What Lies Beneath
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: July 21, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
16
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
As it unwinds, What Lies becomes both masterful and preposterous. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
Goes Hitchcock one better by imagining what it would be like if the master had the advantage of digital technology. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
If you're able to check your brain at the popcorn stand, you'll stand a much better chance of enjoying this crowd pleaser. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Bears the weight of too many genres jostling for screen time. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
An uncommonly playful fright machine -- a fun house factory of scares. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A few scenes indulge in overstated hokum or thriller clichés, but Pfeiffer is first-rate and several sequences are suspenseful enough to deserve that overused adjective, Hitchcockian. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A classy supernatural lady-in-distress thriller. Read full review
75
TNT RoughCutSusannah Breslin
It's some scary fun to watch. Read full review
70
VarietyEmanuel Levy
A thriller that tries aggressively, but not entirely successfully, to deliver the goods of three genres -- suspense, supernatural and horror. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
There's a great, Hitchcockian suspense sequence in a bathtub. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
You feel you've been both a little creeped out and vigorously entertained. Its showmanship comes through in the clutch. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderOther (Specify)
Assume that viewers are too hungry for mindless thrills to care whether dead characters spring back to life or live ones change their personalities according to the needs of the moment. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's a kinder, gentler "Tales From the Crypt" that, in the end, is neither kind nor gentle. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Regardless of how cheated out of a full-bodied motion picture you feel, you're still left with the year's sickest bathroom humor. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Until the last 15 minutes, What Lies Beneath is a well-paced maze that earns every gasp from its audience. Read full review
60
Film.comGemma Files
An unexpectedly adult emotional rollercoaster with some very cold and unsettling things to say about men, women, marriage, and the lies we so often tell each other. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This slow, derivative chiller (which lifts liberally from "Ghost Story," "Rear Window" and "A Stir of Echoes") wastes far too much time on red herrings and telegraphs its plot points with painfully obvious dialogue. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Ford and Pfeiffer deliver craftsmanlike work, but the film steadily unravels as Zemeckis tries to ratchet up the suspense. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A picture sufficiently shallow that you'll discover everything that lies beneath it well before the end. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Lacking a smarter screenplay, it milks the genuine skills of its actors and director for more than it deserves, and then runs off the rails in an ending more laughable than scary. Read full review
50
NewsweekJeff Giles
A slick but surprisingly empty genre movie that builds to a not particularly shocking shock. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Dumb, dumb, dumb - borrowing scare tactics from Hitchcock and other suspense masters, but forgetting basic story.telling essentials such as character development and logical exposition. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Suggest a Clintons-at-home scenario for 2001 -- haunted by the ghosts of dalliances past. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
There is one good, legitimate scare in Robert Zemeckis' quasi-ghost thriller What Lies Beneath, and that's just not enough for a movie that lasts more than two hours. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The scares are Hichcock hand-me-downs.
50
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
Never reaches much beyond the surface, and what lies there is all too predictable. Read full review
50
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
Startlingly shallow even for a summer movie. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Truly, this is a bad script. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Glazes over faster than a Krispy Kreme doughnut, and neither is very flavorful after sitting around for a while. Read full review
40
Film.comRobert Horton
This impeccable ghost story is utterly old-fashioned, a straightforward suspenser with no twists. Read full review
40
Washington PostRita Kempley
Sparse and implausible screenplay. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
At once illogical and insultingly stupid, filled with dead-end twists and the sort of dialogue that makes a mockery of actual adult relations. Read full review
30
Film.comJohn Hartl
Loses touch with its characters. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Feels more planned than passionate, scary at points but unconvincing overall. Read full review
20
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
What Lies Beneath is my head on the movie theater floor, snoozing through this film. Read full review
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