Remember all the hype for the Sixth Sense? Do you remember seeing it and thinking, man, that was not worth the hype? Did you ever think, I want a film is a similar concept but with good characters, a genuine chill to it, and a great storyline? I present to you, Stir of Echoes.
So this movie stars Kevin Bacon, and we already off to a great start. He carries this movie, and is some of, if not his best acting. Sometimes you find a role that just fits somebody like a glove. Could others have played this role? Yeah, you can make those arguments, but Kevin Bacon truly owned it. Kevin’s character’s name is Tom Witzky. His wife Maggie is played by the beautiful Kathryn Erbe, who you may know from Law & Order Criminal Intent. They have a kid named Jake. Maggie has a sister named Lisa. And a friend of theirs is Frank, played by the awesome Kevin Dunn, who you know from so many things, I’ll say he’s the dad in transformers. There, now you know who i am talking about. It’s a solid group.
So everybody is hanging out and Lisa wants to like hypnotize Tom/Kevin (I may use these names interchangably) and the guys aren’t buying this shit. Well she puts him under and it triggers some fucked up shit in his head. He is slowly drawn to find out certain info, and to do odd tasks. Meanwhile, his son talks to an invisible person. Tom likes to play Paint it Black on his guitar. Tom sees this girl in his visions as well with some violence, but the shit don’t make sense, but come to find out, his son sees similar things, only much more clearly and vividly. The wife is pregnant and stressed as she observes this shit. Fuckin women.
Kevin Bacon develops a thirst when he has these visions, and orange juice ends up as his preferred beverage. There is a great jump scene in this movie that is so well done, and I hate jump scenes. This is probably my favorite though. If you haven’t seen it, skip the next paragraph.
SPOILER ALERT
So all of this leads to Tom and his son slowly unraveling the story behind a missing girl in the neighborhood. Kevin Dunn’s son, as well as the landlord’s son took things way too far and took advantage of this poor girl and ended up killing her. The way this slowly reveals itself is quite brilliant. The ending of the film is chock full of tension.
SPOILER ENDED
All in all, this is an all time classic as far as I am concerned. I feel this movie NEVER gets the respect it deserves. Yet is you look at people’s reviews on this film, by and large most everybody has positive comments. That is a rarity. It got a whopping 7.0 on IMDB which is amazing for this style film. I’m gonna give it an 8.2 and highly recommend this.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Artisan Entertainment (presents)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.