6 “Original” Films You Didn’t Realise Were Actually Remakes
1. What Lies Beneath
After Back To The Future propelled him onto Hollywoods A-list, Robert Zemeckis guaranteed himself his very own circle in hell with Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump and Contact, but if you didnt think they were tawdry enough you might enjoy What Lies Beneath, which has a real shot at being Zemeckis emptiest movie.
Filmed during a break from shooting Cast Away, Beneath is a movie of two halves. The first half is a very poor mans Rear Window as Michelle Pfeiffers rich, bored (and dull) housewife suspects her neighbour may have murdered his wife. He hasnt of course its just a red-herring subplot intended to throw off the viewer, like Tippi Hedrens pursuit of Rod Taylor in The Birds.
Exactly why Zemeckis keeps attempting to channel Hitchcock isnt clear, because once the second half of the movie begins, the film becomes a pale facsimile of The Sixth Sense and Ringu as the ghost of a murdered girl uses Pfeiffer to find and take revenge on her killer. So enamoured were filmmakers of this plot in the 2000s that we saw it again in FearDotCom, Gothika, Dark Water, One Missed Call, Mirrors and Shutter.
For all its calculated Hollywood slickness, Beneath is still a dumb movie full of false scares, though bored viewers can at least amuse themselves by anticipating the moment when Harrison Ford uses his acting technique of wagging his finger at whoever hes addressing.