“What Lies Beneath” may make you jump next time you look at the bathtub. Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) feels lonely after her daughter goes away to college. She’s just put the finishing touches on her dream home. Suddenly she’s hearing voices and ghostly apparitions begin popping up in her bathtub.
Claire’s husband Norman (Harrison Ford) believes that this is all stress-related and convinces her to see a shrink to work it out. Claire discovers that the spirit haunting her home is a woman who disappeared over a year ago. The ghost guides her on a murder investigation which leads to the college campus where Norman works. And worse, the dead woman had an affair with her husband. The spirit plays tricks on the couple, but what does it want?
Director Robert Zemeckis has crafted a truly suspenseful thriller in the Hitchcock mold. There are some real scares here. In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit that I shrieked like a girl at least three times during the movie. The story takes you in one direction then twists you the other way adding plenty of unpredictable surprises that I don’t want to ruin. But I guarantee the ending will have you on the edge of your seat. The only flaw that weakened the film for me was the long, drawn out ending. As soon as you think the film is over, the villain is back. The villain is defeated – NO, IT’S BACK! It’s gone — NO, IT’S BACK! It’s gone — NO, IT’S BACK! It’s gone — NO, IT’S BACK! It’s gone — NO, IT’S BACK! It’s gone — NO, IT’S BACK! This actually happens more times than I’m typing right now. It gets a little tiresome, but other than that, “What Lies Beneath” is filled with a lot of fun scares.
