Things Heard & Seen is like a roundabout with multiple exits and they all lead to disappointment

 

This movie is Shah Alam and all its exits just lead you to Seksyen 7. (Image courtesy of heavenofhorror.com)

To be fair, this movie just flew right under our radars. So when it finally came out on Netflix, we had zero expectations for it. In fact, we didn't even know it was a horror movie until we checked the description. It just popped up on our list, which was primarily horror... ok, our Netflix list is all horror, but it's expected for a horror movie buff who runs a horror movie page on Facebook. 

Things Heard & Seen includes a smattering of well known talents including Amanda Seyfried, James Norton, Natalia Dyer and F. Murray Abraham as well as lesser known actors like Alex Neustaedter, Rhea Seehorn, Michael O'Keefe, Karen Allen, Jack Gore and Emily Dorsch. 


This movie is a walking cliche. (Image courtesy of denofgeek.com)


Things Heard & Seen takes place in the 1980's and tells the story of Catherine (Amanda Seyfried), her husband George (James Norton) and their small daughter, Franny (Ana Sophia Heger) after they move into a large, rustic farm house somewhere in Chosen, New York, after George receives a teaching position at the town's local university. 

Not long after moving in, Catherine starts experiencing strange and supernatural incidences including flickering lights, while Franny, her daughter, starts seeing chairs move and a ghostly apparition of a woman appear in her bedroom. 

Catherine also starts to see her husband's characteristics start to change the longer they spend time in that house and decides to investigate. 

"Oh, look! I found something that ties all these strange occurrences together." Like that's never happened in horror movies before. (Image courtesy of decider.com)


I don't even have to explain the entire plot of the movie since it's a goddamn cliche from start to finish. But what's funny is that, despite the timeline of the movie supposedly taking place in the 1980's, there are very little props and scenes that showcase that (unless you count people having wall phones and not mobile phones). The movie portrays the community to have more of a rustic living kind of vibe instead of it actually set in the 1980's. The props and set design department could've done a better job with the setting. Although we can't blame them entirely, since people in the 21st century are now going back to retro days and everyone's dressing like farmer Tom now. 

As we follow the characters of Catherine and George, the movie focuses too much on George's infidelity and the sexual tension between Catherine and Eddie instead of the more important aspects of the movie, like pushing the plot forward. There are clues here and there where you can kind of make out the history of their house, but nothing substantial that keeps you gripped to the mystery. 

In my opinion, the storyline is like a 4-way junction at a busy thoroughfare. There are many interesting characters and plots within the movie, but you're only given three plots to follow (not including the main plot road you've been driving down for the past 20 minutes); the wife, the husband and the house. 

The house was built by a reverend and he was a woman beater. Oh, how original. (Image courtesy of medium.com)

At the start of the movie, the written mystery is palpable, drawing you in deeper to the house and the community itself making you want to know more, but as soon as you think you'll find out anything at all, it wastes your time with petty issues like marriage and small town life. The movie is one part Days of Our Lives, one part Amityville Horror and one part Catholic gospel. 

As we continued watching, it does help that you're curious to know the ending, but not curious enough to care and that last scene where Ella, the reverend's wife and Catherine are standing together was just cheesy as fuck.

It's like Dante's Inferno but preachy. (Image courtesy of distractify.com)

All in all, the cinematography was splendid, the editing sequence left nothing to be complained about and the script was acceptable. But if there was nothing to complain about, then why so many complaints? Well, because it was cliche, and there were too many things that just weren't necessary. It had the trappings of being a really good horror movie, if horror was their main target, but it just fell flat. 

Asian Does Horror gives Things Heard & Seen 👻👻👻 ghost emojis out of five. 





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