What Lies Beneath

Hitchcock's ghost
Robert Zemeckis makes his homage to Hitchcock in What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

The Spencer's -Claire and Norman- are a supposedly happy and successful marriage. He is a prominent scientist, she's an ex musician that just left her only daughter at college. Free time takes Mrs. Spencer to spy on her neighbors, and from that activity she believes that a crime has been perpetrated next door. Insecure and nervous, Claire's paranoia grows as a series of paranormal events take place in her perfect home: doors open and close, electrical equipment turn on automatically, spectral visions in the bathtub. Are all these things related? That's one of the many secrets the movie hides.

A lonely home, secrets trying to be revealed, darkness, ghosts and the impending sensation that we are not sure what our eyes are seeing, What Lies Beneath has enough elements to hook you up for a scary time. Zemeckis takes advantage from every trick, cliche and...

Genuinely Creepy
In a time in which good horror/suspense movies are few and far between, Robert Zemeckis brings us a wonderfully and surprisingly taut and well-balanced thriller filmed in the grand tradition of the great Alfred Hitchcock. Finally, a horror movie that doesn't rely on fake blood and cheesy special effects to wow the crowd, or attempt to scare the feeble minded. The movie is centered around a couple, recently moved, who has discovered a supernatural presence in their new dwelling. The wife, Claire (played beautifully by Michelle Pfeiffer, in one of the best female performances of the year) believes it to be the ghost of the neighbor she suspects has been murdered. The husband, Norman (played well by Harrison Ford) of course, thinks she is crazy. The movie twists and turns around this basic central plot, leading to an ending that, although not terrible, I'm still not quite buying. The greatness of the movie comes not from the plot, but from the style in which the film was created...

Entertaining!
Robert Zemeckis gives us this non stop thrill ride starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. The story is about a couple (Ford and Pfeiffer) who's only child recently moves off to college leaving the two by themselves in a new home. The story quickly leaves that norm when the house turns out to be haunted by some sort of spiritual being. The film vaguely resembles a good Hitchcock movie with its' great work of shadows and an evil yet terrifying scene with a bath tub. The movie has a few surprises and scares that you don't expect which gives you more than enough reason to check this one out.

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