Summary

• "Things Heard & Seen" is a relationship drama disguised as a horror film, exploring the unraveling marriage of Catherine and George.
• The spirits haunting Catherine and George's home are former residents who suffered tragic deaths at the hands of their husbands.
• Catherine's interactions with the ghost of Ella Vayle serve as a warning about George's true nature, leading to a tragic ending for Catherine.

The Things Heard & Seen ending explained it's a relationship drama masquerading as a horror film. Based on a famed book by Elizabeth Brundage, Things Heard & Seen follows a young married couple, Catherine (Amanda Seyfried) and George (James Norton), as they relocate to a small town in upstate New York, so George can work as a professor at the local college. Though the pair, who have a young daughter named Franny, seem relatively happy and hopeful for the future, there's palpable tension bubbling beneath the surface before the family makes its big move to kick off the film's events.

As the family gets settled in their new home in Things Heard & Seen, Catherine quickly realizes that the house is haunted. However, the more she learns about the spirits, the more her marriage begins to unravel. Catherine fears that her husband, like other members of Things Heard & Seen's characters (whether living or deceased), may not be who they appear to be. The spirits haunting their home are revealed to be former residents of the house, condemned to horrible deaths by their husbands. Though Catherine is a good person and has a positive relationship with Ella Vayle's ghost, the spirits of vengeful husbands also linger in the house and end up possessing George.

What Happens In The Things Heard & Seen Ending

The ghosts possessing George did not originally make him a bad person. Throughout Things Heard & Seen, Catherine learns that George has not always been honest, and he has several secrets he has been hiding. He lied to get his new job and has since cheated on his wife. Then, the ghosts send him over the edge and he begins killing people. When his boss learns he lied to get the job, he kills him by drowning him, and then he sends Justine off the road in an auto accident, putting her in a coma. When he learns that Catherine knows the truth about him, he has to end that threat as well.

By the end of Things Head & Seen, George finishes his murderous rampage by tragically putting an ax through Catherine's torso. After that, Cole shows up to babysit Franny and finds a note that says Catherine is ill and asleep and not to disturb her. The note asks Cole to put Franny to bed and leave. When George returns home from work, he "finds" Catherine's dead body and the police believe his alibi. George does not get a happy ending though, because Justine wakes from her coma and tells the police everything. George goes on the run and heads out in a boat. He is last seen when his boat seems to head into Hell, the same as his painting.

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What Happened To Ella?

Almost as soon as the family moves into the house at the beginning of Things Heard & Seen, Catherine and Franny begin having visions of a ghostly woman — who turns out to be Ella Vayle. As these visions are typically accompanied by spooky occurrences, such as flickering lights, the spirit is initially presented to the audience as a threat. But as Catherine reveals to George's colleague, Floyd, she comes to view her presence as a comfort. In fact, Ella is very much in Catherine's corner.

She even seemingly senses the disingenuous nature of things George often says as he's uttering them and attempts to protect Catherine from him and his unpredictable violence that progressively ramps up throughout Things Heard & Seen, akin to Jack Torrance in Kubrick's The Shining. It's revealed that Ella's husband seemingly went mad one day, as he shot all of their cows and proceeded to kill himself and his wife by a murder-suicide. Ella's spirit was seemingly tied to the house afterward, as she's stuck in a sort of Earth-bound Purgatory in between life and death.

It also seems to be her destiny to protect Catherine, whose marital situation and eventual death are strikingly similar to hers. The women of the house have seemingly always been cursed to meet gruesome endings to their lives. The first woman, who is also presumed to have been killed by her husband in the 1800s, was there for Ella when her husband murdered her. She seems to be sort of returning the favor by protecting Catherine throughout the meaningful Netflix horror movie, watching over her from the moment George starts to show his disturbing true colors.

What The Ring Means In Things Heard & Seen

Physically, each of the wives in Things Heard & Seen is connected through an old ring that was unintentionally passed down to each of them. But their connection runs on a spiritual plane as well; the ring symbolizes a sort of unfortunate fate that is similarly passed down to generations of wives within this old New York farmhouse. They're all tethered by their unfortunate situations in life, specifically the plight and victimization they receive within their marriages. These women are presented as genuinely good people, ones that are/were, presumably, sensitive and deep-feeling individuals who aren't treated with proper human respect, let alone cherished for the rich nature of their souls.

Unbeknownst to Catherine, the women who have lived in her house are actually known to be cursed. She finds an old bible dating back to the 1800s tracking the family deaths of previous homeowners, and Catherine and the audience learn that the previous wives' deaths were deemed "damned" by their husbands. This, of course, is partially due to the fact that they followed the teachings of Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg — who, ironically (in relation to the film's themes), claimed to have the ability to converse with spirits.

While Catherine isn't familiar with Swedenborg until she moves into her new home, Things Heard & Seen makes a point to mention that she firmly believes in ghosts, despite her husband's mockery. While, even after the film's end, none of the women in the ghost story have yet to survive the curse, their predecessors' faith ensures they are not alone at the times of their deaths.

Why George Killed Catherine

Even after freshly viewing Things Heard & Seen, what really happens to George is a tad unclear. In order to learn more about Ella's spirit, Catherine holds a séance to try and communicate with her. During the event, she learns that Ella isn't the only spirit in the house, and it's implied that the second spirit is a malevolent one. The ghost of Ella's husband also haunts the home, which is made clear when George mimics some of his actions. George's manipulative ways are revealed throughout Things Heard & Seen as he cheats on his wife with a woman named Willis (Natalia Dyer). George then lies to and gaslights Catherine.

The dark, violent side of his personality is amplified by the influence of Ella's husband's ghost. Just as the women of the house are doomed to gruesome ends, the men are fated to reveal their cruel natures. While George may have eventually revealed this side of himself to Catherine at some point over the course of their marriage, the influence of the malevolent spirits in the house is what drives him to murder. After all, Catherine is one of the people who are (justifiably) tearing George's carefully constructed world apart. She sees him for who he truly is and even plans on leaving him and taking Franny with her.

The Importance Of Faith In Things Heard & Seen

Religion and general faith are overt themes in Things Heard & Seen and make appearances throughout the movie in distinct and meaningful ways. One way is how Swedenborg is repeatedly referenced, along with George Inness' painting, "The Shadow of the Valley of Death." These inclusions foreshadow the movie's climax and ending. The film even kicks off with a quote from Swedenborg that sets the tone — "This I can declare: things that are in heaven are more real than things that are in the world."

This refers to the lingering spirits of the wives in Catherine and George's home because their ghosts are very much a real presence in the former character's life. Catherine lives out Swedenborg's beliefs by communing with the women before her in this book-to-movie adaptation. Artist George Inness was a devout follower of Swedenborg himself. The aforementioned name of his painting was taken from a Bible verse that states, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me..."

Catherine's death reflects this quote. She calls out to Ella as soon as she realizes George intends to kill her. Ella reassures Catherine that she'll be with her until the end, just as the first wife is there for her. Things Heard & Seen repeatedly touches on the same crucial, and very spiritual, point throughout the film: good will eventually win out against evil in the end. This is even possible after death, as dying is what Swedenborg said was just a new beginning.

Things Heard & Seen Ending Explained

Though Things Heard and Seen garnered plenty of bad reviews, the horror movie does have a great deal of layered, thoughtful symbolism. Floyd reveals that Inness' "The Shadow of the Valley of Death" is meant to represent a soul transitioning into the afterlife — this comes into play during the final scene. After his murdering spree, George is seemingly cleared of both Floyd and Catherine's deaths. He attempted to kill his colleague and Catherine's friend, Justine, by running her off the road, which put her in a coma. But once she woke up and told George she remembered everything, he knew it was all over for him.

As he steals a sailboat and sets off, Things Heard & Seen's end scene transitions into a fiery version of "The Shadow of the Valley of Death," with Catherine and Ella's overlapping voices promising that they are stronger now that they are united. Their message is simple — with Justine awake, she will get long-overdue justice for the women of the cursed house. While George may have gotten away with murders by the end of Things Heard & Seen, his actions have damned him to Hell. After all, it's he and his home's previous husbands that are truly evil and damned, not their wives that they've projected that very idea onto.

Is Things Heard & Seen Based On A True Story?

Things Heard & Seen is based on Elizabeth Brundage's 2016 novel All Things Cease to Appear. The supernatural, family conflict-driven story has the same premise in the movie adaptation as it does in the book, with the usual assortment of differences that are tweaked for the big screen. Brundage has famously said she crafted the ghostly side of the story with what seemed to be eerie, paranormal happenings with her own children in their home. Apparently, like Catherine's character, they too seemed to be interacting with the spirits of deceased former residents of the house.

Things Heard & Seen is based on a true story, to an extent, as well. The vital element of George and Catherine's deteriorating, and increasingly abusive, marriage is based on the horrifying murder of real-life New York resident Cathleen Krauseneck. In 1982, she was brutally killed in her home with an ax, just like Catherine's character in Things Heard & Seen. The case once again made headlines in 2019, when her husband, James, was indicted for second-degree murder (via People).

• 

  Things Heard and Seen

  Director:

  Robert Pulcini

  Release Date:

  2021-04-29

  Cast:

  Amanda Seyfried, Natalia Dyer, James Norton

  Writers:

  Robert Pulcini

  Rating:

  r

  Runtime:

  121minutes

  Genres:

  Horror, Thriller

  Studio(s):

  Netflix

  Distributor(s):

  Netflix