James Croot19:36, May 05 2021
NETFLIX
Things Heard & Seen (16+, 121mins) Directed by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini ½ For George Claire (James Norton) the move to upstate New York was a dream come true. For wife Catherine (Amanda Seyfried), it was a nightmare. Not only is she having to give up a great job, the trained art restorer was moving to a place frequented by “rich, horsey weekenders and full-time rednecks”. But Catherine accepted the teaching position at Saginaw University was a great opportunity for George, even if it meant she would be spending most of her time with their young daughter Franny.
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On her website, Brundage describes driving past an old house with a For Rent sign hanging from a tree. The family got out of the car and explored the grounds, smelling the sage and wild onion.
Then Brundage found a dutch door. She tried to open it but it was locked and then the bottom part of the door mysteriously opened.
The author said it felt like an invitation. The family climbed through the door on their hands and knees and ran through the house exploring. Later they signed a lease and moved in.
But they soon realised they were not alone.
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Express News Service
If there s one thing that Netflix s Things Heard & Seen shows, it is that the exploration in the horror genre is far from over.
Based on the Elizabeth Brundage novel All Things Cease to Appear , the film follows George Claire (James Norton), Catherina Claire (Amanda Seyfried) and their little girl Franny Claire (Ana Sophia Heger), who live a comfortable life in New York.
Soon, George announces that he s landed a job as a professor in Saginaw University, a small private college at an upstate place called Chosen. They move into a big house at Chosen that looks extremely creepy and is a hundred years old at least.
Look a little deeper at just about any decent haunted-house movie, and you’ll almost always see a story about people who feel trapped by some larger aspect of their lives. Horror-movie protagonists dealing with an evil doll can at least try to get rid of it; slasher victims can at least try to run away from the danger. And people being threatened by something they don’t understand, whether it’s a curse or a creature, can always investigate and try to come to terms with the unknown. But a house represents a commitment, a sunk cost that’s extremely difficult to walk away from. In a movie like Netflix’s baffling new horror-drama