Rating: 
Summary: Three words: Oh My God!
Review: I wasn't originally planning on seeing this movie. We were going to see 'The Kid', but we ended up seeing a little thing on TV about this and decided that we must see it right away! I'm really glad we did! Not only is this movie full of great acting, but great suspense and wonderfully creepy music. The whole story centers around this little three person family living in a house in ... I'm not real sure where it is, but it's by a lake. Right away the movie gives you a bit of a creepy feel. After Norman (Harrison Ford) and Claire (Michelle Pfiefer) say goodbye to their daughter, who's leaving for college, they find to their glee that they're alone in their house. But Claire's eyes are wandering and she soon begins spying on a neighbooring family, one that has just moved in. It seems that they're having a bit of ... trouble. When she talks to the woman, through a fence, not actually seeing her, Claire is under the notion that the woman is very, very frightened of her husband. Then his wife is suddenly gone. Claire has her suspiscions. But the story doesn't stop there. Claire begins having ... little spurts of ... how shall I say it... well she feels like there's someone or something in her house. Making this for a very jumpy kind of movie. I'll admit, the movie is quiet except for the noises that pop up for fright, and the wonderfully creepy music that adds suspense at the best parts. Nevertheless, add in a dirty little secret, and something in the lake that isn't supposed to be there, and you've got a great movie! Unfortunately, I feel that the preview gave too much away. All I want to say is the ending is going to suprise you. Think of it as this summer's 'Sixth Sense'. Go see it, it'll freak you out, make you think, and really wonder what lies beneath everything in your life!
Rating:
Summary: Thy Scariest and thrilling ride of the decade
Review: "What Lies Beneath" is the best movie of the year. The acting was good especially "Michelle Phiffer" who deserves an oscar nomination, Harrison Ford is terrific. This has to be the scariest and thrilling ride of the decade and I LOVE IT!
Rating: 
Summary: "A Thriller"
Review: Well Harrison Ford has a heel turn in this movie, well the whole movie until the last 30 min of it he trys to kill his wife cause she finds out he killed a student.Well this was a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: The ONLY film to give me an asthma attack
Review: All the hype and feverish wonder over this film from friends and total strangers drove me to spend ..... to see it and it was worth every penny. More shocks and chills and screams than "The Sixth Sense" and "The Blair Witch Project" combined, this unnerving ghost story is tightly wound and strongly vivid. One never knows what fright will loom at the audience and only Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis can achieve such frightful fascination. Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfieffer are outstanding as a middle-aged couple whose only child has just left for college. As soon as she's gone does Pfeiffer start hearing sounds and noises from all over the house. She suspects her creepy neighbor of having killed their spouse, the front door opens on its own power, a picture gets shattered over and over, and some girl appears in the bathroom, among other chills. A terrible secret is soon revealed involving Ford and his quiet past. Once this secret is made manifest to Pfieffer, who has had so much to make any woman go insane, he'll do anything to silence her forever, thus escalating into one of the most heart-poundingly suspensful climaxes ever captured on celluloid. The ghost in the story makes "The Sixth Sense" look wimpy compared to this one. The jolting shocks and sudden scares jump off the screen and into the mind of the viewer without warning. You WILL NOT be prepared for the scares and YOU WILL flinch and jerk more than just a measly few times. There was so many for me combined with the unbearable suspense I started having an asthma attack in the theater. It makes the heart and blood go into high-gear shooting flow like never before and YOU WILL NOT be able to leave and not see what will happen next. Truly this is what movies should do and Robert Zemeckis has proven himself to be a master at this stuff. I predict this film to frighten its way into the Oscar race next spring because if it doesn't, then those Academy voters should have their heads examined. This film is irresistable!
Rating:
Summary: verrry suspenceful
Review: i was focused on this movie the whole time, and i'm the type of person wondering when it's going to be over. i was litterallyon the edge of my seat for some of the parts. if you like scary movies, you should see this one. it was great.
Rating:
Summary: The movie, finally!
Review: This script (by a different title) was available our local small town theatre group ("Brick Barn Theatre") in the mid-1970's, and while we never made it part of our Summer productions, I fell in love with the story. I found the script a fascinating read all on its own, and was inspired to write more than a few short stories from this premise.
I had always hoped to see the play, or take part in it. To see this now was a truly pleasant surprise.
Add to that the "Star Power" of the actors involved, and you have an evening that will leave you wanting to share this with your friends, and many a good conversation.
The only reason I did not give this a five star recommendation is that the original script was perfect, but could not adapt quite as well into modern times. Due to how our relationships have altered with modern technology, the film loses a bit of its punch.
If you approach this film with a 1970's perspective it will make far more sense.
Rating: 
Summary: A Subpar Delivery From Zemeckis
Review: How can something that was going so right end up going so wrong? That was the question I kept asking myself after exiting Robert Zemeckis' latest film, What Lies Beneath. The supernatural thriller stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as Norman and Claire Spencer, a successful and seemingly happy middle-aged couple whose only daughter (Katharine Towne) has just gone off to college. However, their perfect little life together doesn't last long as a result of Claire's changing mental state.
The question of Claire's sanity first comes into play early on in the film as a result of Claire's obsession of spying on her new next-door neighbors, Warren & Mary Feur (Rear Window anyone?). Based on what she has seen, or rather what she thinks she has seen and the seeming disappearance of Mary, Claire begins to suspect that Warren has murdered his wife. Claire's suspicions are then taken to a new level as strange occurrences begin to happen throughout the house, ranging from doors that open on their own to the mysterious nature of the family's bathroom, which marks the location of Claire's first vision of a mysterious woman, in one of the film's more memorable scenes. Claire is nearly convinced that Mary has come back from the dead, but at the same time still aware of the possibility that it may all just be in her head. As the visions continue Claire drifts further and further away from her former self, while the relationship between her and her husband does the same. Eventually, Claire can no longer take it and must find out the truth for herself.
And then the film takes its first major twist, which I won't give away but was already all but revealed in the film's trailer. The first twist is a good one and really gets the film into gear, ultimately leading to another of the film's more memorable scenes in which we see Claire seducing Norman in a manner that is very un-Claire like given her personality. The scene also includes my favorite shot in the film, which again for spoiler reasons I won't give away (pay attention to Claire's eyes in the scene and you can't miss it) and marks the beginning of the film's next major twist. And it was with this next major twist that the film first begins to fall flat. The film could have gone a number of ways given its psychological and supernatural elements, but instead plays it safe and follows the same old thriller path that we have all grown accustomed too, which just doesn't fit with the flow of the first 2/3 of the film and is extremely disappointing given some of the possibilities that the film's first major twist hint to and could have led to. Despite the lackluster third act Zemeckis, Pfeiffer and Ford are able to pull it off reasonably well given what they have to work with as the final bathroom scenes is another of the film's best. But instead of ending it there Zemeckis can't resist himself, as an additional 15 minutes or so of film full of plenty of "jump" scenes follows. This period of the film is absolutely mind boggling to me, not only because it continued to remind me of how lackluster the film's third act really was, but also because the film's end result is basically the same as the result of the bathtub scene, only much, much less effective.
It's a shame too, as I really did enjoy the first 2/3 of What Lies Beneath. The film is full of very interesting shots throughout, and through the use of its score in association with some of those shots (especially anything focusing on either a mirror or water) was able to produce some genuine terror and suspense especially once the foreshadowing of these scenes has become apparent. Michelle Pfeiffer is very good in her role as Claire, as she pulls off being either scared and or unstable whenever her part called for it without ever appearing over the top. Unfortunately I can't really say the same for Ford, as the script just doesn't give him enough to work with, something that I feel weakens the film's ending even further given the path it does take.
The unnecessary extension of the film, which also happened to be the only problem I had with Zemeckis' Oscar Winning film, Forrest Gump, in addition to the obvious Hitchcock visual and plot references to Psycho, Vertigo and the previously mentioned Rear Window that are laced throughout the film, and the excess and foreshadowing of "jump" scenes are a pretty good indication that Zemeckis was really playing around with both the thriller genre and the audience at the same time. While I enjoyed that to a certain extent, it eventually becomes tiresome, as there was just too much of it by the end of the film and because of it the film itself ultimately suffers here as well. If you're a fan of the genre itself I still recommend this film, as despite its downfalls, I still found it in parts to be more terrifying than most other so called thrillers released as of late. What Lies Beneath isn't a bad film; it isn't a very good film either, but at the same time based on its first two acts alone had the makings of being a great film. If only it had ended 15 minutes sooner and if only had it taken a chance.
** 1/2 (6.5/10)
Rating:
Summary: A good solid movie
Review: This is a good supenseful movie of the 'old school' very little blood and gore, lots of creaking floors and wind blown curtains. Stylistically it pays homage to Hitchcock in, at times, a not too subtle way.
The acting is excellent, of course, and there's a moody inevitability about the plot that keeps you guessing through one twist after the other.
It was a good (and fun) movie to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Not at all what you'd expect...
Review: The trailers for this movie suggest one type of movie, and the movie itself is actually a much tamer version of that. All the exciting moments are put into that trailer. Trust me; there are no more scary parts. What's left is a mystery for the wife to solve. A good story, but misleading trailers. It's simplistic and old-fashioned- not my favorite type, but I'd recommend the movie itself because it was good quality.
Rating:
Summary: Finally! A Legitimate Scary Flick!
Review: I don't really like Michelle Pfeiffer's choice of movies, but in the case of "What Lies Beneath," I have to admit that I love her in it as the completely spooked wife of Harrison Ford.
Since this film has been out for awhile, I won't go into too much detail about the story. The general idea is that Ford and Pfeiffer have a visitor in their home by the lake. Pfeiffer thinks it's the neighbor's wife, whom she believed was murdered. Ford thinks his wife is losing it. Scares galore follow, and a twist and turn ending comes to fruition.
The scares in this movie aren't of the "hack-and-slash" gore variety. They aren't even the "boo!" scares found in horror flicks as of late such as "The Grudge." They are legitimate, bite-your-nails scary. There are some of the jump-at-ya type scares, but they are pulled off in a way that tells you that this movie stands out from the pack. It works on your mind while you're trying to solve who the ghost is, then hits you with a wallop of surprises. In other words, you're always trying to be on your guard, but you are never given a chance to recover.
I base how scary a film is on how it affects me after I've watched it. This flick made me uneasy when I went to the bathtub. It made me want to turn on every light. When a movie does that to me, it deserves four stars. I recommend this one to anybody who wants a real scare, not any of the teeny-bopper fluff tossed out nowadays such as "Scream," "The Grudge," and the wretched "Blair Witch Project."
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