- [Narrator] Things Heard & Seen, a new horror movie
starring Amanda Seyfried, follows the Claire family
as they move into their new, but very haunted home.
Paranormal activity begins to escalate quickly.
The question is, is it based on a true story?
- You know how these old Hudson Valley homes are.
We think we own them, but we're really just caretakers.
- Yeah, they outlive us all.
- My wife thinks ours is haunted.
- [Woman] Well she's probably right.
- [Narrator] Things Heard & Seen tells the story
of Catherine and George Claire, a young couple that moves
with their daughter from New York City
to the small hamlet of Chosen, New York.
While George begins his new job
teaching art history at the local college,
Catherine starts to renovate the old dairy farm
that they've moved into.
- Yeah, certainly could use a paint job.
- Yeah, but look at these bones.
- [Narrator] However, it doesn't take long
for things to take a dark turn,
in their house and in their marriage.
Based on the book All Things Cease to Appear
by Elizabeth Brundage, Things Heard & Seen
explores the horror of realizing
that the only thing scarier than a haunted house
may be the person you're married to.
(child screaming)
(breaking glass)
(spooky music)
From ghost sightings to impossible sounds,
George and Catherine eventually feel manipulated
by the spirits in the house themselves.
- I'm starting to see things.
And I'm scared to tell George about it.
- [Narrator] Hmm. A house with a mysterious
and violent past. Unexplainable phenomena?
A family in danger?
This premise is similar
to the true events of the Amityville Horror.
In December of 1975, the Lutz family moved into a house
in Amityville, a town near Long Island, New York.
They were able to get a great deal on the place,
as a year earlier in November, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr.
had killed six members of his family.
Soon after the Lutz family moved in, their haunting began.
The Lutz family recorded over 45 hours
of tape to chronicle their experiences,
including two failed blessings of their home
and voices shouting at them to get out.
They moved out in January of 1976,
having lasted only one month in the house.
While there have been many skeptics
about the truth of the haunting,
the Lutz family still claims their haunting story is true.
- [Male Guest] I'm afraid this home has another spirit.
- [Narrator] While the history of cursed objects
covers a wide spectrum, from dolls to cars
and everything in between, the most
glamorous item to bring bad fortune and imminent death
is, hands down, cursed jewelry.
One of the most famous diamonds in history,
the Hope Diamond, is considered to be particularly cursed.
The stone, originally a whopping 112.19 carats,
was sold to King Louis XIV of France in 1768.
If his name sounds familiar, it's because
he was the husband of Marie Antoinette.
They were able to enjoy the diamond for a few years
before having their heads cut after their subjects revolted
in 1783. The Hope Diamond changed hands
a few more times, always leaving its owners wracked
by ruinous debt, including King George IV of England.
Despite knowing its cursed history,
socialite and heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean
bought the diamond in 1909,
claiming that unlucky items were lucky for her.
This proved incorrect, as in the years after the purchase
her son was killed in a car accident,
her daughter OD'd on sleeping pills
and her husband succumbed to brain atrophy
brought on by alcoholism.
She was forced to sell her family's bankrupt newspaper,
the literal Washington Post,
before dying of pneumonia in 1947.
The stone now resides at the Smithsonian
in Washington, D.C.,
kept safely behind very thick glass
to prevent it from wreaking further havoc.
Emanuel Swedenborg was a real-life theologian,
philosopher, scientist and mystic.
In 1741, Swedenborg began to experience
spiritual visions and dreams.
The spiritual awakening led him to
found the Swedenborg religious movement.
- Well, Swedenborg, he wasn't just some mystic.
He keenly understood that everything in the natural world
has a counterpart in the spiritual realm.
- [Narrator] Swedenborg believed that human beings
live in both a physical and spiritual world,
becoming conscious of the spiritual world when we die.
- Myself included. We even have seances on occasion.
I'll invite you.
- I will bring my wife.
She is the true believer of the family
- [Narrator] Stories of people communicating with the dead
go back as far as written history,
all the way before Ancient Greece.
- She's reaching out to me and I, I need to know why.
- [Narrator] However, the term seance,
which comes from the French words
for session and sit was not used until the 1800s
with the rise of the Spiritualist movement.
This movement became so popular
that even American president Abraham Lincoln's wife,
Mary Todd, held seances in the White House.
Many in the scientific and religious communities
are skeptical of seances, which makes sense.
Several famous mediums, including the Fox sisters
and the Davenport brothers in the 1850s,
have been exposed as frauds.
However, there have been unexplained instances
of mediums, such as Cora Scott Hatch
and Arthur Ford, channeling spirits
through trance mediumship.
Even the creator of Sherlock Holmes,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was made a believer,
saying, "One of the most amazing things
I have ever seen in 41 years of psychic experience
was the demonstration of Arthur Ford."
Whether you agree that seances work or not,
many believe that the dead can be spoken to
and seances remain common in modern times.
- [Male Guest] And remember, evil only thrives
in the house where it is welcome.
(bird hissing)
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] In the movie, George originally seems
to be a loving husband and caring father
who only wants what's best for his family.
However, in Swedenborgian fashion, truth eventually comes
to light that he's not the man he said he was.
- How could you not tell me about this house, George?
- Oh, Jesus.
I was afraid this might happen.
- You were afraid that one of your lies would be exposed?
- [Narrator] What's he hiding?
What does he really want?
- George Claire always gets exactly what he wants.
- [Narrator] You'll have to watch to find out.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
While Things Heard & Seen might not
be based on a true story,
it definitely has a basis in reality.
- You know what they say about temptation.
Easiest way to kill it's just to give in.
- [Narrator] What would you do
if you thought your house was haunted?
Tell us in the comments below
and watch Things Heard & Seen on Netflix now.