About a month after I saw What Lies Beneath in the cinema, I happened to come across the little seen thriller In Dreams, starring Annette Benning, on television. AlthoughWhat Lies Beneath, and In Dreams are two very different psychological thrillers, it is interesting to note that there are quite a few similarities between the two:

-Both films are from the Dreamworks stable.
-Both films take place during the Fall.
-Both films feature a rather fragile lead character called Claire.
-Both Claires are intensely devouted mothers to an only child; a daughter.
-Both Claires spend a great deal of time alone at home, which is a quite extensive estate in a more rural area of the USA.  There are plenty of lakes/dams/rivers and forests around.
-One Claire is clairvoyant and sees into the mind of a murderer.  The other Claire keeps seeing a murder victim.
-Both Claires have husbands who spend little time at home (one is a professor near a scientific breakthrough, the other a pilot)
-Both of the husbands don't really know how to handle their wives' strange claims, and don't take them seriously.
-Both Claires are cheated on by their spouses.
-Both Claires end up seeing a therapist.
-Neither Claire copes well with the loss of their daughter (one through leaving for college, the other, well...)
-Both Claires, when in shock, induce their own car accidents, which result in their waking in hospital.  In one of the films this accident is only spoken about.  In the other, it is shown.
-Both Claires are possessed in some scenes.  One is controlled by a murderer, the other, a murder victim.
-Both Claires have possessed computers.
-Both Claires wear red dresses in important scenes in their respective films.
-Both films contain a family dog that likes to involve itself in less than suitable situations.  It is devouted to its mistress but also impulsive, and easy to handle by the film's villain.
-The villain only shows his true colours/becomes visible in the 2nd part of the film in both cases.
-Water, water everywhere in both films.  And plenty of ghosts and corpses floating around in it.
-Apples play pivotal roles in certain scenes in each film.
-Dramatic things happen on and around piers.
-In both films, part of the climax takes place on a bridge.
-A car plunges into a river in both films.