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DARK CORRIDORS A CLASSIC REVISITED From Aug. 11, 2000 |
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Reviews A Genuinely Scary Ghost Movie |
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Zemeckis' 'What Lies Beneath' Stands As A Ghost Story Classic
By
JOHN STANLEY
of TheColumnists.com
"Scary Movie" shouldn't have been called "Scary
Movie" because it's really not a scary movie. It's a parody
of a scary movie, but, hey, to call it "Scary Movie"
is to call on the forces of irony.
"What Lies Beneath" should have been called "Scary Movie" instead because it's a genuinely scary movie. Better yet would have been the title "Scary Ghost Movie," because that's what it is -- a manipulative, but well-crafted blending of psychologically disturbed characters and traditional ghost-story elements.
Robert Zemeckis' newest effort grabbed me from the beginning with its moody photography and unusual characters and wouldn't let go. It had me leaping out of my seat several times, and even when it seemed to turn absurd during its climactic moments, I was still hooked and jumping out of my seat. A ghost story is an absurdity to begin with, so why not build and expand until your characters live in a place and time alien from ours. Do it right and the audience will always go along with you.
Zemeckis
directs the shocker scenes well, and has a special way of keeping
his camera mobile, twisting and turning to provide odd angles.
This gives "What Lies Beneath" a dreamlike, this-can't-really-be-happening
quality. Perfect for a ghost story. Other directors could learn
from Zemeckis' technique.
 Michelle Pfeiffer |
 Harrison Ford |
If there's any irony about "What Lies Beneath," it's the fact that so many important critics have torn it apart for its contrivances and shallowness, yet it's one of the best movies of the thriller school out there because contrivances and shallowness are almost necessities to a ghost story. Isolate your characters in darkness and forget the rest of the world. It's all purely visceral and very psychological, and photographed in a low-key but not-completely-dark style that really made me feel uneasy.
Somehow the public has sensed that this is a good one and, by what I believe is strong word of mouth and by ignoring stupid critics from the outset, is eagerly lining up at the box office. You can also sense something special is happening when they bring back the TV advertisements with a new twist, and that's when I decided if I'm a self-respecting "Creature Features" guy, I had to give it a shot.
"What Lies Beneath" took me two screenings. The first viewing at my local multiplex carried me about two-thirds of the way through the intriguing manifestations on screen, but just at the beginning of the long and macabre climax, where you finally find out the truth underlying all the mysteries, the projection bulb went dead, presumably caused by supernatural forces beyond the control of exhibitionistic management. Whatever the singular cause of this disturbing mechanical malfunction, I was refunded my $5.
I
returned to see the film again a week later, and by then thought
I had figured out all the possible endings. I was completely
shortsighted, as Zemeckis and his screenwriter, Clark Gregg,
threw far more twists and shocks into the gruel than I had expected.
Included is one of the most harrowing trapped-in-a-bathtub-filled-with-water
sequences I've ever seen. There is also the image of a floating
corpse that repelled and attracted me at the same time, it was
so beautifully photographed and directed. The whole ending was
diabolical and audacious, and sent a final shiver through me.
Awesome, in a terrifying kind of way.
"What Lies Beneath" is really Michelle Pfeiffer's movie,
and she carries it beautifully as Claire Spencer, the wife of
a scientist conducting research on DNA-related drugs. In a way,
Claire is a thankless kind of traditional woman-in-peril role
that harkens all the way back to Ingrid Bergman's Paula Alquist
in "Gaslight" or Joan Fontaine's Jane Eyre. And countless
more hoked up thriller dillers in which a woman is being driven
crazy and nobody will believe her story. In the end, she's never
crazy, her story was true, and some heroic guy saves her. It's
a tradition that still works, though, if you can give the imperiled
dame fresh nuances and that's what Pfeiffer ultimately does.
And no happy, hoked up ending is in store for her in "What
Lies Beneath."
Keep your eye on Pfeiffer, for she is the key to the film's success. Pfeiffer makes Claire Spencer seem like a woman who's floating through her existence, ethereal and lost, as if she herself had become a ghost. Once a gifted cellist, Claire had a car accident a year ago and is now a chanced, troubled woman, who has given up her music . . . but in exchange for what?
Her
fragile existence gets especially harrowing after she and hubby
Harrison Ford move into a huge estate that turns out to be haunted.
Don't ignore the fact that the house sets on the edge of a vast
lake -- a geographical fact that will become important to the
plot later on.
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Director Zemeckis explains a scene to Pfeiffer and Ford
Ford plays one of his caring yet distant husband types, and sleep walks in his usual way through part of the film -- then, wham!, he comes to life to play a kind of screen character he has never played before. To tell more would be telling too much. It's one of his liveliest roles in recent years--he actually breathes hot life into his academic-minded nerd, Norman Spencer.
Pfeiffer is the one to watch, though, as she discovers a ghost is haunting her home--a beautiful blonde woman whose face appears as a reflection in the bathtub water. This is the first in a series of shocker scenes Zemeckis sets up with precision. We've seen similar stuff in the serial-killer shockers, but Zemeckis has a classier way of designing his jolts, and they make the film a miniclassic of its kind.
Pfeiffer presumes the reflection is the ghost of a woman who lived next door and then suddenly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. With Pfeiffer spying on her neighbors with binoculars, Zemeckis pays obvious homage to Hitchcock's "Rear Window," and with some touches in one of the bathroom sequences he pays obvious homage to "Psycho." Can't describe much more of the plot without giving away too much. Better you should just go and see for yourself.
"What Lies Beneath" has what a good ghost story should have beneath its surface facades. This one will go down as one of my favorite ghost movies -- and to hell with all the rational thinkers and film critics who would disagree. What the hell do critics know, anyway?
©
2000 by John Stanley. Photos © 2000 by Dreamworks SKG. Caricature
of John Stanley © 2000 by Jim Hummel.
YOU
CAN COMMENT ON THIS COLUMN OR CONTACT JOHN STANLEY WITH AN E-MAIL
TO: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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