The intellectual, thriller-horror movie Things Heard and Seen (2021) is based on the paranormal noir novel All Things Cease to Appear (2017) by Elizabeth Brundage. Brundage also shares screenwriting credit with Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.
Directed by Shari Springer Berman and husband Robert Pulcini, Things Heard and Seen weaves a convoluted tale of James, Catherine, their three-year-old daughter Franny Claire, played by James Norton, Amanda Seyfried, and Ana Sophia Heger. The Claire family are a young, professional couple who move to the seemingly idyllic Hudson Valley area to join a small university town’s artistic and academic elite. Catherine, having surrendered as a promising fine art conservator, searches for a new purpose. During her renovations, she quickly discovers the sinister history of her 19th century home. Her connections to the ethereal strengthens as she finds an antique ring.
Fearing the spirits and an expanding darker presence, she turns in desperation to her husband’s colleagues at the university, who introduce her to the beliefs of Emanuel Swedenborg. The spiritual philosophies of the novel Heaven and Hell and the illustrative religious art of George Innes’ The Valley of the Shadow of Death quickly become pivotal to the story.