10 Horror Movie Casting Choices That Should've Worked (But Didn't)

10. Harrison Ford - What Lies Beneath

Casting one of modern movies’ good guy icons as a villain is a neat trick, and in 2000’s What Lies Beneath, it very nearly works. Robert Zemeckis’ slightly confused supernatural thriller stars Harrison Ford as sinister professor Norman Spencer opposite an excellent Michelle Phieffer as his wife Claire.

For the first half of the movie, Ford’s persona is subtly inverted to great effect. On and off screen, the man has always come across as a benign, curmudgeonly sort, no time for fools but a decent guy all the same. In What Lies Beneath, Ford brings that unknowability to the fore; there’s no real reason to believe he’s guilty of anything, but when a neighbour goes missing, and later another woman disappears, Claire can’t help but fear her husband knows something about it.

The film goes to pot when Ford’s character swings from dark figure to full on villain. The idea is a good one, but it doesn’t work; he’s never believable as a murderous monster, and the more the film dips into spooky ghost action, the further adrift he feels.