Stir of Echoes

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 :-( (30/07/2006)

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. (04/09/2024)

I had high expectations, enticed by glowing reviews and high ratings, and if not for that, I might have been more satisfied. Stir of Echoes is a genre average that neither offends nor excites, whether it's the script, casting, acting performances, or directorial work. The ending is quite predictable, and the beginning with the child motif seemed more promising than the actual development and resolution. At times, I felt obvious inspiration from other famous films, for instance, the black character in the park reminded me of a figure from Kubrick's The Shining. Overall impression: 55%. (20/05/2008)

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. (28/02/2007)

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. (28/04/2009)