Stir of Echoes Review
by Susan Granger (Ssg722 AT aol DOT com)September 5th, 1999
http://www.speakers-podium.com/susangranger.
Susan Granger's review of A STIR OF ECHOES (Artisan Entertainment)
If you enjoyed "The Sixth Sense," you're gonna want to see this supernatural thriller starring Kevin Bacon as a Chicago telephone lineman who discovers horror lurking under his own roof after he's hypnotized by his sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas) at a neighborhood party. At first, Bacon's skeptical. He doesn't believe in mental games, nor in ghosts. But when he hears his five year-old son (Zachary David Cope) casually say, "Does it hurt to be dead?" to an unseen apparition, he knows something's wrong. Then he "sees" a deathly pale, terrified teenage girl who "disappeared" months earlier; she's a vision, not real, but how did this tortured soul get on his living-room sofa? And who will believe him? Certainly not his just-pregnant wife (Kathryn Erbe), who finds his bizarre behavior and obsession with spooky, otherworldly things quite disturbing. Not even his defensive sister-in-law, who insists she only planted an innocent post-hypnotic suggestion into his subconscious. Based on a 1958 novel by Richard Matheson ("Somewhere in Time," "What Dreams May Come"), screenwriter/director David Koepp cleverly builds the suspense slowly, through character development not carnage, keeping the action low-key and quite plausible. But many clues are revealed too early, and it's quite reminiscent of Bacon's earlier film, "Flatliners," along with "The Amityville Horror," even "The Shining." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "A Stir of Echoes" is a creepy 7. It's an eerie, intriguing early Fall chiller.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
