STIR OF ECHOES

'''Stir of Echoes''' is a 1999 American supernatural thriller film loosely based on the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. It was directed by David Koepp and stars Kevin Bacon and Kathryn Erbe. Koepp won the Grand Prize at the 2000 Gérardmer Film Festival and the film was named Best Movie by the International Horror Guild.

Contents

Plot Summary

Cast

Reception

See also

External links

Plot Summary

Tom Witzky is a blue-collar worker living in suburban Chicago with his wife Maggie and young son Jake, who apparently is communicating with a spirit. One evening, Tom and Maggie go to a neighborhood party where the guests begin discussing hypnosis. Tom is skeptical and doesn't believe it works. His sister-in-law Lisa is "practically a licensed hypnotherapist," and he challenges her to hypnotize him, which she does. When he comes out of the trance, everyone is shocked. They tell him that Lisa stuck a safety pin into his hand and told him to bleed on one side but not the other, which he actually did. Tom has no memory of this. Later that night, he starts having visions of someone being attacked and then sees a ghostly young girl in his living room. His visions become more frequent and intense and he becomes desperate to figure out what they mean. He learns that the girl in his visions is Samantha Kozak, who disappeared from the neighborhood six months ago. He is determined to find out what happened to her, but his obsession strains his relationship with Maggie and threatens his sanity. Furthermore, there are people in his neighborhood who are willing to take drastic measures to prevent Tom from learning the truth.

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

★ Lusia Strus .... Sheila McCarthy
Cope was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film by a Young Actor Age Ten or Under.

Reception

The film was released a month after the similarly-themed ''The Sixth Sense'' but failed to match its success despite some positive notices. In his review in ''The Village Voice'', Michael Atkinson said it "demonstrates there's something to be said for a firm control of storytelling convention." In the ''New York Post'', Rod Dreher described it as "studded with potent fright scenes and built on a rock-solid performance by the ever-dependable Kevin Bacon", and David Elliott called it a "sturdy, smart thriller" in the ''San Diego Union-Tribune''. Less enchanted were Jay Boyar of the ''Orlando Sentinel'', who stated, "Where ''The Sixth Sense'' makes you feel like you're enveloped in an atmosphere of the uncanny, ''Stir of Echoes'' makes you feel like you're being toyed with," and Phoebe Flowers of the ''Miami Herald'', who felt "Koepp relies almost entirely on the isolated shocking images, ignoring the human element at the center in favor of digitalized special effects and rapid-fire editing."
Made for $12,000,000, it grossed a total of $21,133,087 in the US and £818,213 in the UK. [1]

See also

★ '', a made-for-TV sequel

External links

★

★ Rotten Tomatoes guide to reviews

★ The Beyond: Stir Of Echoes, a webpage based on the film