[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

WHAT LIES BELOW – If your mum’s new boyfriend invites you down into his red-lit cellar to view his lamprey collection, try not to menstruate in his boat. That might be the lesson in store for Liberty, bookish teenager (though played by relative croc Ema Horvath) at the heart of the fishy goings on in ‘What Lies Below’. We meet her on an outing to the family lakeside retreat, where mum’s new romantic acquisition will be unveiled; it’s hunky scientist John (Trey Tucker), who doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal that he wanders around with nothing on (and that he breeds lampreys). He’s a biologist investigating the dynamics of freshwater organisms, or so he says – there’s something about his general demeanour that sparks thoughts of ‘possible alien involved in fish breeding colonisation weirdness that ends badly for everyone present’, but I’ll let you find out for yourselves. What’s interesting about ‘What Lies Below’ is that its hackneyed set-up finds room for some genuinely strange and uncomfortable moments, most of them focussing on the grubby attraction between John and Liberty. An array of fairly creeped-out scenes dominates the movie’s mid-section and charts the progression of scientist guy’s freaky boundary-pushing behaviour, which ranges from a heckle-raising bathroom visitation to a scene on a boat where he basically ends up licking menstrual blood(!) The ending is a bit of a blur, a whirl of multicoloured fragments, fishy bits and lots of running around by a lake, but before then ‘What Lies Below’ stays its course with some evocative imagery such as John‘s immersion in waters that pulsate with an otherworldly radiance. I liked it; it seems to have attracted mostly mediocre or bad reviews, maybe because frankly it’s all a bit of a downer.

I like the sound of this. No UK release at all but there is a German Blu which is off interest.