Continuing the downward spiral of the careers of Ford and Pfeiffer come WHAT LIES BENEATH, capitalizing on the ghost story trend that helped THE 6TH SENSE and BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Director Zemeckis takes this one through the Hitchcockian route, trying to play up macabre psychological terror while liberally lifting key plot devices from PSYCHO, REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO and SUSPICION.

WHAT LIES BENEATH takes us back to the old school of ghost thrillers, mixing Hitchcock with THE HAUNTING, LES DIABOLIQUES and the other psychological creepfests from the 50s and 60s. The first hour sets things up slowly but effectively, and Zemeckis offers subtle but stylish touches of his own to make things more lively. Ford and Pfeiffer are excellent actors and whil the script isn't up to their talents, they do the best they can with what little there is from first-time screenwriter Clark Gregg. Where the movie ultimately goes wrong is in the final half hour, when you find out the ridiculous reasons for all of the strange goings on in Pfeiffer's behavior. At the hands of a master like Hitchcock, who probably would have changed the script into something more plausible, this could have been an intriguingly effective thriller. Adversely, at the hands of someone less skilled than Zemeckis, this could have been a total disaster. It's difficult to say whether I'm more pleased it was watchable than disappointed it wasn't better, but considering the talent involved here I suppose anything less than good is unforgivable.

Back to Qwipster's Movie Reviews