What Lies Beneath Dave's Rating: C When I was a kid, ABC used to run the Saturday morning movie right before the adult programs started. After a slew of cartoons, it was a relief to see short films about kids getting involved in some sort of a caper. Once a month they usually ran a scary short film, and one of the most popular reruns they ran was a little film called The Red Room. The Red Room was about a group of kids who break into a haunted house that has a red glowing room you could see from the street at night. I was scared stiff when I was eight as the kids found the red room, but now I would most likely only grin in remembrance. What Lies Beneath, the new film starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, is about on the level of "The Red Room." It's scary if you've never seen a scary movie, and even then I'm stretching it. Its attempts at psychological scares work for the first half, but disappear when the ghost itself does half way through the film. How the ghost disappears and why it disappears is nothing short of absurd, and is the grand error the film makes in keeping up the scares. You don't get rid of your ghost halfway through a horror film!! (disclaimer: the ghost does appear again towards the end, but it made me laugh instead of scream). Claire (Michelle Pfeifer) starts hearing and seeing the ghost of a dead young woman when her daughter goes off to college. Her husband, Norman (Harrison Ford), is a scientist who experiments a paralyzing drugs with mice (don't worry, there's a reason why that is important). Norman, like most busy scientists, is never around when Claire gets spooked. Anytime the ghost wants attention, it will turn on the computer or stereo, or write in the steam on the bathroom mirror. Claire scares easily, as any domestic engineer would after spending all her time in a beautiful home by a lake. So she runs to Norman's office every time she gets scared, and he thinks she's crazy. He tells all his yuppie friends about Claire and her ghosts, and it seems to be an inside joke with them all. Claire starts to see a psychiatrist about the ghost, and he gives her atomic fire balls (tasty treat) and he tells her to talk to the ghost. So she talks to the ghost, and the ghost talks back by typing on the computer. A computer savvy ghost!! Eventually Claire pieces together who the girl really is, and if you've seen the trailer for the film, you know who she is. If you haven't seen the trailer, consider yourself a small minority who don't already know the entire plot to this movie. The second half of the film is a husband-wife catfight that we've all seen before with the typical phone that won't work and the dead body that, guess what, isn't dead. The 2nd half of the film, I discovered, would be a good time to take advantage on that free refill on your overpriced soda or popcorn. I was reminded of a lot of films while watching this. The Shining, Poltergist, and Rear Window to just name a few. Most horror films borrow from the same book, but What Lies Beneath is too much textbook. Bells and whistles may sell stereos, but they don't sell good films. The repetitiveness of the doors coming open on their own, soft whispers coming from nowhere, and Michelle Pfeiffer cutting herself on wood and glass got a little old after awhile. There is a subplot thrown in about kinky neighbors, but they seem to disappear at the same time the ghost does. The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who is a fantastic visual director that has brought us the gems Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. Zemeckis incorporates a lot of mirrors into the film which help add to the few scares that do work. Sadly, he works more with the mirrors than he does with his actors. Harrison Ford is one of the greatest older actors around who, along with Brando and Newman, have been handed nothing but deadpan roles the last few years. Once again his talents are wasted. Pfieffer, another great actress, doesn't look like she was pushed enough. I watched her facial expressions closely, and there were times when the old lady sitting in front of me was more scared than she was. There was no feeling of panic in the most extreme scenes. I got the impression this was a rushed project that was not given enough thought. Maybe we all need to take a trip back to The Red Room for a review of that old horror film handbook. |
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