What Lies Beneath

Robert Zemeckis' self-indulgent direction hangs like an albatross around the celluloid neck of What Lies Beneath, a soft-peddled yuppie horror flick starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a housewife who discovers her idyllic new lakefront home is haunted by the spirit of a dead college student who disappeared after an affair with her professor husband (Harrison Ford). Spine-chilling early spooks give way to a hackneyed, overlong, cry-scream-and-run third act, so drawn out that every ounce of tension evaporates from the screen. With some fine tuning, this could have been a sharp and genuinely scary thriller; as it is, it's just a frustrating movie to watch because of all the wasted potential. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)