What Lies Beneath
The film begins with Norman and Claire Spencer (Harrison Ford, Michelle Phieffer) dropping their daughter off at her college dorm, making Claire especially emotional of the inevitable departure. As Claire stays at their home while Norman is away at work, she begins to become a little edgy. Occasionally looking through old photographs, the viewer gets a sense that there's some hidden secret. Soon after a quarrelsome married couple moves next door, Claire becomes very suspicious of their actions and even thinks that abuse and murder might be involved at one point.
As Claire spends more time alone around her home, she starts to experience frightening incidents in which she sees the ghost of a woman whose looks are similar to Claire's. Definitely sparking some memory but not quite registering in her mind, possibly due to a car wreck that occurred not too long ago, Claire tries desperately to uncover the mystery that puzzles her. Seeking advice from her psychiatrist, Claire eventually tries to contact a missing woman using a Ouija board but is still unsuccessful.
As Claire becomes even more scared of what she might've once known, the truth is unraveled in a web of deceit and fear. Who's haunting Claire, and can they be trying to tell her something?
Stylishly created and filled with jolting scares and special effects, What Lies Beneath definitely delivers. The modern ghost story is retold once again, using probably too many suspenseful scenes in which you're just waiting to be scared!
Main stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pheiffer are definitely recognizable for their A-film status and give powerful performances. Just like all other scary movies, you'll yell at characters when they're in the most tense situations, sometimes only inches away from the antagonist.
Depsite some minor clichés thrown in to add to the fun, this Robert Zemeckis-directed thriller is highly enjoyable and flies by in its vast running time of over two hours. The supernatural is a very strange thing indeed and attracts many viewers like myself to the screen, amidst the many shockers and thrills that abound throughout the film.
