Detailed analysis of 'What Lies Beneath'

This 1 minute, 55 second long clip from What lies Beneath starts with the main woman walking up the stairs. When the clip starts there is traditional 'spooky' music that fades, almost, into the sounds that you might hear at a lake.

Whilst the music is playing, the camera has moved away from the actress, who is paused on the middle of the stair case looking up at something. The camera stays in the same place, height wise, as it turns to capture what the actress is looking at. Now, the camera seems to 'be on the floor, focused on the bottom of the bathroom door. We now know why the woman was staring at the door - there is steam leaking through the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor.

Whilst the camera has been turning towards the bathroom door, the woman has made it all the way up the stairs. The door opens as her feet come into view. The camera is then on the inside of the bathroom door using the match cut technique. When she opens the door, the camera is her height and facing her. The shot is then switched to face into the bathroom, still at her height.  Throughout this, the music is still going, with the added 'creaking' sound for when the door opens. When the camera focuses on the bathroom, we see that it is full of steam. The actress' facial expression shows that she has no idea why the bathroom is full of steam which makes us want to shout ''Don't go in there!''

The camera moves forward - being her eyes. The focus then switches to her and then back to the room, showing the layout of the bathroom. It switches to her again, then back to the bath. As the camera gets closer to the bath, the woman comes into the shot and the camera is filming from over her shoulder. The camera is then beneath her as she looks into the bath. As she leans forward to remove the plug and let the water out of the bath, we see her reflection. When she starts to straighten up, we see the reflection of a woman who is not there in person. The woman screams when she notices and wakes her husband, he runs into bathroom to find her shocked and staring at the bath. The clip ends with the last of the water going down the plugwhole in the bath.

This clip shows suspense right from beginning to end. Where the woman goes into the bathroom which is full of steam and has a look of terror on her face, you can clearly see that she doesn't know why there is all the steam and that she doesn't know who is in her bathroom. When the reflection of the other woman appears out of nowhere, it is clear that the main woman is completely terrified by this appearance.