Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
Things Heard & Seen right from the get-go.
Writers and directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini begin with a creepy quote from 18th-century theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, which is
followed by a slide show of various haunting paintings, all of which is accompanied by Peter Raeburn’s unearthly and imposing score.
The film then dives into its story, which revolves around a married couple, George and Catherine, played by James Norton and Amanda Seyfried, and their young daughter. They move from Manhattan to a small town in upstate New York in the spring of 1980, after George
Heâs the most malevolent force in what technically qualifies as a haunted house film, an oddly angled inflection on the mini-genre in which the intrusive specters may have plans of their own and death may not be the worst thing in the world. Catherine feels like a hostage in her own home, and though the ominously buzzing night-lights and hallucinations of bloodied mutant fetuses in the kitchen sink drain arenât helping her fragile mental state, theyâre not the real sources of menace in her life. Like a trusted confidante urging her out of a bad relationship, the supernatural elements complement and comment upon the primary plot thread of her curdling marriage, rather than terrorizing for their own sake. She begins the film in thrall of his toxic influence, internalizing his offhanded criticisms and expelling them in the form of bulimia during her first scene. By the conclusion, sheâs achieved a grisly form of freedom.
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.
Things Heard & Seen is the newest arrival to Netflix s film library but the ending of the horror has left fans with questions and needs to be explained.