, one central scene. One scene holding it all - and being so memorable that the movie will be remembered by it. One central moment of truth; but of course, this demands for more than just solid acting and a great atmosphere. But Zemeckis and his cast and crew succeed with all that, hopefully setting standards for films to come. Let's hope this will serve as a guiding example for other horror directors. And could the film possibly have a better and more ambiguous title?
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