At last it is here! Monday was the day for the next Final Girl Film Club, but I wasn't able to get the movie in time or I would have planned around it. Netflix has it on the wait list and I'm watching my money right now, so I didn't buy it from some where. Maybe I will be able to get the next one. Instead of the Film Club selection, I am celebrating a milestone for my own blog. The 350th post! As you can see, I decided to talk about the film Stir Of Echoes (1999). I was mistaken when I said that the sequel was a direct to DVD movie. It was actually a TV movie that was released to DVD. I will be talking about that film in the next post though.Stir Of Echoes was a film that I originally caught on a cable movie network. I kind of remember seeing previews for it before it came out, and wasn't all that interested because of Kevin Bacon being in the lead role. I have nothing again Kevin Bacon really. I just don't always like his roles so I decided to just wait for it to hit DVD or catch it on cable somewhere. Even when it did hit cable, I was still a bit leery about watching it. I never heard much about it and now I think I know why. The Six Sense was released just prior to Stir Of Echoes, so I think the former overshadowed the latter. Once I got tired of avoiding it, I sat down to watch it at last. It ended up blowing my mind at how good it was.
Just in case you are one of those people that have yet to see Stir Of Echoes, it centers around the Witzky family. We have Tom (Kevin Bacon), his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and their son Jake (Zachary David Cope). It is clear right from the get go that Jake isn't your normal little boy. Jake talks to someone who isn't there. Is it a ghost? Or maybe he just has one of those invisible friends. We meet the family, get to know them some and we also meet some of the people that live in the neighborhood. Tom and Maggie end up going to a neighborhood party, where they start to talk about how people act under hypnosis. Maggie's sister, Lisa (Illeana Douglas), seems to know a lot about the subject and even knows how to do it. Tom, not believing that she can do it, decides to let her put him under. She manages to do so with ease. When he wakes up there is something different. He can see and know things that have happened or are about to happen.
Stir Of Echoes quickly became a favorite movie of mine mostly because of the story. It is a ghost story at the heart of it. The nice thing about this story is it ends up being more than just a scary ghost story. There are still moments that are very creepy though. There is a mystery as to what the ghost wants. Soon, there is another mystery as well. What helps the story was the acting. This has to be my all time favorite Kevin Bacon film. He came across as very real and natural to me. Kathryn Erbe was the same way to me. I thought both actors did a great job of showing how they were trying to deal with what was happening to them. Even though he had a much smaller part, I really enjoyed Zachary David Cope. He wasn't the annoying child actor that you hear about in so many other movies. He came across as smart and a little more mature than his age. I guess one needs to be, when they can hear and see ghosts.
The effects didn't overly impress me but for this movie, they fit in with the over all feel. Stir Of Echoes wasn't really a scary movie to me, but it does have a very spooky feel to it through out the entire movie. Some of the characters get underused and at times I thought the plot was a little confusing. I was never really sure if this was the first time that Tom was able to see what he does. He does seem confused by this new found ability. At the same time though, I guess I felt that maybe this wasn't his first time. I felt that maybe it has happened to him before, just a very long time ago. Another thing I liked was the ghost itself. I guess I liked it because it wasn't a nice ghost or a mean ghost. Instead it was right in between the two.
So that is what I thought about Stir Of Echoes. If you haven't given this film a chance, I really think you should. If you have watched this one, I'm very curious as to what you thought of it. Let me know, just don't agree with me either lol.
4 comments:
Stir of Echoes was one of those rare movies to actually make me jump. I, too, was initially put off seeing it by Kevin Bacon as the lead - it just did not seem a good fit to have him in something spooky - but it was a thrilling surprise when I found the movie thoroughly entertaining. Thank you for reminding me of it, I'm just off to put it on my rental list!
Well howdy Miss Heather. First congrats on posting number 350 sweet lady. Wow, it sometimes seems like only yesterday I discovered your blog too. Of course you were a college freshman, so I can do the math. Time sure does fly when you are having fun I reckon Miss Heather (smiling).
Second, have I ever mentioned that you really do scare me at times maam. This is simply another one of those times, hehehe. I consider this flick to be another one of those sleepers. One you will stumble across on cable, and then wonder why you had never heard of it before. I was so impressed with this flick that I purchased my own copy of it for my horror collection.
Before I began to write my comments, I sat down and watched this movie again. I still have a bruise from your comment about not just agreeing with you (roflmao), so I wanted to be able to list some clear specifics as to why I did (sticks out tongue).
First off, I noticed that the movie was based on the book by R. Matheson, so they have a very firm foundation to start with. In many ways, he reminds me a bit of Poe, who I also enjoy a lot. So if Matheson wrote it, and someone does not slaughter it totally converting it to film, I expect it to be a well made movie. I felt like that conversion was done very well in Stir Of Echoes.
I am not a big Kevin Bacon fan either to be honest. I liked in him Tremors, but I think that was largely due to his character as much as anything. He just seems to be one of those actors whose given role makes me like or dislike their efforts. I guess that is more than a bit unfair to his acting ability, but that is simply the way I feel about him too, lol. His role and acting was a nice surprise to me in this flick as well maam.
I thought all of the characters were well cast. Given an unusual situation, I felt they acted in a way that was believable. While the premise was a bit unusual, it was not off the wall to me at all. In short, they made the odd seem normal in a way - if that makes sense. Nothing they had the characters doing seemed really that off the wall to me, just how folks could well react given something they had never dealth with before.
I would also have to agree with you that this was not really a scary movie to me. I mean I never had that shiver. But that is indeed a rare reaction to me these days too. But I felt the entire movie had a very eerie feel to it, from start to finish. In part I credit the lighting to helping to create and maintain that mood.
When I went back and watched it, I realized that it was the darkest interior of a house I could recall ever seeing, lol. Even immediately post Hurricane Andrew when folks were using propane laterns, they had more light in a room than in the flick. Even in the outside shots, it was never bright to me, still giving a somewhat dreary feeling. So by using lighting the way they did, they helped to create and maintain that overall spooky feeling that made this film work very well for me.
So you see Miss Heather, just because I agree with you on a movie, I do have my own reasons maam, lol. But I have always figured it was your blog too sweet lady. Why did I want to write a separate review in the process of posting a comment (sticks out tongue, grinning).
But yes maam, this movie just worked for me. But I do think it was a sleeper in a way. But recently I have encountered a few of them on cable actually. Movies I had never really heard of before, but after watching them it was more of a wow, great flick. A couple of other much more recently watched movies I would place in this same category are Wind Chill (which you recently watched/reviewed) and Reeker. I am hoping you will get the chance to watch Reeker one of these days too, as I would really like to read what you thought about it maam.
Congrats on another milestone post Miss Heather. I have to admit, I had no clue what your pick would be, but I do agree with it totally smart lady. So I am looking forward to number 351, to see what you have to think about the sequel. Will it be one of those rare ones that at least equal if not surpass the original, or one of many that fell far short. I reckon only time and Miss Heather will tell, hehehe. Shucks I am sounding like an announcer from one of those radio serials now, lmao. Another great pick and review sweet lady. Please keep them coming when you can, as your fans sure do enjoy them maam (smiling, tips my hat).
ndixon: You are most welcome for the reminder. I'm glad someone feels the same way about Kevin Bacon as I do. Come to think of it though, he has done his fair share of horror movies. Jed brought up TREMORS, which is also a favorite movie of mine. We can also go even further back in time and talk about FRIDAY THE 13TH. I guess we can even throw in HOLLOW MAN if we really want to. So it isn't as far fetched as I like to think I suppose.
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
Post a Comment