Horror films are many things – gross, outrageous and button pushing - but it’s rare to find one that screams “class.”
It’s one reason 2000’s “What Lies Beneath” stood out from the genre pack.
What’s a respectable director like Robert “Forrest Gump” Zemeckis trying to scare us with the likes of Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer?
It nearly works, but even when “Beneath” stumbles it remains a polished piece of jolt filmmaking.
Pfeiffer plays Claire, a middle-aged mom who just saw her oldest daughter off to college. She’s still got a gorgeous Vermont home to call her own as well as the companionship of her prestigious hubby, Norman (Ford).
But Claire’s empty-nest malaise gets shoved aside when she starts noticing odd things happening around her home. Her next door neighbor seems to be in a state of panic, and things start bumping around in the night around her own spacious house.
The more bumps she hears, or thinks she hears, the more distant she grows from Norman, an intellectual with a short supply of Alan Alda-style compassion.
Still, Norman can be forgiven when Claire starts prattling off about murdering neighbors and other crazy notions.
“What Lies Beneath” adheres to the standard haunted house template, but fleshing out the cast with grade-A talents leds the material an air of sophistication. That polish rubs nicely against the creaking floorboards and various spooky goings on, which gives texture to an otherwise straightforward yarn.
Zemeckis stages the scares and tension like a master carpenter – there’s not a nut or bolt out of place. But the horror genre works best with some rough edges – a crazed set piece here, an over the top performance there.
“What Lies Beneath” is too prim and proper for such derivations, and while the last half hour packs its share of shocks, audiences are never truly invested – or shoved out of their comfort zone.
(Photo: Michelle Pfeiffer plays a distraught housewife in “What Lies Beneath”)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
One of my favorite recent horror movies. Scary as hell, at least on the big screen; I haven’t seen it on DVD, but I suspect the jolts are a bit lessened when the sound isn’t quite as loud. Both leads give good performances, and both step remarkably out of their normal comfort zones as actors.
And the last 20 minutes or so are freaking relentless. Bravo, Mr. Zemekis.
This marked the last “good” movie Ford made … what a loss to see him keep picking projects beneath his skill set.
Yeah, some horror movies really demand the theatrical experience. I’m sad I didn’t see “Beneath” in a theater.