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Stir of Echoes
United States, 1999 UK Release Date: 26/05/00 (wide) Running Length: 1:40 BBFC Classification: 18 (Violence, swearing, partial nudity, sex - not one for Aunt Gladys) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Zachary David Cope Kevin Bacon, Hollywood's hardest working everyman has for the last 16 years been one of the most reliable stars without ever really achieving A-list status. This could be the year all that changes with this creepy little thriller and Paul Verhoeven's upcoming Hollow Man both thrusting him into the mainstream. Stir of Echoes, based on the story by horror and suspense legend Richard Matheson, may seem a little too close to last year's The Sixth Sense for comfort but there's enough freshness and good performances to make it worth your while (and five quid entry fee). Bacon plays Tom and his wife Maggie is played by newcomer Kathryn Erbe. Although the former may have some baggage from films like Footloose and Apollo13, he's likeable enough to warrant your suspension of disbelief while Erbe is blessed by virtual anonymity. Intriguingly, it's 10 years sisnce Bacon trod this ground with Joel Schumacher's glossy, but rather empty Flatliners. So nice to see he can both carry a movie and prove there's more to him than just relaible co-star material. Written and directed by David Koepp, who also worked on the excellent Bad Influence and The Paper, it's a tribute to his film-making skills that he managed to bring in such a taut little thriller for a mere $13million. The fact that it grossed $21million in the States alone will hopefully persuade studio heads that giving movies a huge budget isn't always the way to guarantee success. Anyway, back to the plot which centres on this relatively young couple with a young lad and another baby on the way. When Tom is hypnoitised by his sister-in-law Lisa (Illeana Douglas), it's not long before he starts having bizarre visions and starts seeing ghosts and flash frames of things to come. Without giving too much away, he is drawn into the case of a murdered young girl whose sister is naturally spooked when she comes to babysit. Little Jake tells her that the dead girl comes over to play and when the babysitter kidnaps him, Tom and Maggie realise that there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. Koepp plays around with the time frame to inspired effect and there is the well-worn niggle that a major character looks in the bathroom mirror and nothing is there. Closes the door and opens it again and the age-old 'Behind You' gag is employed. Bear in mind that Brian De Palma and other film-makers have been using this technique for years (see Dressed to Kill from 1980 for further proof) and you'll realise how old hat it is. There's also the Scooby Doo cliche of having a key female character walking down a darkened alley by herself and descending into her dank cellar. Would this happen in real life? I think not. Although the comparisons with The Sixth Sense are inevitable, don't waste your time arguing which is better. Both are as good as each other and although SOE hasn't garnered the same sort of frenzied interest in England during its first week, it's possible that this will achieve a fair degree of success as the movie that most people rent in six months time and then recommend to their friends. On the cast side, look out for Zachary David Cope as Jake. His performance is among the best of any child star of his generation. Jenny Morrison also deserves a mention for her role as the ghost of a teenage girl. Likeable enough to warrant our sympathy and creepy enough to scare the bejesus out of you at all the right moments. Fine special effects too, especially the moment where Bacon is hypnotised and finds himself in a movie theatre which morphs from classic colours to pitch blacks. And the review for that movie will be available on July 23rd.
© 2000 Roger Crow
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