Richard Matheson made his name as one of the most prominent literary authors of American speculative fiction in 20th Century and is often considered to be some sort of spiritual father to Stephen King. Like King, he owed much of such reputation to his novels being adapted into memorable Hollywood films. David Koepp, screenwriter who in 1990s enjoyed great success with his scripts for some of the most lucrative Hollywood blockbusters, is great admirer of Matheson’s work. He chose Matheson’s relatively unknown 1958 novel Stir of Echoes as a basis for his 1999 eponymous horror film which he wrote and directed.
The protagonist, played by Kevin Bacon, is Tom Witzky, Chicago man who in his youth dreamed about career of rock musician. As years went by, he had to reconcile with less glamorous reality that involves job of a phone line repairman, which allows him to support himself, wife Maggie (played by Kathryn Erbe) and young son Jake (played by Zachary David Cope). One evening, during a party, he accepts challenge by Maggie’s sister Lisa (played by Ileanna Douglas) and gets hypnotised. Result is the series of disturbing visions of a dead girl that would later continue in forms of nightmares and hallucinations. Tom’s life is turned upside down and his concerned wife receives message from Neil (played by Eddie Bo Smith Jr.), Chicago policeman who claims that he, like Tom, has ability to communicate with entities beyond our world, including ghosts of recently departed people. In the meantime, Tom experiences difficulties not in relationship with his family, but also with his neighbours, especially after his visions begin to relate around some dark secrets from his neighbourhood.
Koepp has already proven himself as director with The Trigger Effect, disaster film in which he displayed ability to handle concept of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. In this particular film those ordinary people belong to working class, section of society that was usually ignored by most mainstream Hollywood films in 1990s, including those of horror genre. Kevin Bacon, immensely prolific and talented actor, often specialised for the role of villains, uses rare opportunity to play protagonist and convincingly shows how an normal man could gradually descent into madness. His work is complemented by very good cast, that includes good character actors, like Kevin Dunne who plays Tom’s friend and neighbour Frank. While the blue collar milieu makes this film look refreshing, its originality was in some way compromised with premise being somewhat too similar to The Sixth Sense, film that would become much bigger hit at the box office. Despite good special effects and Koepp’s different style of direction, audience that had seen the Shyamalan’s film would experience a little bit of deja vu. The crime mystery that serves as much of the plot also looks somewhat banal for this sort of film. Stir of Echoes , however, provides more than enough entertainment and quality film making for fans of horror genre. In 2007 television sequel Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming was produced with mostly unrelated plot and Rob Lowe in the role of protagonist.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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