I was genuinely pleased (and surprised) at how effective a creepy little thriller What Lies Below turned out to be. I went in blind, just the cover art and a brief description to hint at things to come. And I was genuinely surprised (and pleased) at the results.

The flick stars an awkward, shy science-loving sixteen year old girl who returns from camp with her single mom to their lake house. Up from the lake, her mom’s surprise new hot boyfriend emerges, all symmetrical and in a Speedo. Mom and Hot Boyfriend are in love and the girl is a little creeped out and a little curious… did I mention he’s shirtless half the movie? But he turns out to be slightly off… a little too nice, one too many gentle touches on the daughter’s bare shoulder, a little too in love with the lake.

This would be a really effective thriller if it was just about a creepy, lecherous new boyfriend. For awhile, that’s all the movie is and it’ll make your skin crawl and reach for the phone to call Child Protective Services. But this is a genre picture so we start to get hints that Hot Boyfriend might just have a little of the lake in him. Whether he’s a Cthulhuian sea monster in disguise, a living leech man, or something else waterlogged, you’ll have to find out yourself since the movie turns out to be (for awhile at least) pretty subtle about it.

I was impressed by the effective film-making on display. The film has good acting and a great eye for color and darkness. A great, skin-crawling soundtrack adds punctuation to eerie scenes. Small and subtle visual effects will make you question exactly what you saw in given scenes, adding to the movie’s ability to hold its creep factor close to its chest.

But, unfortunately, there are some flaws in that. Sometimes there are scenes or cuts that are a little too subtle leaving me unsure of what I was supposed to have seen. Obviously it was traumatic from the score and the acting but the visuals were a little too obscure (or obscured). Plus the final act… it works in general but I think it both over and underexplains things. Since it has to show us what’s really going on, the mystery dries up and we’re left with… what we’re left with and that might be a little silly or underwhelming. Plus it’s trying to establish there’s something bigger going on but there’s not enough time or too much latent interest in subtly to really get into it, leaving you scratching your head.

But, overall, this is a pretty effective and creepy little horror suspense thriller. It’s got a fine eye for visuals and an even finer eye for suspense and building a creepy skin-crawling feeling. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t quite nail the ending… though your skin might still be crawling when the film fades to black.

Score: 84