What Lies Below (2020)

Written by CinemaSerf on July 22, 2023

When teenage "Liberty" (Ema Horvath) arrives to meet her mum's new boyfriend, you might be forgiven for thinking there was a double entendres in the title. He emerges toned and lithe from the water - à la Daniel Craig - and she is smitten. His pearly white smile and soon "John" (Trey Tucker) is the apple of her eye. That is until she begins to suspect that this person is just a bit too perfect. He swims the lake at all hours collecting samples of all kinds of creatures and pretty soon the preposterous nature of this ridiculous - but well produced - yarn come to the fore. The acting is almost as bad as the writing and were it not for the huskiness of the protagonist, I'd have long given up with this pretty desperate stuff. That they manage to string it out for ninety minutes is more of a mystery and the ending is something straight out of a 1970s episode of "Dr. Who". Disappointing on just about every level and certainly not worth bothering with - even for the eye candy.