PLOT SUMMARY: When Liberty meets her mother's new boyfriend, she learns that there is something odd about the charming man who cares a little too much about the environment.
I would imagine it must be hard to meet someone who is going to be your stepparent or accept him or her in your family.
There have been plenty of movies about that with not all of them ending on an unhappy note.
Then there's this movie: What Lies Below, and the one thing I found hard to watch and believe was the actress who played the daughter, Liberty and was supposed to be sixteen years old. Sure she played an awkward nerd well, but clearly, she needed better make-up to look like a sixteen-year-old. Why even make her character that young anyway? It didn't add to the story. They could have just shown her coming from college on a break.
But no, Liberty is sixteen and just back from camp and being picked up by her mother.
WHAT LIES BELOW Movie Plot
Liberty is surly all the time while her mother Michelle is cheerful and peppy. She likes to listen to the radio and Liberty, a sour puss warns her not to turn on the music. Her mother tells her to scratch her arm at one point and that is assumed to be an action that is supposed to mean you care about that person enough to let them scratch you when you have an itch.
On the way, Michelle immediately gets to the point and tells her that she's selling some adjoining houses and that she is dating someone.
Michelle takes her daughter to meet John who makes a grand entrance coming out of the lake and showing off his abs. His little show draws admiring looks from Michelle but Liberty is almost drooling watching him before she reminds herself this is her mother's boyfriend.
Although Liberty prefers dressing down to go with her personality, for lunch, she decides to wear a dress. Her mother looks at her oddly but compliments her to put her at ease.
Over lunch, Liberty discovers that John is into saving the environment and marine life and starts twirling a lock of hair, clearly smitten with him. Her mother is doing the same thing.
Talking about the environment is the new sexy topic.
Michelle again notices her daughter ogling her boyfriend but doesn't think much of it because John doesn't seem to notice Liberty.
Later on, Michelle confides in her daughter that she told John she was thirty-give instead of her real age which is forty-two.
Liberty becomes concerned with that lie and when she goes out for a walk and finds John, once again wading in the lake, asks him his age to which he replies he's thirty years old. He also assures he really loves her mother a lot.
Liberty shows off her intelligence and tells him she's been accepted at Cambridge but hasn't told her mother yet who would be upset at her daughter going far away. John promises to keep her secret.
Liberty seems to still have her doubts about John for some reason and is reluctant to let him join her and her mother for a walk somewhere in the woods where they've buried boxes and filled them with notes for their deceased family members.
Liberty is attached to her grandfather but Michelle is too nonchalant. Liberty taunts her mother about her grandfather loving her more and that is why he left his house in her name.
Michelle reveals the truth that her father didn't care for her much and was eager to give her away after the divorce but that she was happy he loved Liberty.
Liberty receives another shock later on when John and Michelle announce their plans to get married. There is something that is upsetting her but not many incidents have led to her concern so it is confusing as to why she's turning hostile.
The incidents where she should start doubting John begin now. She keeps seeing him walking into the lake at night to which he makes excuses about having a sleepwalking issue. He has a basement with a red light that he isn't too eager to show. He has a thing about taking salt and refuses her offer to take a soda because it has sodium in it.
But the yucky part comes later when she's on a boat with him, talking about fishes and stuff and she suddenly gets her period as soon as John removes his shirt to get something from that water. The actor has perhaps worn his shirt maybe only twice in the whole movie.
John wads up his shirt and pushes it against her abdomen so that the blood doesn't flow out and spoil his catch of the day. Liberty sees it as an attack and rushes away in a huff as soon as the boat comes to shore.
Then while she's taking a shower, John creeps in to apologize, then pretends to leave and keeps sniffing her because she's on her period. Liberty senses something but rather than peeking out, keeps washing her hair and face over and over.
When she finally leaves the bathroom, she finds John and her mother having an intimate moment in their bedroom.
Liberty is somewhat disgusted and goes to her room to send a message to her friend Miley to come to visit her because her mother's boyfriend is weird. Miley isn't too interested in coming over and makes excuses before deciding to check up on her friend the next day.
Meanwhile, Michelle becomes sick and complains about pains in her stomach and keeps vomiting. John is away on his run and can't get her medicine so Liberty is tasked with driving a car and getting the medicine and a pregnancy test.
When Liberty tells her she can barely drive, her mother tells her to shut up and just get her medicine.
Liberty manages to drive properly and make it to the pharmacy where she sees John in glasses and a jacket, walking with another woman.
She leaves the pharmacy without paying and stands on the street to gawk. The man turns around and smiles at her. The pharmacist reminds her she hasn't paid and Liberty turns around to find that John has disappeared.
She returns home and gives the medicines and tests to her mother. Outside, John has returned and promptly removes his shirt, wrings it and drinks his own sweat.
Liberty's friend Miley comes over and finds John hot. Liberty immediately destroys her daydreaming by mentioning John's off antics including the fact that he grabbed her like Donald Trump.
Miley decides to go tell Michelle even as Liberty hesitates.
For some reason, Liberty goes to sleep and when she awakens, is told that Miley has left. Her mother and her boyfriend are on the couch watching TV and happily announce that they are pregnant.
WHAT LIES BELOW Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Liberty can't stand her mother's happiness and tells her how John grabbed her and then licked her blood. Michelle keeps saying that John is simply an awkward nerd but Liberty isn't hearing any of it.
When nothing works, Liberty blurts that Michelle lied about her age. John gets furious and leaves immediately.
Michelle gets angry at her daughter and tells her that she knows about Cambridge and that she will sell the house now.
Liberty goes off on some detective work while Michelle disappears.
Liberty finds her mother strapped in a tank full of water in the basement and scratches her arm to awaken her.
In the other tank, Miley is found dead and floating. Michelle begins giving birth and Liberty hides while John comes, eager to welcome the baby.
What he sees upsets him. The baby creature is dead and he leaves.
Liberty finally understands why it was important for John that Michelle be young. She was supposed to deliver healthy baby fish creatures.
Liberty tries to unsuccessfully free her mother, makes a call to the police who don't come, finds that there isn't one John but several clones who don't even say hi to each other but keep walking around the basement.
Liberty tries to fight John but fails and ends up in the tank herself, supposedly being kept by John to make more babies.
The police still haven't arrived.
What Lies Below really lacks clarity in its story, especially with what kind of creature John was and if he was going to live forever and seduce more women to have babies with.
And will the police ever come when they are called for a change?
Scare scale: 2/5
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