RESEARCH: Horror

RESEARCH: What Lies Beneath

What Lies Beneath

Year: 2000

Genre: Horror

Director: Rober Zemeckis

Writers: Clark Gregg, Sarah Kernochan

Opening Two Minutes.

Originally we just see a black screen, and then a fade in transition is used to show a water background, the sound track to the film is being played through out this. The sound track is high pitched and sounds ghostly; you can hear wind and shuddering. The music is classical and is creating tension more than the visual image at this point. There is a bird’s eye view shot used as the title “What Lies Beneath” appears in a ghostly grey and white colour, this is positioned in the middle of the scream but just below the surface of the water. From the title we can establish that along with the use of music that the film is a horror movie, “lies beneath” being a phrase to suggest death. The title fades away and a tracking shot is used as we pass through the surface of the water and continue, the non-diagetic music is still being played. The music makes you feel like the surroundings are empty, and that no one else is around. The screen then goes dark again and then we get more light, we can see weeds, making us presume we have reached the bottom of the water. We get shown a flicker of half a face very quickly through the water. A screeching noise of water being drained away is introduced and quickly gets louder. The camera speeds up and it feel as if you are being pulled towards something; at this point a ghostly face appears, it looks tired or not living, there is also bruising around the eyes. Then the eyes quickly open and we quickly zoom out of the water, this is when we have a bird’s eye view of a lady in the bath, the camera quickly zooms out as she sits up out of the water gasping for air, as she was previously holding her breath. The music is stopped when the blonde haired lady in the bath is introduced, we can now just hear her gasping for air.

The camera then jump cuts to the doorway of the bathroom, the camera is positioned low to the ground, in a long shot and is slowly zooming in towards the lady in the bath. The camera continues to zoom in, as we watch her gasping for air and trying to get her breath back, she is holding onto the side of the bath tub. Once she gets her breath back she starts to relax and we hear her pull the plug out of the bath.

There is another jump cut to a close up of the blonde lady picking up a hairdryer, the camera pans from right to left with the hairdryer as she holds it up to a steamed mirror. The hairdryer stops working and match on action is used as we watch her click the fuse, which sparks making her and the viewer jump. We are then shown a close up of her face, then the camera slowly pans back to the left until we are looking at her reflection in the mirror. The only noise we hear here is the sound of the hairdryer.

There is a jump cut into a mid shot of the blonde haired lady now opening the curtains in a bedroom, we can hear wildlife coming from outside. The camera zooms in very slowly as we see her open the curtains. There is a jump cut to a girl sleeping on a bed in the room, we track the blonde haired lady as she sits on the bed next to the girl to wake her up, the camera jump cuts to the other side of the bed and stays in line with the bed angled slightly upwards; “good morning beauty” this is the first relationship shown in the film and it is clear that it is a mother-daughter relationship.