The film What Lies Below (2020) belongs to the horror genre. This genre has always been popular. Over the years of horror films, the viewer has seen so many monsters that they can’t even list them. Movie makers have scared us with giant flies, big ant invasions, prehistoric pangolins, resurrected zombies, and everything else. The modern viewer already has an iron psyche, so it is no longer easy to hit the right strings in his mind to scare. Meanwhile, there are not so many sensible horror films. Movie series about reanimated mummies, the movie series “Return of the Living Dead” and some other films come to mind.
As you can see from the title of the film What Lies Below, the action will take place under water. This is practically the same plot as in the horror movie “Piranhas”. You can also take the great series “Jaws”, which is even forgotten. Although there was a remake. But once, in the 80s and 90s and even at the beginning of the magical zero, posters with the jaws of a giant shark represented almost the entire film industry as a whole. Thus, What Lies Below again sends the viewer into the water element. It can be just as scary as space. So, welcome to the water.
It is impossible to breathe in the water, it is cold, it is very dark in the aquatic environment. Light does not penetrate to great depths. There live creatures that are still unknown to science.
According to the plot, a young girl of 16 years old returns from the camp, where she spent the whole summer. Mom has a new boyfriend whom she sees when she arrives. The man looks very attractive. Works in the scientific field and studies the aquatic environment, trying to save those species that live in fresh water. Thus, the girl’s mother met just her ideal. But the man suddenly starts molesting her daughter. He behaves towards her in an unusual way. When they are together, the man begins to do different things that defy explanation.
The film is based on the novel by Howard Lovecraft. And this is a real master of horror. In this film, fans of the great writer will not find direct references to him. There are no monsters here that were mentioned in the books of the great author. However, the film is filled with the spirit of Lovecraft. It’s sad that the plot is too long. Most of the movie is melodramatic. The girl is torn between her mother and her man, who should become her stepfather. The horrors begin after the second half of this work. Various underwater monsters and all kinds of otherworldly bestiary. This is what the heroine of this work will have to face. Thus, a classic of the genre awaits us, in which we will have to fight underwater evil. The actors did a good job with their roles.
In the last minutes of the film, we see how the girl is in her house, where water comes. She calls the policeman, demands that they come and help her. The stepfather is somewhere far away, but will soon be near. She is talking to a policewoman on the phone. Suddenly, her friend’s head appears. Liberty, that’s the name of the heroine, says that he sees her dead body. The stepfather appears, possessed by some evil. He grabs the girl and pushes her against the wall. Some tentacles come out of his mouth, with which he tries to hit her. But she manages to fight back by throwing some kind of chemical substance in his face.
Liberty saves her mother, who is also in the house. She brings her to her senses. But she has something on her legs. Both women run away, trying to leave the house. Their stepfather is chasing them. Water is everywhere, it keeps coming. But the mother and daughter are trying to get upstairs, hiding from the stepfather chasing them. The mother has an infection. She demands that her daughter run away without her. Then we see her tied up. My stepfather tied me up. The girl screams. And the stepfather is trying to do something, breaking the wall with superhuman strength. There is another person with him. Her stepfather comes up to her and releases some kind of organism inside him into her.
It is probably the same parasite with which he himself is infected. He demands that the Liberty girl swallowed the creature. Covers her mouth. Liberty loses consciousness. She comes to herself in a certain cube, which is filled with water. The camera moves back and the viewer sees that she is not alone and there are still two girls nearby. Liberty tries in vain to get out, but nothing comes of it.
Ultimately, the film ends on an unhappy note. The girl remains sealed in a water cube and will soon die or fall into some kind of dream. What did her stepfather prepare for her, inside of which there was a monster? These questions are not answered by the viewer.
What the Water Lies is a passing Lovecraft film that you can watch once and forget. But the evening will be pleasant. Such films are needed when there is popcorn at home and you want to tickle your nerves a little. And it doesn’t always have to be a happy ending.