Stir of Echoes

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? (06/25/2012)

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. (04/28/2009)

A purely made-for-TV affair with a ghost in a mirror, ghost on a couch, speaking to the ghost in the dark, some mysterious murder, a mentally unstable father, hypnotism, gentle piano music to enhance the atmosphere, an old single-story apartment in a quiet neighborhood, and many other typical and exhausted attributes thrown at us by the unfamiliar David Koepp. He does have an ace up his sleeve in the excellent Kevin Bacon, but otherwise, this piece falls more into the average category. It cannot be compared qualitatively with The Sixth Sense, as Echoes of the Dead draws precisely from that. There is a plethora of situations that we have already seen somewhere before. And even the final twist doesn't strike me as original. If there is a layer of dust in the cover of the video rental store, don’t be surprised. (02/28/2007)

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. (08/24/2012)

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 :-( (07/29/2006)