THE THRILL HAS GONE (THINGS HEARD AND SEEN)

 

Great horror movies are all about pace and atmosphere.

They know how to build tension and when to release their demons.

Sometimes, like 'Get Out' and 'Us,' they stray into the area of allegory - using their events to comment on a universal truth.

However you don't have to dive into the allegorical to make a great horror film.

All you need to do is deliver scares at the right time in the right way.

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's Netflix chiller 'Things Heard and Seen' sets about its business with great ambition, using its story to reflect on the power dynamics of a deeply flawed marriage.

At the start of the movie, Amanda Seyfried's Catherine and her handsome academic husband, James Norton's George Claire are hosting a birthday party in 1980 in their New York home for their young daughter, Ana Sophia Heger's Franny.

George is riding high, having landed a college lecturer's position upstate.

Catherine, we discover, is bulimic and has suppressed her own ambitions as a painter to support George's academic career.

The family move into a old farmhouse he has picked near Saginaw College where he has landed a job.

However Catherine feels uneasy about the move.

This isn't helped by the sense that there is some kind of presence in the farmhouse - with their young daughter being the first to detect it in her bedroom.

Despite their unease, the family are made to feel welcome in the local community.

Alex Neustaedter's handsome Eddie Vayle and his teenager brother, Jack Gore's Cole turn up at the Claires' door offering their services to help with the upkeep of the farm.

Cole also has a great way with younger kids and is offered as a possible babysitter to Franny.

F Murray Abraham's college head Floyd DeBeers goes to great lengths to ensure George settles in to his new role at Saginaw but also has an interest in the spiritual world.

Rhea Seehorn's Justine Sokolov, a free spirited partner of George's, strikes up a friendship with Catherine after inviting the couple around to dinner with her pot growing husband, James Urbaniak's easygoing Bram.

However it doesn't take long before the cracks in the Claires' domestic life to show.

On the drive home from dinner, after consuming some of Bram's cannabis, George starts to act erratically.

During a visit to the Claires' home, Floyd also senses the presence of a spirit while being given a tour of the house by Catherine.

Relieved that someone else has detected otherworldly goings on, Catherine agrees with Floyd they should communicate with it through a seance but insists it be kept secret from George.

Question marks start to emerge in Saginaw College about George's academic credentials, while he embarks on an affair with Natalia Dyer's sassy student Willis Howell.

Eddie also flirts with Catherine on the farm as he and Cole tend to their work.

Catherine also keeps finding disturbing artefacts in the house including a ring that seems to conjure up spirits and an old Bible that appears to list the deaths of previous occupants of the house, while scratching our the names and replacing them with the inscription "Damned".

It is only when the Claires host a party for George's colleagues and their neighbours that the truth about the grim history of the house spills out, thanks to Karen Allen's estate agent Mare Laughton.

The revelation also raises disturbing questions about George's relationship with the truth - a problem that will ultimately undermine the marriage and cost lives.

Springer Berman and Pulcini's adaptation of Elizabeth Brundage's novel 'All Things Cease To Appear' has an awful lot going on.

But ultimately its success or failure depends on whether the writer directors get the basics of a good horror movie right.

Unfortunately 'Things Heard and Seen' is a bit of a mixed bag in this regard.

The pacing is languid and occasionally the directors thrown in a decent scare to jolt their audience out of their stupor.

However it never feels as if the tension is properly sustained or as intense as it should be.

There are, however, some nice visual flourishes in the film, with cinematographer Larry Smith's camera roaming in one sequence to good effect around the Claires' house while Cole serves wine at their party.

But again, there is little attempt to build tension on the back of these moments.

The film seems jaded and formulaic, with the usual, rather predictable nods to Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'.

Viewers will also see parallels in the Claires' relationship to the couple at the heart of Robert Zemeckis' 2000 thriller 'What Lies Beneath'.

But unlike that film, Springer Berman and Pulcini's film doesn't seem focused enough.

Nor does it seem to know how to properly connect the supernatural with the disintegration of the Claires' marriage.

While the tension between Catherine and George simmers, the thinness of the supernatural elements of the story start to show - giving the impression that Springer Berman and Pulcini's don't quite know how to pitch the film.

Seyfried, Abraham, Neustaedter, Allen, Urbaniak and Dyer do their best with the parts they are given, while a lot hinges on Norton's ability to convince the audience that George isn't all he seems.

Like the film, his performance is a mixed bag.

At times, he is impressively evasive but as the film wears on and George's mask slips, his descent looks a pale imitation of Jack Nicholson's struggling writer Jack Torrance in 'The Shining'.

If there is an eye catching performance, it comes from Rhea Seehorn as the quirky, no nonsense colleague who detects that there is something not quite right about George.

Springer Berman and Pulcini toy with the power dynamics of the Claires' marriage, as Catherine sacrifices her talent as a painter to support her husband's career.

However the impact of this on her is not really explored.

Catherine's battle with bulimia rears its head twice in the film but it just feels conveniently thrown in instead of being properly examined.

By the time the film hits its peak, 'Things Heard and Seen' feels like a promising horror movie that just doesn't feel comfortable in its own skin.

Nor does it ever seem capable of delivering what it sets out to achieve.

A little more focus on the basics - on pacing and maintaining thrills - and a little less on allegory might have helped.

Sadly, the movie just underwhelms which in the world of horror is a cardinal sin.

('Things Heard and Seen' was made available for streaming on Netflix on April 29, 2021)

Lokasi:

Berbagi :