Product description

What Lies Beneath [2000]

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Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5060002836378
Label : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Publisher : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release date : 2001-09-17
Title : What Lies Beneath [2000]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 15 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 2000-10-20
Region code : 2
Running time : 125
Studio : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Theatrical releaseDate : 2000-07-21
Number of discs : 1

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
What would Hitchcock have done if he had had modern digital effects? The answer is almost certainly: something very like What Lies Beneath, Robert Zemeckis' technically accomplished supernatural thriller that pays open homage to Suspicion, Rear Window and Psycho, to name but three. Michelle Pfeiffer delivers one of the finest, most nuanced performances of her career as a woman in an ideal relationship whose perfect life begins to unravel with terrifying consequences. Harrison Ford plays sympathetically against type as her husband who may or may not be telling her the truth. Although made in the middle of his filming Cast Away, while the director waited for Tom Hanks to shed some pounds, this is no quickie throwaway picture. Zemeckis loads this character-driven story with genuinely scary suspense, using subtle camera moves, mirrored reflections and red-herrings in a classic Hitchcockian manner--the difference here is that he has access to the most up-to-date digital effects and employs them with characteristic imagination, creating seemingly impossible camera angles that only enhance the tension. The Production Design is equally carefully considered, as even the idyllic household setting with its pristine bathroom is gradually transformed into an object of terror. Composer Alan Silvestri's score winds up the drama several notches further with an appropriate Bernard Herrmann pastiche.

On the DVD: The principal attraction of this disc is the pin-sharp anamorphic picture and 5.1 soundtrack--superb picture and sound quality contribute greatly to the enjoyment here, since Zemeckis is one of the few contemporary directors who remains acutely sensitive to the composition of each and every scene. The brief featurette is a little misleadingly titled, as it's essentially a profile of Zemeckis' career with a few comments about this film thrown in for good measure. The rather dry and uninvolving commentary is by Zemeckis with producers Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke. --Mark Walker

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-10-20 rating:

A spooky treat for Halloween
The `woman in peril' motif has been a staple of film entertainment since forever and What Lies Beneath is a clear addition to the genre. What separates it from many of its counterparts, however, is the sheer quality of both the story and the picture.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire Spencer, a discontented Vermont housewife who begins to feel haunted in her lakeside home and after a few spooky encounters comes to fear that her apparently sinister neighbour may have murdered his wife. The more seriously Claire begins to take her concerns the more anxious her husband, a geneticist on the brink of great acclaim (played with the usual laconic charm by Harrison Ford) becomes for her sanity, until eventually the rift between the two exposes a far more alarming reason for the `young, blond presence' in their house.

While not as darkly disturbing as similar ghost story The Gift, What Lies Beneath is as much a study of what underpins a relationship, and how quickly this can be betrayed and unbalanced, as a goosebump-inducing vision of what could be lurking at the bottom of the lake. The performances are faultless, the lakeside setting is used to perfection and the occasional use of gentle humour makes the story and characters even more likeable. If gory horror is not your thing then this spooky treat is perfect for Halloween shivers.

review by: Cool Water Sounds date: 2007-11-12 rating:

Annie, Carmarthenshire - tip top viewing!
I had seen this before on tv, and many films come and go, but this held me with the intrigue, watching the story unfold, working out if Claire (Michelle)had just lost the plot, and although husband Norman (Harrison)plays the dedicated husband, you just know there is something 'not quite right'....this is the sort of film that you can watch over and over and each time, you will spot something that you didn't the last time that you watched it..........

review by: SRW date: 2007-10-19 rating:

GOOD SCARY FILM
With Harrison Ford/Michelle Pheifer as the lead cast, you'd expect a great film. And it is.

Harrison Ford's character, seemingly loving, well respected lecturer/scientist has quite a grim past.

Gripper !!

review by: date: 2007-10-07 rating:

To copy Hitchcock's style
In this supernatural thriller, a woman believes that a visitor from the past is trying to guide. Feeling lonely after her daughter leaves home for college, Claire played by Michelle Pfeiffe, begins to sense that something is wrong in her house, and feels a spirit is trying to contact her. At first her husband played by Harrison Ford, who is a scientist doing research in genetics, attributes her paranormal beliefs to stress or possibly a nervous breakdown, and sends her to a psychiatrist who puts no more stock in Claire's stories than does her husband. While Claire's contention that someone or something sinister is that seems to lead her down a number of wrong paths, in time she becomes convinced that the mysterious happenings at her home are somehow connected to the disappearance of a woman who was a student at the nearby college.

review by: s.vernon date: 2007-08-19 rating:

AN ENGAGING SUPERNATURAL THRILLER
Anyone who has read most (or all) of my reviews so far, probably knows that i'm quite a horror/thriller buff. If done right, this genre really knows how to pump up your adrenaline and keep you coming back for more each time around. In this specific case, what's so good about the film (What Lies Beneath) starts out with the mere cast & crew list. When you have Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfieffer as your lead stars on the one hand, and the extremely talented Robert Zemeckis on the other - there are only limited ways in which you can go wrong. Luckily for us viewers, What Lies Beneath manages to escape these clichés and come out victorious as an original and engaging supernatural thriller all the way.

The plot revolves around Norman and Claire Spenser (Ford/Pfieffer), a middle aged couple who's seemingly going through a mid-life crisis when Claire's daughter (from her first marriage) leaves home. However, we find out soon enough that things that may seem idyllic on the surface are far from it when viewed upon closely. When Claire begins to have visions of a missing young college student and goes through supernatural experiences, her "picture perfect" life turns out to be a far cry from what she thought.

Most Important thing about this film, though, is its re-watchable value. Every time I catch it on cable TV, I realize something new I haven't noticed before. Just for that it deserves recognition in my book.

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