Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageStir of Echoes (1999)
Director: David Koepp
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A classy, chilling adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1958 novel which shifts the setting from late '50s California to Chicago in the late '90s. A boy, Jake Witzky (Cope), talks to people who aren't there. But attention soon shifts to his father, Tom (Bacon), who - following an impromptu hypnosis session with his trainee hypno-therapist sister-in-law (Douglas) - is assailed by hallucinations. This fragmentary barrage of supernatural images and sounds includes encounters with a pale young woman - an apparition linked, in Tom's mind at least, to the disappearance, six months before, of a slow-witted neighbourhood girl. Tom withdraws into himself, never leaving the house and obsessing about the mystery that threatens to overwhelm him. His wife Maggie (Erbe) finally loses patience when he digs up the entire garden in the hope of finding the missing girl's body. Grounding the events in tangible blue collar reality, writer/director Koepp contrasts the Witzkys' mundane family life with the terrifying flashes of horror that erupt into it. The skillful shock cuts will make you jump out of your skin, but it's the digital visualisation of the ghostly Samantha which really makes the flesh crawl.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: David Koepp
Producer: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Liza Weil, Kevin Dunn, Conor O'Farrell, Jenny Morrison, Zachary David Cope, Luisa Strus full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 99 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now