Review of What Lies Beneath

Introduction

What Lies Beneath is a high-profile supernatural thriller, featuring an appealing with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, which was fairly successful at the box office earlier this year.

The box pronounces the movie as "definitely the scariest movie you`ll see this year" and the film tells the story of a married couple (Ford and Pfeiffer), who have recently finished renovating a beautiful lakeside house. Pfeiffer is intrigued by the family next door, who always argue, and when the wife seemingly disappears, she begins to see ghostly apparitions in the house and starts hearing noises. As Pfeiffer becomes more and more scared, Ford dismisses her as being delusional, but when the truth starts to emerge, it is clear that she is anything but...

Video

The video is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and, as you would expect from a major movie made this year, is of an excellent standard throughout.

Visually the film centres on the large house inhabited by Ford and Pfeiffer, their fairly cute pet dog and their resident ghost. The Vermont setting is beautiful and very well filmed, as are the interiors of the house. For the most part, the special effects look pretty good, although one of the scenes in the finale is a little ropey under close scrutiny, as is the final shot of Pfeiffer which looks slightly artificial.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is of a high standard, although for much of the movie, the speakers remain fairly quiet as Pfeiffer sneaks around the house, with all channels suddenly bursting into life in an attempt to scare the wits out of the viewer. Unusually for this type of movie, there is not much in the way of music and as a result, some scenes are a little lacking in the tension necessary for this sort of film to be gripping.

The dialogue track is pretty clear and understandable for the most part, although there are a couple of scenes where Harrison Ford`s lines are a little difficult to pick up. Pfeiffer`s dialogue track is set at the right level throughout.

Features

Extras consist of a director`s commentary track, a featurette entitled "Constructing the Perfect Thriller" and the original trailer.

The director`s commentary is actually a filmmaker`s commentary as it includes input from two producers as well as the director. It`s also not particularly interesting, with none of the participants having much of interest to say for long periods, and there are also some fairly long pauses. I was concerned that they thought that having Ford and Pfeiffer on-screen together was the spectacle of the movie!

Likewise, the featurette isn`t especially enthralling, and its 15 minute running time is taken up with various clips of Zemeckis movies over the years, and interview snippets with stars proclaiming how wonderful he is.

The disc is packaged in a clear Amaray case itself housed in a clear plastic slipcase, giving a 3D effect to the cover. There`s no booklet, with the 24 chapter breaks printed on the reverse of the sleeve and visible once the box is open.

Conclusion

What Lies Beneath appealed to me because of a strong cast, proven director and promising plot. To say that it is one of the most disappointing films I`ve seen for a long time is the understatement of the year.

First of all, any potential suspense is destroyed by the back of the box giving the game away in the synopsis, and the pre-menu sequence of the disc showing too many of the pivotal moments. This had the result of me simply waiting for the inevitable to happen which completely defeats the purpose of watching the film as the suspense should come from NOT knowing what is coming.

Secondly the movie is intolerably slow for much of its overlong 124 minute running time, many scenes appear to be included just to show off the two main cast members and add little or nothing to the plot, the first half-hour in particular is exceptionally tedious at times as the story ambles along. The remainder of the movie isn`t any better, and has the usual extended ending after what appears to be a logical conclusion has been reached, finally reaching a very predictable ending.

Thirdly, I`m a great fan of Harrison Ford, but his performance in this film is diabolical; Pfeiffer is not much better and neither of them seem at all interested in giving any life to their characters. There`s no on-screen sparkle, both characters are dull and the script inane - as a result I had no interest in what happened to either of them.

Fourthly, there`s nothing new anywhere in this movie, which appears to be constructed from parts of numerous (and mostly better) horror movies from over the years, including a ludicrous ending that should have been consigned to the cutting room floor.

And finally, the movie is not scary at all, even with the lights off and the Dolby Digital system turned up!

A quick trip to the Internet Movie Database reveals a mixture of comments about the movie, but "disappointed", "torture for me to sit through", "predictable", "slow", "laughably bad" and "don`t waste your time" sum it up for me.

Technically, this is a very good disc, with great picture quality, and good sound in places. There`s also a commentary track and featurette, but it`s unlikely you`ll want to endure the film again to hear what Zemeckis has got to say about it.

Overall, if you really want to watch this film, hire it out, as it most certainly does not warrant a repeat viewing necessary to gain value for money from a purchased DVD. If you`ve already seen it at the cinema and for some reason enjoyed it, the movie is well presented on this DVD but I advise that you ask yourself if it warrants being watched again before parting with your hard earned cash.