With Greater Sydney in COVID lockdown once again, and as a result all cinema's closed until July 9th at least, once again as with the same time last year I'll be reviewing a few of the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa this week is the horror thriller
'THINGS HEARD & SEEN' which was released on the streaming service two months ago now and is Directed and written for the screen by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, and based on the novel
'All Things Cease to Appear' by Elizabeth Brundage. The film making pairing of Berman and Pulcini have yielded over the years
'American Splendour' in 2003 with Paul Giamatti and which picked up thirty-one award wins and another fifty nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit,
'The Nanny Diaries' in 2007 with Scarlett Johansson,
'The Extra Man' in 2010 with Kevin Kline,
'Girl Most Likely' in 2012 with Kristen Wiig, and
'Ten Thousand Saints' in 2015 with Asa Butterfield.
And so here, the films opens up sometime in 1980 where art restorer Catherine Claire (Amanda Seyfried) is living in New York with her husband George (James Norton) and four year old daughter Franny (Sophia Heger). George secures a role teaching art history at a small yet fairly prestigious college, and so he relocates the family to Chosen, New York moving into a large two hundred year old farmhouse there.
In no time the family are settled into their new rural community and George is making a strong impression on his students at college, however, Catherine is feeling isolated and out of touch with her family and friends that she left behind in Manhattan. One day while loading pots and pans into a kitchen cupboard she notices a Bible perched up on a high shelf. Reaching it down and thumbing through the old tome, she comes across a book marked page listing all the previous occupants of the farmhouse through the nineteenth century marked out in a family tree with the dates of their deaths clearly marked. One such name is however, scrubbed out with the word 'damned' written directly below.
Franny while sleeping one night is woken by her bedside light flickering, and on another occasion the same thing happens again only this time accompanied by the spectre of a ghost staring at her from across her room. She screams and ends up sleeping with her Mum and Dad, as she does on several occasions that follow. At the same time, both Catherine and George wake in the night by a strange smell emanating through the house, which over successive nights seems to get stronger, and seemingly comes from the garage below the main house. Soon afterwards, Catherine is in the kitchen washing dishes when she observes lights dancing across the window sill leading her to an antique ring wedged into the sash window latch. She prizes the ring from the latch using a kitchen knife, and starts wearing it later.
A few days later brothers Eddie and Cole Lucks (Alex Neustaedter and Jack Gore respectively) knock on Catherine's door and introduce themselves as neighbours and handymen who will turn their skills to any odd jobs needing doing around the house, and cheaply too. Catherine easily convinces George to take them on, and younger brother Cole is good for babysitting duties also. George also catches the eye of Willis Howell (Natalia Dyer) a female student and stable hand at a local horse stud and begins an affair with her, but after a few sessions between the sheets she breaks it off with him abruptly.
George's colleague at college Justine Sokolov (Rhea Seehorn) who teaches fabric weaving invite the pair over to dinner. Catherine hits it off with Justine immediately and they become firm friends. Driving back home that night George behaves somewhat erratically fuelled by alcohol and one too many joints, causing the pair to fight which results in him pushing Catherine down an embankment grazing her cheek. He immediately shows remorse for his actions and apologises, but Catherine will not have it. A few days later George invites Floyd DeBeers (F. Murray Abraham), the department head, home for a cocktail having spent the afternoon out on Floyd's sail boat. While Catherine is showing Floyd around the house he also sees the dancing lights and feels the presence of a soul. He reassures Catherine that the spirit is benevolent and offers to hold a seance, to which she agrees albeit reluctantly, and urges Floyd not to mention anything to her husband because he is a devout non-believer in such things.
At George's suggestion the couple host a party at their farmhouse, intended for George's work colleagues only, but then Catherine suggests the local neighbours too as she still feels alone and isolated. George agrees. During the party, Catherine learns from a neighbour that the previous owners were Eddie and Cole's parents, and that their father killed their mother Ella and himself, by carbon monoxide poisoning from the car exhaust (which the couple could smell previously rising up from the garage below). After the party has ended and the guests have departed Catherine confronts George about the previous ownership of the house. As voices are raised between the pair, a radio blasts into life, continues playing even when unplugged and only stops when George smashes it to the ground. At that Catherine asks George to take Franny to his parents' house for an overdue visit for a few days.
With George visiting his parents for the weekend, Catherine and Floyd hold a seance at the farmhouse. They see the ghost of Ella (Emily Dorsch), and Floyd tells Catherine there is another spirit in the house, and that she should be careful until it is revealed.
Catherine discovers George's affair, and has a fling with Eddie. Catherine also learns from his parents over dinner that paintings George claimed were his work were painted by his gay cousin, who drowned in a boating accident at the age of nineteen, and so she storms off the dinner table only adding to the strain that their marriage is already under.
On a class outing to a New York art museum in which Justine is asked by Floyd to chaperon George, she overhears a conversation between George and his dissertation advisor who by coincidence was visiting the exhibit at the same time. He asks George how he came to be hired without a letter of recommendation from him? The next day, Floyd, having been contacted by the advisor, confronts George, who admits to forging the letter. George asks for some time to explain man to man, as a colleague and as a friend and Floyd schedules a meeting to hear his side of the story.
A few days later and Floyd is preparing to take his boat out. George sidles up and says how he misses being out on the water and how he wishes he still had the 'Lost Horizon' the boat his cousin drowned from. Floyd invites George along saying that they can easily have the conversation on the water as on dry land. While on the boat George is unsuccessful in dissuading Floyd from reporting him to HR, which he has the intention of so doing the next day. Later that evening George returns completely wet through from head to toe. Justine is sat in her car and observes George wringing wet walking back to his car. She confronts him about his affair with Willis. As Justine drives off, George follows her, catches her up and runs her off the road, placing her in hospital in a coma. Later that evening, Catherine learns of Floyd's death over a radio broadcast, and Justine's car accident.
Later George arrives home and notices Catherine has packed up the car as she prepares to leave with Franny. George puts a sedative in Catherine's protein drink. He quickly learns about her plan and a fight breaks out between the pair. Catherine falls unconscious on their bed and George murders her with an axe with several blows to her abdomen. The next morning George goes to work, and instructs Cole not to disturb Catherine, stating she is unwell. Later that afternoon George returns home, where he pretends to discover her body. The police suspect George, but have no proof and release him. He takes Franny to his parents' home in Connecticut. Catherine's soul joins Ella's. They awaken Justine and show her everything that George did. Justine speaks to the Police. George attempts to escape on the 'Lost Horizon'. A storm is seen brewing and as it intensifies and he makes vain attempts to control the boat as a hole opens up in the ocean, swallowing George, in an image seen throughout the film.
Like George says when he first takes Catherine on an inspection of the old farmhouse, it's an old place, 'but it has good bones' and the same can be said of this film. Sure, the story has a solid enough foundation and the cornerstones are there to underpin the various plot threads, but this film left me wanting so much more than what was ultimately delivered. I wouldn't call this a horror film and there's nary a jump scare in sight - it's more of a psychological thriller or a marital drama with a house haunted by a friendly ghost, a couple whose dysfunctional marriage slides from bad to worse, and a murdering two timing husband who gets his comeuppance at the hands os some unseen malevolent force all makes for a fairly predictable offering that really gives us anything new. Seyfried and Norton are grounded enough in their roles delivering solid performances as do the rest of the supporting cast, but in the end whilst this film will be heard and seen, it will quickly fade from the memory.
'Things Heard & Seen' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.
