What Lies Beneath

"He was the perfect husband until his one mistake followed them home."

2000 2h 10m EN

😐

6.4

MID

🥫

49%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.6

IMDB

★6.4TMDB · 2,101🥫49%Rotten Tomatoes●51Metacritic★6.6IMDB · 147,087

DramaHorrorMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Norman and Claire Spencer are a seemingly happily married couple who uncover a terrible secret… a secret so disturbing it threatens to destroy them.

“He was the perfect husband until his one mistake followed them home.”

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Cast

Michelle Pfeiffer
Claire Spencer
Harrison Ford
Norman Spencer
Diana Scarwid
Jody
Joe Morton
Dr. Drayton
James Remar
Warren Feur
Miranda Otto
Mary Feur
Wendy Crewson
Elena
Ray Baker
Stan Powell

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Clark Gregg, Sarah Kernochan, P.K. MacCarthy
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$100M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, shot by Don Burgess. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Arthur Schmidt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford and Diana Scarwid carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "He was the perfect husband until his one mistake followed them home.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0161081 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Zemeckis directs. Don Burgess behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Arthur Schmidt cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$100M budget — tentpole studio territory.
226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Directed by Robert Zemeckis, shot by Don Burgess. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Arthur Schmidt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford and Diana Scarwid carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "He was the perfect husband until his one mistake followed them home.".
8IMDB entry: tt0161081 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 25 themes, including "lake", "therapist", "haunted house", "haunting".

The technical file

Cinematography: Don Burgess
Original score: Alan Silvestri
Editing: Arthur Schmidt
Production design: Rick Carter
Costume design: Susie DeSanto
Makeup / hair: Alan D'Angerio
VFX supervisor: Robert Legato
Sound: Randy Thom
Stunt coordinator: Tim A. Davison
Runtime: 130 min · 2h 10m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $100,000,000
Box office: $291,420,351
Return: 291% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: What Lies Beneath (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes: 49% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 51/100
IMDB rating: 6.6/10 · 147,087 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

7 wins & 7 nominations total

Also by

Robert Zemeckis

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-07-10
★ 7/10
You're not yourself today are you? Claire and Norman Spencer's marriage starts to fall apart when she believes there is a ghost in the house. Things gather apace when Claire is convinced that the spirit is trying to tell her something. Something that could be too close to home for comfort. Robert Zemeckis does Hitchcock? Well yes, the influence is obvious, unashamedly so. But the trouble with that, is having the maestro as a benchmark renders all other modern day attempts as folly. However, casting aside that gargantuan issue, What Lies Beneath is an effective creeper come thriller that boasts star credentials. Directed by Zemeckis, formed from an idea by Steven Spielberg (from the story by Sarah Kernochan) and starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as the fragmenting Spencer's. That's a pretty tidy bunch from which to launch your movie. What follows is a mixture of genuine unease and mystery, red herrings and standard boo jump moments, all of which almost gets lost on a saggy middle section as Zemeckis plays Hitchcock one too many times and loses sight of the supernatural heart of the piece, not helped by Clark Gregg's meandering script I might add. None the less, the picture gets pulled around for the finale as the spooky combines with thriller to produce some quality edge of the seat stuff. But it's only then that you totally realise that the makers here have tried to cram too much in to one film. In eagerness to manipulate the audience for the fine ending (though you probably will have it worked out at the half way point) the film just ends up as being confused as to what it mostly wanted to be. Pfeiffer is excellent and looks stunning and Ford gives it gusto when the script allows. Support comes from Diana Scarwid, Joe Morton, Miranda Otto and James Remar. The house is suitably eerie with its waterside setting and Alan Silvestri's score is perfectly in tune with the creepy elements of the piece. It's a fine enough film in its own right, regardless of the Hitchcockian homages. It's just that it should have been a far better horror picture than it turned out to be. 7/10
Wuchak2019-12-24
★ 6/10
Ghostly happenings in northern Vermont with Ford & Pfeiffer A couple living on Lake Champlain (Harrison Ford & Michelle Pfeiffer) face the empty nest syndrome as the wife experiences increasingly spectral happenings. Diana Scarwid, James Remar and Miranda Otto have peripheral roles. "What Lies Beneath" (2000) is a Hitchcockian drama/mystery with a bit o’ horror. It starts by borrowing from "Rear Window" (1954), but thankfully veers from there. At a little past the hour mark I was starting to get restless. The story was progressing too slowly with too many doors inexplicably opening. I suppose it didn’t help that Pfeiffer doesn’t trip my trigger, although she’s serviceable (I wouldn’t say I DON’T like her); and Harrison’s character seems unjustifiably gruff and impatient. However, the Upstate Vermont/ New York locations are fabulous and a mysterious mood is effectively established. The way things pan out is unexpected, unless you saw the trailer first, which outrageously spoils it. The concluding F/X sequence is beautiful in a ghostly way and satisfyingly brings closure. What didn’t make sense earlier is elucidated. At the end of the day, the movie’s underwhelming, but not altogether unworthy if you’re in the mode for a flick of this sort. The film runs 2 hours, 10 minutes, and was shot in the Lake Champlain region of Vermont/New York (Burlington, D.A.R. State Park, Waterbury & Westport) with other stuff done in Southern Cal (Los Angeles, Playa Vista & Culver City). GRADE: C+/B-
tmdb154355192021-05-18
★ 6/10
Not a great film, but two things that made it bearable: 1) Directed by Robert Zemeckis 2) I watched it in a hotel room