Good evening and welcome to #vulturemovieclub everyone. My name is Jordan Crucchiola ( @JorCru), writer/producer/podcast/Michelle Pfeiffer enthusiast, and I'll be your host for this evening's Friday Night WHAT LIES BENEATH Movie Club event. Split your diopters and LET'S GOOOOO.

You guys I'm just so excited to be watching WHAT LIES BENEATH again despite this being like the 1,000th time. #vulturemovieclub

What Lies Beneath is a movie filled with mirrors and ghosts and cheekbones, so let's start out by honoring 2 of 3 stars of this movie in its first scene...

How you look at him before you know he's a gaslighting bastard

The house that the Spencers live in is 3,500 square feet and was completely built for production of What Lies Beneath. The exteriors AND interiors were then recreated on a soundstage in LA for more dynamic shooting. (There were reportedly 5 versions of the bathroom alone.)

I'm sorry but Michelle Pfeiffer being AGHAST at her neighbor's loud sex is just too good not to dwell on for a moment...

When you're Harrison Ford and you could obliterate the first 6 rows of a crowd with your charisma and you're really working to make that tiny window crank motion erotic:

When you're having a panic attack rooted in an extreme trauma you've utterly compartmentalized... but you're still serving, because you're THE Michelle Pfeiffer.

Wow Claire Spencer was really two decades ahead on that 8-months-into-quarantine life!

Listen I assume you just want a gif of gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer leaning into the volatile lightning filled window

UH-OHHHHHHHHHH THE GAMES ARE BEGINNING!

Hey guys do you think we'll need this detailed description of a sedative from scientists talking to each other in a lab while Claire looks Very Concerned for later in the story? Or no?

Ok this moment is important. We know Norman is a little dry. Maybe he's a little dismissive of Claire? But when she explains her fears about the house being creepy he gives this DRAMATIC eye roll when she's out of his eye line and it's like... oh you BASTARD!!!

So first it's the eye roll, and then when Claire tells Norman she's worried their neighbor/his coworker is abusing his wife he gives her the old: "Oh no my other guy friend says he's harmless." Starting to think Norman is a real asshole you guys!!!!

Ok rude!

NOTHING TO SEE HERE. CERTAINLY NOT ANY FORESHADOWING!!

All right the dinner scene is one of my FAVORITES in What Lies Beneath. You can just see so much casual undermining of Claire by Norman. Eye rolls, slight dismissals, light put downs... Where was Harrison Ford's villain era?! He's apparently great at being THE WORST!

Ok ok ok this is AMAZING. Norman, who is DEEPLY insecure that he's not as famous as his dad, tells Claire's friend Elena about his hot shit lab that he runs at a college. And here's where we see the much less publicized murder in What Lies Beneath!!!

Computer: Enhance on Norman being crushed by insecurity after Elena effortlessly BODIES HIM in public by hitting on his inferiority complex around his dad!!!!

I'm sorry I'm done with this now but L O LLLLLLL!!!!!

Water serves the dual purpose in What Lies Beneath of acting as another mirror. Pfeiffer and Amber Valetta - Madison Frank in the movie - look similar enough for her to be a double. Is she a stranger, is she a manifestation of Pfeiffer's troubled subconscious?

Looking for Madison in What Lies Beneath is like trying to find the ghosts in a Mike Flanagan haunted house.

*Michelle Pfeiffer's Bone Structure Interlude*

Quick reminder that the Alan Silvestri score for What Lies Beneath is still an absolute banger!

A great moment in best friendship in What Lies Beneath

It's such a subtle moment but a great example of how Robert Zemeckis uses negative space in What Lies Beneath. I've always loved the computer powering on scare! It's only at the ratcheting up stage in the scares but it's just enough of one to let you know Claire is NOT ALONE

SPOT THE MADISON!

Cover the mirrors girl! THROW BLANKETS OVER THEM!

Another amazing scare! You think you've left the ghost in the bathroom and Claire tears through house but SOMETHING STOPS HER IN HER TRACKS! I remember the first time I saw this how the terror in Pfeiffer's eyes just froze me in my chair. ACTING!!

Another favorite scene, when the mysterious aggrieved neighbor explains why she's been loudly crying next door and Claire is summoning all the empathy she can to normalize this WILD disclosure

When you absolutely cannot relate but you don't want to make her feel weird about it

Ok break in the action to appreciate Michelle Pfeiffer's sleuthing face

I. MEAN.

Despite promises in the script, we are not given Harrison Ford's ass protruding from the fridge in this scene :( Thank you for your efforts Clark Gregg

*SCREAMS INTERNALLY*

Of the mirrors, production designer Rick Carter said "There are a lot of mirrors throughout the house. But the only time you should be really aware of them is when they're reflecting something wrong." At this moment, SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG!!!

ICONIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amber Valetta best supporting actress!!!!!!

When a man comes at you saying he's sorry he had sex with one of his students with the pleading hands THROW HIS ASS OUT! First second third strike OUT!

I slipped! Into an affair! Over and over again! On road trips with her! On the desk in my study in our house! I SLIPPED OK CLAIRE!!!

oh no he fell

Ok our girl knows her ex is a philandering bastard and even though he "almost died" from collapsing in the tub she is like WE AREN'T FUCKING DONE HERE, NORM.

Look into the middle distance, but make it a work of art.

A low key favorite running gag in What Lies Beneath is Norman being continuously DRAGGED for not being his more famous father

I *think* I'm pretty pissed the house is going to smell like burning hair because of you, Norman!

Hey attorney Laura Dern. How do we feel about the husband groveling after he he admits to having an affair with a student of his IN OUR HOUSE and asks to be taken back?

The amount of time Claire spends holding a phone accusatorially at Norman in this scene where she's finally dragging a confession out of him is PERFORMANCE GENIUS.

What should you have done besides hiding the body of a girl you were having an affair with into the lake behind our house???? I DON'T KNOW NORMAN I CAN THINK OF A FEW ALTERNATIVES!!!

Face face face face face face face

HALOTHANE SIREN!!!!!

The word *US* is doing a LOT of work here Norman, when CLAIRE wasn't the one having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student! US would have been over but Claire would have been FINE without your sick ass!

The menace of Harrison Ford from this point forward in What Lies Beneath is just heart stopping. The intimacy and the cruelty of his tender touches as he's paralyzing and talking down to and ABOUT TO DROWN HER.

Have literally never hated Harrison Ford more!!!!!

HY^76rfRe#@#$%^&UHgAQ!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

The sheer terror of this scene hasn't lost a SINGLE BIT of impact 20 years later!!!! Just... WHAT WOULD YOU EVEN DO!?!?

An excellent moment of true horror in What Lies Beneath as Norman RISES from the floor to reach for a paralyzed Claire, able only to squint her eyes enough to convey revulsion, before he collapses back down again next to the tub. Serial killer jump scare perfection.

*deep breath*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!