Stir of Echoes is one of the best suspense/horror movies you will see. The storyline is not the most original in the world, but the acting and plot more than make up for it. Stir of echoes deserved more acclaim and hype. Why didn’t it get it? A little movie called “The Sixth Sense”. Had The Sixth Sense came out a year later, SOE would get much more well deserved credit.
Kevin Bacon plays a working class stiff. Like many thirty somethings, Bacon seems to work the daily grind. As Bacon lives his same humdrum life, he apparently laments his “ordinary” existence. Bacon and his wife(Kathryn Erbe) move their young son into the perfect neighborhood. Everything seems well as they live it up in as they believed “The best damn neighborhood in Chicago”.
It all changes when at a party his New-Age sister-inlaw(Ileanna Douglas) begans hypnotizing the skeptical Bacon. The resulting “awakening” of his perception brings haunting visions. Soon he even begins to physically see the source of all the visions, a ghost. Bacon’s character learns that not only his son, but many others seem to have this perception power. He begins to dedicate his entire life to the whims of the ghost, as his sanity(and marriage)begins to deteriorate.
Bacon soon realizes that the ghost will stay restless until he learns its terrible secret. While his marriage, sanity, and even his surroundings begin to fall apart, Bacon’s character slowly learns the terrible secret the ghost is trying to tell. A secret that threatens not only him, but his entire family. To say more would spoil a good suspense film(which is downright criminal).
Give this one a try. It won’t bore you in the first 45 minutes like The Sixth Sense did to me. This one is a constant thriller that if you get up to get a drink, you might miss something. Also it mixes just enough humor to make it both fun and scary. Ileana Douglas in particular gives a good performance as Bacon’s sarcastically funny sister in law.
Cast
- Kevin Bacon …. Tom Witzky
- Kathryn Erbe …. Maggie Witzky
- Zachary David Cope …. Jake Witzky
- Jennifer Morrison …. Samantha Kozac
- Illeana Douglas …. Lisa
- Kevin Dunn …. Frank McCarthy
- Conor O’Farrell …. Harry Damon
- Liza Weil …. Debbie Kozac, the Babysitter
- Lusia Strus …. Sheila McCarthy
Tags: Stir of Echoes
Stir of Echoes was definitely a fun movie. Although, I’m not sure I’d say it was a horror movie. But, as a huge horror movie fan, I did enjoy it. It’s pretty hard to go wrong with Kevin Bacon, right?