Catherine (
Seyfried) and George (
Norton) move to the small town with their daughter Franny so that he can take a job as an art history teacher at a private college. We eventually learn that people in the town are followers of an 18th-century Swedish theologian named
Emanuel Swedenborg. One of Swedenborg’s followers, a real-life artist named
George Inness, has a painting called “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” that becomes an important theme for the movie and plays a big role in the ending.
Click inside for more spoilers and an explanation of the ending…
Another important puzzle in the story that we learn is that the Clare family’s home is haunted by the wives who previously lived in the house and they are there to help Catherine. It’s implied that their husbands killed them because they disapproved of the women being followers of Swedenborg.