![]() ![]() It builds up to extremely obvious reveals and is filled with cliché horror tropes. Given that it is based on a book, the writers may have been creatively restrained to an extent, but the problem lies with the screenplay itself. Moreover, the performances and music are excellent. Things Heard & Seen might at first look like The Shining meeting The Conjuring, however, it does have depth. ![]() The sky is blood red, like in Cole’s painting, which very much mirrors his quote, “Sky is the soul of all scenery.” In a way, it is the spirit of art itself that haunts George, for his treachery to the subject he claims to hold so dearly.Ī look at Elizabeth Brundage’s novel and into the lives of Thomas Cole and George Inness might reveal why two characters in the film are also named Cole and George. However, instead of the cross in Inness’ painting, an upside-down cross appears in the sky – a symbol of evil. ![]() George rows his boat on the Hudson, desperate for ‘escape’. These are not just names of paintings dropped, but the climax of the film brings these two paintings – which are similar in their subject and theme – together. In particular, Cole’s The Voyage of Life (the last in his The Voyage of Life series) and Inness’ The Valley of Shadow of Death. Cole and Inness were both landscape painters and the founders of the Hudson River School art movement. Macroscopically, the film is a twisted depiction of two painters in their extremes – Thomas Cole and George Inness. The cover art of which is a painting by 19th-century painter George Inness called ‘ The Valley of Shadow of Death’, which, as per DeBeers, shows the departure of a soul to heaven. When DeBeers welcomes George at Saginaw, he gifts him a book of Swedenborg, Heaven and the World of Spirits and Hell. The film depicts this theme quite beautifully, and quite artistically. The movie also substantiates the quote by portraying an angelic spirit as real, and a character of the real world as an evil fraudster. A ‘guardian angel’ will use the goodness within a human as a portal, while an evil spirit will use the lack of it. In fact, the film starts with a quote of his that goes, “This I can declare: things that are in heaven are more real than things that are in the world.” The movie states that there’s a portal between the human world and the worlds beyond death. The film leans on the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg – a name that is dropped quite often. We eventually realise that the house is haunted by an evil spirit as well. She gets much-needed support for her theories from Floyd DeBeers (F Murray Abraham), her husband's boss. ![]() But that the priority is the haunted house. Eventually, his darker sides unravel and in quite a brilliant fashion (all credits to the good writing).Ĭathy, being the interesting character she is (she calls herself “a conflicted Catholic girl at heart who is dutifully going through the motions") knows that something’s not right with George. A horror movie with a good ghost? The movie also drops hints to show that George may not be the person we think he is. Cathy realises that the house has seen some very disturbing things and that a kind spirit is trying to protect her. Despite such a tried-and-tested setting, Things Heard & Seen slowly shows signs that it may not be as clichéd as it seems. ![]()
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