The Stream: Not horrifying and barely thrilling.

The Big Screen: Solid cast and mysterious a couple times.

The Final Bill: Not thrilling or scary but not completely boring to watch.

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Shari Springer Berman (a film by), Robert Pulcini (a film by)
Writers: Elizabeth Brundage (based on the novel “All Things Cease to Appear” by), Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton, Karen Allen, Natalia Dyer
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: TV-MA (Language, violence, sexual activity)
Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes
Production Companies: Likely Story
Platform: Netflix (April 29, 2021)

Hey Streamers, you know how sometimes you’re just in a mood to see a horror movie? We’ll that was me last night. So, after flipping through Prime Video and Netflix, I stopped upon a little known ditty, Things Heard and Seen. I had no clue about this movie until my wife said this looks interesting. Then, I saw it was based on a novel. “Why not?,” I thought. This movie is about a Manhattan artist reluctantly relocating her family to a historic town in the Hudson Valley. As the family begins to put down roots in this new life, the artist begins to notice a sinister darkness in her marriage that rivals that of her new home’s past. A bit too close to home for me as I look to purchase a home myself, but that should make it even better. Right?

Well, I was wrong. Not totally wrong but just not in a way that I was proud of myself for watching this. You know how a movie has promise but just fails in the end. Yeah, that happens here. The story has potential with the eeriness of the home and strangeness the husband’s charming behavior. Yet, the movie never feels quite scary nor quite thrilling, which is not a good sign for a horror thriller. It only gets magnified as you inch towards the ending and the movie gets cheesier. There’s a point where the ending beings to get good and then you feel emptiness like the last 2 hours basically was for nothing. That description is what I like to call a failure. You rope the viewer in just to give them nothing as a reward. I know that sounds terrible or harsh. I’m not going to take it back either. I know people may actually enjoy this movie as a Sunday afternoon time-filler-flick, but it’s not even worth that to me. I will say there is some okay mystery in this movie that keeps you going. With that said, the cast does a pretty solid job led by Amanda Seyfried and James Norton. I think the direction could’ve been better and made the scenes more eerie or suspenseful but I guess they said, “this is good enough”. It wasn’t though.

Needless to say based on this review, Things Heard and & Seen is a single popped kernel. The movie tries pretty hard but ultimately it falls flat. A horror, thriller that lacks true horror or thrilling moments is meant to be released through Netflix but doesn’t need to be watched unless under duress.