A mystery, thriller film flops
I’m upset. The film What Lies Below on Netflix really fools you into thinking that you are going to be given what you expect to be given when watching a thriller/mystery film.
My roommate and I are suckers for a good mystery so naturally when we saw What Lies Below was trending on Netflix, we decided to give it a go.
What Lies Below is a story about a socially awkward teenager named Libby who meets her mom’s new boyfriend, John who is an aquatics geneticist staying at the family cabin.
As Libby gets to know John, she starts to notice that there is something off about him other than his weird obsession with the fish he’s keeping in tanks in their basement.
The number one reason is that he seems too perfect… physically. Before I get into more details, I should make it known that this film is listed as a mystery and thriller not sci-fi.
The film starts off really well and makes you uncomfortable very quickly with John making secret and subtle advancements towards Libby.
While all of those scenes are disturbing, the confusion and aura of the film shifts completely when Libby is awakened in the middle of the night by a bright orange glow through her window.
As she goes to the window to investigate, she sees John staring into the light from the edge of the lake then walk forward submerging himself completely before the light disappears. The first 50 minutes of the film are actually really good.
It keeps you on the edge of your seat and has you expecting to find out a cliché dark secret about John, such as he’s a serial killer, he lives a double life, he’s actually after Libby instead of her mother, and so on. Instead, you find out that he’s a fish man?
As the movie continues it gets harder and harder to take it seriously. The plot is just so random that you don’t even understand how it became a Sci-fi movie in the first place.
The best part of this movie is the cinematography. As the plot shifts and gets creepy, so does the lighting and aesthetic. The beginning of the movie is quite cheerful and the light chosen reflects that. A bright golden sunlight is the only source of light shining on Libby and her mom as they are driving.
After John makes his appearance in the film the light changes completely and becomes darker almost to foreshadow that John is the cloud that is going to hang over the family.
There is one scene in particular when John is showing Libby his collection of fish in the basement when the lighting is the most ominous.
The scene is lowly lit with red and blue light which makes John’s speech about how fascinating the fish are while he stares entranced by them all the more disturbing.
The camera shots were strategically placed. Every scene containing Libby and John the camera is placed high looking down at Libby and it is placed low looking up at John.
This puts the audience in their place as it is meant to show that John is the dominant figure in control of everything around him while Libby is intimidated.
There are many highlights to this film production wise. The story isn’t great, it’s flat out ridiculous. This film really isn’t worth the watch when there are many other great sci-fi choices on Netflix.