Directed by:
David KoeppScreenplay:
David KoeppCinematography:
Fred MurphyComposer:
James Newton HowardCast:
Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Zachary David Cope, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Liza Weil, Christian Stolte, Jennifer Morrison, Lusia Strus, Mike Bacarella (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Chicago telephone lineman Tom Witzkey (Bacon) is hypnotized at a party by his sister-in-law (Douglas) and begins seeing the ghost of a neighborhood girl murdered years before. He comes to the discovery that he is a Receiver--one who is able to see spirits. Now in possession of knowledge he never wanted to know, Tom struggles through his daily existence plagued by these newly-acquired supernatural visions while attempting to retain his sanity. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (8)
Nice ghost story. As a horror experience, it’s not very intense, it’s barely scary, actually, but it was nice to watch nevertheless. If only that ending wasn’t so traditional, but maybe the 10 years that have passed since this film came out are to blame for that. I reckon that a film like this today would get about 60%, and mainly thanks to Kevin Bacon’s great performance.
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Stir of Echoes very much resembles a Stephen King thriller with horror elements, regardless of its striking similarity to The Shining (and The Sixth Sense from the same year), so in retrospect it makes sense that Koepp got the opportunity to direct an adaptation of King’s Secret Window a few years later. The story is actually trivial, unlike the narrative structure, which intentionally throws viewers into a state of confusion as to how the main protagonist feels as he has newly gained psychic abilities. All the way up to the climax, it is unclear which of his visions are echoes of the past, which are glimpses of the future, why the ghost appears to him and what it wants from him. The film has a solid atmosphere and it is sufficiently effective as a ghost story, and everything in it fits together nicely. The hypnotic scene with an empty cinema is excellent. Nevertheless, everything revolving around the topic of a gradually deepening marital crisis comes across as artificial and contrived. As time passes, the lapses in logic pile up and some promising motifs are only hinted at and remain unused. Like the work with suspense, the actors are not particularly dazzling. Seen 25 years after its release, Stir of Echoes has aged only minimally in the intervening years.
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This ghost thriller made a very good impression on me, both with the imaginative execution, which makes sense and leaves no holes uncovered, or the actors, led by my favourite Bacon, who do an amazing job. Although the premise looks very similar to The Sixth Sense, the final form is diametrically opposed. Stir of Echoes doesn't rely so much on the supernatural, but on quite realistic solutions to the rather strange and mysterious things our heroes are subjected to, and ultimately feels more like a suspenseful mystery drama than a true horror film. But that doesn't change the fact that David Koepp has done a great job and his contributions to the endless series of ghost films are among the best ever.
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I mean, a pretty massive disappointment. There's absolutely no scary atmosphere, the acting ensemble is mediocre to the point of being painful, and on top of that Koepp rips off a lot of stuff like the biggest B-movie ever. I’m not only taking into account the unoriginal script, or for example the jerky movement of the (not to mention absolutely useless) girl's ghost in one scene, which we could have seen in Gothika or The Grudge (ugh, and there it was very... unpleasantly handled), but when he uses the eight-hundred-year-old jump scare with the closing mirror, you can’t keep from rolling your eyes. It's not a bad film on the whole, maybe the two scenes of hypnosis or the hero's dream about the neighbors were very evocative, but otherwise not really much. More like 2 and a half stars. PS: I saw Secret Window about a year ago, and only now I feel disappointment at how the director is ripping himself off in it... ah well :-(
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Kevin Bacon sees dead people, and the dead people want something from him. What is it? He'll have to figure that out before he goes completely insane... I'm surprised I previously missed out on Stir of Echoes. It has everything that a proper horror film should have, but above all an atmosphere that doesn't let you breathe from the first to the last minute. Watching the increasingly unhinged Kevin Bacon, one can't help but think of Richard Dreyfuss and what he did in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the son gives me chills, the hypnosis scenes are pretty good too, plus there's still that "something" that hangs in the air. Comparisons to The Gift come to mind, but it is weak compared to Stir of Echoes. David Koepp, would you like to do a King movie again?
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