James Norton and Amanda Seyfried in
Things Heard & Seen. Rhea Seehorn in
Photo by Anna Kooris/Netflix No matter what type of story any particular movie is trying to tell, success usually comes when a mood is set early. Filmmakers can try all the plot trickery they want, but if they forget about establishing the tone of the film relatively early in the story, the twists and turns can be for naught. Co-writers/co-directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini make sure to follow that mandate in
Things Heard & Seen, and, just as crucially, let the mood simmer throughout the film’s two-hour running time instead of forcing the issue. The film centers on Catherine (Amanda Seyfried) and George Claire (James Norton), a couple who move with their young daughter to rural New York in 1980 when James gets a job teaching at the local college.
Blood drips down from the floorboards overhead onto a man’s car and smacks his cheek as he tilts his head to look up. Terrified, the man grabs his daughter and charges off the property, while crows caw in the distance.
“Things Heard & Seen,” on Netflix as of April 29, 2021, tells the story of professor George Claire (James Norton) and his wife Catherine (Amanda Seyfried) who move into a haunted house in Chosen, New York with their daughter in the 1980s.
This show was based upon Elizabeth Brundage’s book “All Things Cease to Appear” from 2016. The spirit of the woman who had previously died in the house occupies the property, becoming a guardian angel.
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.
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.
“Things Heard & Seen” is partly a Gothic horror movie and partly a portrait of a marriage falling apart. It’s more effective as the latter than the former, but by the end these two seemingly separate kinds of movie dovetail in a way that’s surprisingly clever and effective.
It’s also the rare thriller from the husband-and-wife duo of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, whose eclectic filmography as a writing/directing team includes the brilliant “American Splendor” and the so-so comedy “The Nanny Diaries.” So while the setting may seem familiar a creaky, old house with a dark past where things go bump in the night Berman and Pulcini are operating in a different, low-key vibe. Their adaptation of the Elizabeth Brundage novel