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The poorly made “The Shining” ripoff

“Things Heard & Seen” is a horror and drama movie about a family who moves to a small town for the father’s job opportunity with a semi star-studded cast. Some of the more famous actors include Natalia Dyer, Amanda Seyfried, F. Murray Abraham, and Karen Allen.

First off, this movie is boring. It’s not even the type of movie you can make fun of. There’s just nothing good here, intentional or not. It’s incredible how a script like this could have been given a green light. Also, I’m not going to say it’s an outright “The Shining” (1980) ripoff, but it’s at least heavily-inspired. They both have crappy fathers that take their family of three somewhere for a job opportunity. Both places where the families live are haunted by people who used to live there and killed each other.  Both fathers end up trying to kill their wives, and both movies end with a closeup of a framed picture with the dad in it. 

On the topic of its similarities to “The Shining” (1980), the dad’s progression into insanity was way too steep. First, the mom, Catherine, catches him touching himself in the shower, which I thought was gross, but the worst part about it was that he left the door open and his daughter was downstairs. Then, he starts cheating on Catherine, and her friend, who is played by Rhea Seehorn, finds out about it, so he runs her off the road and puts her in a coma. At this point, Catherine catches onto him and starts acting cold. The dad, George, is then contacted by the ghost of the man who lived in the house before him and killed his wife. Catherine is also contacted by the wife, but that doesn’t matter considering George ends up killing her. I know I’m spoiling the movie, but I don’t see any reason why anyone would want to watch this, let alone make this.

As for the positives, I’ve never been able to tell good acting from bad acting, but the acting in this movie seemed fine to me, though there were no standout performances. That’s about it. I really didn’t like this movie.

12 thoughts on “The poorly made “The Shining” ripoff

  • Deacon

    I am very sorry to say this but I respectfully disagree I think this was the best movie of 2021. Maybe even better than The Shining. I watched this movie with my family and we had an amazing time and we all enjoyed it very much.

  • I guess you don’t need a spoiler alert for a bad movie.

  • I havent even heard of this movie until this review. The shinning is the original, you just cant remake it. So i imagine its not good like you said.

  • Jordan Rodriguez

    I appreciate the review, I will take it into notice when I have some free time and want to look for a new movie to watch, sad to hear this movie was not as good as it sounds

  • ANONomous

    LOVED THI S ARTICLE FROMT HE OLYPMIAN WEBSITE REAL NEWS REAL STORIES REAL CRIMES ON LINE

  • Honestly, good and honest review on a movie like this. I saw the trailer for this movie, and it honestly did not appeal to me. Good job Eric!

  • Jonah Dionisio

    Nothing can ever beat the good old original!

  • Alice, I’m certainly no horror expert, but if you’re looking for good horror movies, I hear Shudder is pretty good.

  • Sophia Schooler

    Thank you for the honest review, I truly do not think there any many good horror/scary movies in production nowadays, so it is nice to hear that someone feels the same way.

  • I appreciate your review even though some may not like being spoiled. There just isn’t that many good horror films nowadays, most are poor remakes of classics.

  • Thanks for the honest review of this movie, now I won’t waste my time watching it!

  • Tessa Spinosa

    I have read the Shining and to hear that this adaptation was so poorly made is disappointing.

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