Director Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 ghost movie What lies beneath Has several layers to his mystery, but here’s why Claire was haunted. What lies beneath It has somewhat faded from the popular consciousness in recent years, despite being directed by one of the most decorated filmmakers in Hollywood, and starring two Hall of Fame-caliber A-list actors in its leading roles. While reviews from critics are mixed, What lies beneath was a big box office success, nearly tripling its $100 million budget worldwide.
While What lies beneath Was well received by viewers and critics, there is a chance that the twisty plot led to some confusion about what exactly happened to Claire (Michel Pfeiffer), and why the ghost is haunting her. The movie blends many aspects of both psychological and supernatural horror, with the truth behind what was happening in the classic haunting movie being deliberately hidden until the very end. However, once these What lies beneath The ending is explained in full, the truth behind what’s happening to Clair becomes chillingly clear.
Related
What lies beneath is explained at the end
The ghost haunting Claire was her husband’s lover
throughout What lies beneathClaire (Pfeiffer) is haunted by a female ghost, and at first believes it to be her neighbor, who has seemingly disappeared after a fight with her husband. However, the neighbor eventually returns, and it turns out that the haunting is much more personal. The ghost is a young woman named Madison Elizabeth Frank (Amber Valletta), who was having an affair with Claire’s professor husband Norman (Harrison Ford).
As is often the case in horror, Norman and Claire’s bright suburban existence was only a facade covering a dark reality, because even a seemingly ideal marriage was not enough to prevent Norman from cheating on his wife. Since Madison is a ghost, Claire quickly begins to suspect that Norman was involved in her death.
Norman denies it, but his excuses seem far from convincing, especially after Claire comes home to find him seemingly attempting suicide out of guilt over the affair. At the end of What lies beneath It becomes clear that Claire’s husband was far from the truth, and that the story was, if anything, the most innocent of his lies. Norman actually killed Madison, dumped her body in a lake, and explained why the haunting incidents had to revolve around water.
Madison, Norman’s student, threatened to tell the dean at Norman’s college about their affair. His dirty deeds exposed, Norman tries to kill Claire as well, but his plan fails, and the pair end up in the lake, leading Madison to take revenge on her killer. The PG-13 horror movie ends with Claire placing a rose on Madison’s grave, with both women finally free of Norman’s deceit and murderous tendencies.
The real meaning of that lies beneath the end
The ghostly horror was a warning about the dangers of deadly secrets
What lies beneath‘s ending may seem like a simple supernatural revenge story on the surface, but it has deeper thematic meanings. The final moments of the 2000 horror movie reinforce the idea that secrets tend to be revealed, and crimes tend to be uncovered, and attempting to (sometimes literally) bury them only leads to worse problems for all involved. Norman’s past comes back to haunt him, or rather, his wife, in a very literal sense.
However, Robert Zemeckis’ horror movie also flips several tropes of traditional ghost stories. Madison, the ghost haunting Claire, seems like an antagonist throughout much of What lies beneath. This is in line with most movies about hauntings, as the ghosts and specters are almost always the source of terror and the main threat to the protagonists. however, What lies beneath Twists this idea on its head, with Norman being the most dangerous presence in Claire’s life. The ghost of Madison is not there to hurt Claire, but to help her, and once Claire realizes the truth the couple become allies against a monster much more evil than a simple ghost with unfinished business.
All in all, the core message of What lies beneath is also mirrored by the structure of the movie itself. The revelation that Madison isn’t particularly evil in the horror film subverts expectations of the genre. This is in many ways a subtle and very clever reflection of Claire’s situation – Norman, her once loving husband who initially tries to help her when she realizes that she is haunted, turns out to be the most malevolent presence in her life. The thematic depth is arguably part of what made it What lies beneath Such a hit when it first released in 2000, and why it remains a cult gem among ghost movies and films about hauntings decades later.