Stir of Echoes: Blu-ray disc DVD Review

(Originially published Sept. 10, 1999)

With clear echoes of M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense,” David Koepp’s “Stir of Echoes” glides into video stores with a strong, character-driven story that opens with a boy who sees dead people.

But don’t fear--“Echoes” is no rehashing of “The Sixth Sense.” Based on Richard Matheson’s 1958 novel, the film wisely and swiftly shifts its focus to the boy’s father, Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon), a gruff, insensitive jerk hypnotized by his sister-in-law Lisa (Illeana Douglas) in a supreme effort to loosen him up and open his mind.

No one is prepared for the consequences. Almost immediately, Tom’s mind is open to the paranormal. Like his son, Jake (Zachary David Cope), he now can see the spirit of a dead girl named Samantha (Jenny Morrison) living in their home.

It is how Samantha died that gives the last half of “Echoes” its seamless cinematic verve.

Unlike the recent “Stigmata,” which threw everything but a pre-op Linda Tripp at the screen to give audiences a fright, “Echoes” is restrained; there is never a moment when Koepp isn’t working for his characters or his story.

He respects the genre too much to toss in cheap scare tactics such as those found in “The Haunting” or “Supernova.” Instead, just as Kubric did in “The Shining,” Donner in “The Omen” and De Palma in “Carrie,” he’s content to tell an absorbing story about people forever changed by the paranormal.

Grade: A-