YMMV / What Lies Beneath

• Critical Dissonance: One of the highest-grossing movies of 2000 despite middling reviews.
• Funny Moments: Mary Feur's very, very loud sex noises.
  Claire: What is he doing to her?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In-universe. Norman's remorse over his affair with Madison and her supposed suicide seems genuine enough to make you feel sorry for him... until you learn that he murdered the poor girl and realize that his "remorse" was either all an act or completely self-centered.
• He Really Can Act: Many people who grew up watching Harrison Ford play a hero in so many movies are actually shocked that not only is he the killer, but he plays it just as naturally as he plays his heroes.
• It Was His Sled: God bless this site for trying, but you KNOW that the plot twist is that Norman is the killer.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Many, particularly involving Madison's apparitions, including the corpse.
  • Also, Norman. After he is revealed as the villain, he drops all the act and becomes a text-book sociopath who calmly explains Claire in detail how he drowned Madison. All the while he is preparing to drown his own wife in the bathtub the same way! And the shocking part is that Norman is indeed played by Harrison Ford of all people makes it even creepier, because he is playing it as fluently as some of his more heroic roles.
• Older than You Think: While it is a surprise that Ford is the Big Bad, this is not the first time he played a villain, having played ones such as American Graffiti and a Villain Protagonist in The Mosquito Coast, in which Ford's character is also a Decoy Protagonist like Norman due to his actor's star power and notability for normally playing heroes. Also, Ford has been offered villain roles before even though he has been passed over for them, such as a Corrupt Corporate Executive in Santa Claus: The Movie, the titular role as The Terminator, and even being considered by Stanley Kubrick for the role of Jack Torrance in The Shining.
• Retroactive Recognition: The film was written by Clark Gregg. Yes, Agent Coulson himself!
• Spiritual Adaptation: The film feels like its the more faithful version of the 1977 novel The Shining than its infamous 1980 film adaptation, complete with Michelle Pfeiffer as blonde haired Wendy unlike her Sherley Duvall's dark haired 1980 film counterpart; in fact, Stephen King will like this after he disowned with Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation. The Big Bad being played by Harrison Ford, who was considered by Kubrick for the role of Jack Torrance before Jack Nicholson was chosen further helps.
• Values Resonance: Throughout the The '80s and maybe even The '90s, it would have been more common for the ghostly mistress to be presented as the villain or even a monster, in the style of Fatal Attraction, with the adulterous husband being cast as a sympathetic, flawed hero. Here, Harrison Ford's character TRIES to paint the situation in such a way, but it's all a self-serving lie. The powerful, older, socially respected man being the villain, and the young student he had an affair with being ultimately more sympathetic resonates with post-MeToo themes.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: A Freeze-Frame Bonus moment, but after Claire collapses on the floor after being drugged, the camera moves towards her and then pulls an impossible camera move and goes under her while looking up, so that suddenly it appears that she is lying on a an invisible floor with the camera gazing up at her through it.
• The Woobie: Claire and Madison. Tough lives, made even worse by Norman's involvement.