Well Halloween is over for another year, time to clean the cobwebs away, put the cauldron back in the basement and put those scary movies back…wait a minute, not that last one. A good horror film isn’t just for Halloween, it’s for life.
Halloween might have come to an end but that shouldn’t stop you seeking out a good old scary movie. The final film I watched over Halloween was Robert Zemeckis’s What Lies Beneath. From the director of The Back To The Future films comes a terrifying tale of murder, deceit and vengeance from beyond the grave.
Suspense films often get overlooked at Halloween, I had originally wanted to watch a Hitchcock movie as lets face it, nobody does suspense like Alfred. I decided against a Hitchcock film as I couldn’t pick which one to watch.
What Lies Beneath is the sort of movie Hitchcock would of made if he was alive today, the simple set up and spot on casting of Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. The movie itself only came about as Zemeckis had to take a break midway through filming Castaway as Tom Hanks had to drop the weight to play the long time shipwrecked character.
What Lies Beneath is an old school suspense and tension fuelled supernatural tale, with a dash of horror, just a dash and no more.
From the beautifully composed shots to a haunting score, this is Zemeckis at his most ambitious and best. Given his previous works it’s a true achievement and a complete change of pace, he had directed a couple of Tales From the Crypt episodes so his venture into horror might not seem as odd as it first appears.
Ford is perfectly cast, he’s menacing and believable as the perfect husband. The twists and turn in the plot might be a little obvious but the jumps and atmosphere more than make up for it.
It’s sad to think that Zemeckis wasn’t far away from his obsession with those cold dead lifeless motion capture performances that scared the life out of me in Polar Express and Christmas Carol. So in my opinion this was the last proper Zemeckis movie, that doesn’t really feel like a Zemeckis movie.
