Things Heard & Seen (2021)
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An art restorer and her family move into a farmhouse in upstate New York, only to discover a violent history and a haunting presence.
The story
In 1980, art restorer Catherine Claire moves with her husband George and daughter Franny to a large farmhouse in upstate New York. While Catherine feels isolated and struggles with bulimia, she discovers an old Bible belonging to the previous owners, the Smits, and begins to sense a spirit. She finds an antique ring that she starts wearing, while her daughter Franny begins seeing a female spirit. As George begins a career teaching art history at a local college, the family becomes entangled in the house's mysterious atmosphere and the secrets of its previous inhabitants.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1980, Catherine Claire, an art restorer, moves with her husband George and daughter Franny to a farmhouse in upstate New York. Catherine, struggling with bulimia, finds an old Bible of the previous owners, the Smits, and begins wearing an antique ring. She senses a spirit, while Franny sees a female ghost. George begins teaching art history and starts an affair with Willis, a cousin of their handyman, Eddie. Catherine eventually learns the Smits died in a murder-suicide and that her ring belonged to their mother, Ella. After a séance summons Ella's ghost, Catherine discovers George's affair and his history of forging credentials and stealing art. Trust shattered, Catherine begins an affair with Eddie. Tensions peak when George runs Justine, a colleague, off the road into a coma. After Floyd, a colleague who sensed the spirits, is killed, George drugs and murders Catherine with an axe. He pretends to discover her body and takes Franny to Connecticut. Catherine's soul joins Ella's; they awaken Justine, who tells the police. George tries to escape on a boat but is consumed by flames in a scene mirroring a painting, signifying he is damned.
- First release year
- 2021
- Runtime (minutes)
- 121
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Shari Springer Berman; Robert Pulcini
- Writers
- Shari Springer Berman · screenplay; Robert Pulcini · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Amanda Seyfried · Catherine Claire; James Norton · George; Natalia Dyer; Rhea Seehorn; Alex Neustaedter; F. Murray Abraham
- Genres
- horror; thriller; supernatural
- Themes
- toxic marriage; isolation; secrets; supernatural haunting
- Tone and mood
- eerie; moody; slow boil
- Setting
- Upstate New York, 1980
- Premise and plot tags
- haunted house; supernatural thriller; uxoricide
- Source material / true-story basis
- All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
- Content notes
- murder
- Reception
- The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, with some noting its eerie atmosphere and vivid milieu but criticizing it as an uninspired adaptation that fails to connect viscerally.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 49 · scale: 100 · review count: 24
- Production trivia
- A number of landscape paintings from the Hudson River School feature prominently throughout the film.; The film references the teachings of 18th-century theologian Emanuel Swedenborg.; The film's opening quote is 'Things that are in heaven are more real than things that are in the world'.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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