Something is happening … “What Lies Beneath”

4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS

(1) Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Claire Spencer and Harrison Ford as her husband, Norman. (2) Claire starts to hear and see strange occurrences while bathing in an old-fashioned tub.

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4K screenshots courtesy of Shout! Studios / Paramount Studios - Click for an Amazon purchase

“WHAT LIES BENEATH: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION”

4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 2000; PG-13 for terror, violence, sensuality and profanity; no digital copy provided

Best extra: “You Know: Uncovering ‘What Lies Beneath,’” a new feature-length documentary

IT’S BEEN 25 years since Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future,” “Cast Away,” “Contact,” “Death Becomes Her”) thrilled viewers with this totally absorbing and highly entertaining ghost story.

“What Lies Beneath” has aged extremely well, and even after repeated viewings, has moments of suspense that can make you jump. That’s thanks to the high quality of every aspect of production, as well as the expertise of its cast. Stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, who seamlessly inhabit their co-starring roles, give acting master classes with their performances.

The plot centers on Claire (Pfeiffer) and Norman Spencer (Ford) who have recently moved into, and renovated, a stately lakeside home in rural Vermont. Norman is a busy, successful research scientist. Claire had given up her career as a concert cellist after the death of her first husband, and then married Norman, who adopted her baby daughter. Now, with her daughter shipped off to college, Claire’s empty nest becomes complicated by a series of disturbing events in and around the house.

Adjusting to the Empty Nest

(1&2) Claire and Norman see their daughter Cailin (Katharine Towne) off to college. (3) They enjoy their new privacy with an intimate evening. (4) Claire chats with her friend Jody (Diana Scarwid) about the empty nest syndrome.

After convincing herself that the husband in a next-door neighbor couple has murdered his wife, Claire starts seeing and hearing ghostly signs of a woman’s presence, and becomes certain it’s the slain woman. For those who aren’t familiar with the film, there will be no spoilers here. Suffice it to say that the ghost gradually reveals itself, due to Claire’s determination to discover “what lies beneath.”

VIDEO

This anniversary 4K restoration venture between Paramount and Shout Studios scanned the original 35mm camera negative (2.39:1 aspect ratio) captured with anamorphic Panavision lens and was mastered in TRUE 4K.

Cinematographer Don Burgess approved the restoration, which extracts a good dose of natural film grain. Overall clarity is very good, a notch or two over the new Blu-ray, demonstrating the added resolution with the numerous wide shots and tight facial shots.

Everything was encoded onto a 100 GB disc, with peak brightness hitting 1039 nits, and averaging 332 nits. The video bitrate consistently runs from the low 50 Megabits per second to the upper 80 Mbps.

The HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading provides more detail in the highlights, especially in the master bathroom where Claire takes a hot bath, and during the underwater scenes. Much of the film was captured in gloomy and dark light, so the colors are mostly on the cool side, except when candles are used.

(1) Claire snoops over the fence at her neighbors. (2) The neighbor, Warren Feur (James Remar), surprises Claire when she comes looking for his wife. (3) Claire sees the ghost (Amber Valletta). (4) Claire and Jody try to summon up the dead woman with a Ouija board. (5) At Norman's insistence, Claire talks to a psychiatrist (Joe Morton).

AUDIO

The previous six-channel DTS-HD soundtrack has been ported over from an older Blu-ray, providing a full soundstage from the front to the active rears, featuring ambient effects and super loud phone rings for a good scare. The orchestral score from two-time Oscar-nominated composer Alan Silvestri (“Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump”) still enhances the moods. 

EXTRAS

The majority of the bonus features are on the enclosed Blu-ray, while the worthwhile commentary by Zemeckis and producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey is included on the 4K disc and 1080p disc.

The behind-the-scenes featurette “Constructing a Thriller” dates back to its DVD release in the early 2000s.

The new documentary is excellent, filled with interesting background and trivia about the production from Zemeckis, producers and crew. Zemeckis begins by admitting he “had never done that kind of movie before, and wanted to work in that genre,” although he claims, “I wasn’t looking to do a horror film,” but rather a “psychological thriller” à la Hitchcock. “If Alfred Hitchcock had a computer,” Zemeckis muses, “how would he use it?” The director continues, “The key to every good story is interesting characters … and the key to movie-making is casting.” He notes that for Harrison Ford, it was a “great career move” to play the role of Norman. As for Pfeiffer’s character, the audience, “had to care about” her. Casting blonde-haired actresses was a requirement for Zemeckis, as a nod to Hitchcock’s obsession with them – which included Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Tippi Hedren, Kim Novak, Janet Leigh, and Eva Marie Saint.

As for the production design, Zemeckis explains that the Spencers’ house on the lake, the nearby pier, and the neighbors’ house, all had to be constructed for the outdoor location shots in Vermont. Indoor scenes were mostly done on LA soundstages.

Is the Marriage Unraveling?

(1) Claire channels the ghost with an unsuspecting Norman. (2&3) Norman denies, and then confesses to an infidelity.

Zemeckis also praises Silvestri’s effective score, some of it inspired by Bernard Herrmann’s classics for Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” but with an added “lyricism to it.” Silvestri, notes Zemeckis, was sensitive to the times in the film when there shouldn’t be any music at all. “Sometimes silence can be far more terrifying than scary music!”

Cinematographer Burgess says, “It’s really Michelle Pfeiffer’s movie.” Praising her seriousness as an actor, producer Steve Starkey adds that Pfeiffer was determined to learn the cello “for the one scene she plays it.”

Screenwriter Clark Gregg notes that this was his first screenwriting job, which he took over from writer Sarah Kernochan, who admits that her first and second drafts “weren’t scary.” Gregg says he had been reading books on quantum physics at the time, which gave him the idea that “the more Claire opened up about what she’d been repressing, the more the ghost manifested.” Supermodel Amber Valletta, who was cast because of her resemblance to Pfeiffer, notes that impersonating Pfeiffer from the movie “Scarface” helped her prepare, despite having only one line in the film.

Starkey recognized Valletta’s acting skills from the way she posed for the still photos that become important clues in solving the mystery. At one point, Valletta’s entire body had to be scanned, so the effects people could create life-sized puppets of her to be used for some of the ghost scenes. One, made of silicone, was an “underwater marionette,” for a scene that was shot in the same studio swimming pool that had been used by Esther Williams.

Visual effects supervisor Robert Legato explains a huge cable was used to hold Pfeiffer in a scene in which Ford was carrying her up the stairs, so there’d be no danger of him dropping her. That scene proved especially challenging for the camera operators.

Production designer Rick Carter says that “What Lies Beneath” was shot during a hiatus, halfway through the filming of “Castaway,” so that Tom Hanks could lose weight for his character’s transformation. That made it easy to retain the whole production team on both films. Carter points out how prevalent and important the use of mirrors was in the film, including a scene in which the camera shows both Ford’s and Pfeiffer’s faces in their car’s rear view and makeup mirrors.

Carter also notes that the paint on the bathroom walls gets progressively darker, as the story proceeds, and that several bathrooms and bathtubs were needed for the production. Seven different tub sets were built to accommodate the placement of cameras, in order to “make the scenes as terrifying as possible.”

— Peggy Earle

(1-4) Claire gets closer to solving the mystery.