What Lies Beneath

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What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath film poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis ImageMovers Jack Rapke
Written by	Sarah Kernochan, Clark Gregg
Starring	Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid
Distributed by	- USA - DreamWorks - non-USA - 20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 21, 2000
Running time	130 min.
Language	English
Budget	~ US$90,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

What Lies Beneath is a 2000 motion picture that tells the story of a housewife who finds her home is haunted.

The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid, Miranda Otto, James Remar, Joe Morton, Ray Baker and Wendy Crewson.

1 Plot synopsis
2 Cast
3 References
4 Trivia
5 Release and reaction
6 External links

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Claire Spencer (Pfeiffer) enters a new phase of her life after her daughter leaves home. With her husband, renowned scientist Norman (Ford), Claire is now living in a remodelled lakeside home in Vermont that once belonged to Norman's scientist father. However, when Claire meets her new neighbour Mary (Otto), she learns how terrified Mary is of her husband Warren (Remar). And when Mary suddenly disappears, clues lead Claire to suspect that she was murdered by her husband.

So when strange events start occurring in her house, Claire is certain that Mary's ghost is haunting her. But as the events get more and more mysterious, and Mary then turns up alive, Claire is forced to probe the events of Norman's past in order to learn who is really haunting them, and how to put the ghost to rest.

[edit] Cast

Harrison Ford as Dr. Norman Spencer
Michelle Pfeiffer as Claire Spencer
Diana Scarwid as Jody
James Remar as Warren Feur
Miranda Otto as Mary Feur
Ray Baker as Dr. Stan Powell
Amber Valletta as Madison Elizabeth Frank

[edit] References

The film features many references and homages to Alfred Hitchcock films, notably Psycho and Rear Window. An example is the final shot, which fades out from a graveyard to show a woman's face, just as the final shot of Psycho does. Roger Ebert noted in his review one of the glaring errors in the film is directing a Hitchcockian film and involving the supernatural, something Hitchcock never did. In the Rosemary's Baby DVD featurette, it's mentioned the film was offered to Hitchcock, and he declined because it involved the supernatural.

[edit] Trivia

Robert Zemeckis was filming Cast Away, in which Tom Hanks was required to gain weight and then lose it after being stranded on an island. The first half of the film was shot with the heavier Hanks; Zemeckis then took the entire crew and filmed What Lies Beneath, and then returned to film the second half of Cast Away after Hanks had lost the weight. This was necessary to ensure Cast Away kept the same crew for both halves of the film, and didn't pursue other work in the interrim.

The movie's faux Queen Anne-style house, built on the shore of Lake Champlain, stood in DAR State Park in the town of Addison, Vermont. It was built with all the trim of a real house on the site of the park's picnic pavilion. The park's stone pavilion was removed, the movie house built, then the pavilion restored after the movie wrapped. Several residents attempted to buy the house, but movie executives refused to sell. The entire house was scrapped and hauled to the dump. The nearby house of former Addison residents Mark and Mary Brady was originally intended to be the Spencers' residence. Negotians between Hollywood lawyers and the Bradys broke down over compensation, and the Queen Anne built instead at far greater cost. The Spencers' neighbor's house was built for 3/4 views on the same park location. It was also razed.

The dynamic truss-span bridge over Lake Champlain — linking Vermont and New York — that appears in the film several times, and especially at the end (called the Champlain Bridge and built in 1927), was scheduled for demolition in the summer of 2007. The current span is deemed too expensive to repair after years of neglect.

When Claire Spencer glimpses in the window of a quaint shop in Adamant, Vermont, the real setting is the village of Charlotte, VT, located off U.S. Route 7. In reality, Adamant is more than 100 miles from the setting of the movie, located near Montpelier, Vermont.

The movie Me, Myself and Irene was filmed in the same area as What Lies Beneath. Both film crews were working near each other in the summer of 1999 in Addison County, Vermont.

[edit] Release and reaction

Budgeted at over $90,000,000, What Lies Beneath was released on July 21, 2000 and was met with mixed reviews. However, it opened #1 at the box office, grossing just under $30 million. It continued strongly throughout the summer of 2000, and ended up grossing over $155 million in the United States, and nearly $300 million worldwide.