In a working-class Chicago neighborhood, Tom Witzky and his wife Maggie are going to a party after getting a babysitter for their 5-year old son Jake. Lisa, who is Maggie’s sister, is a firm believer in the supernatural and claims that she can hypnotize people… and to this Tom just snorts and thinks of it all as pure nonsense. It all ends with the non-believer being put under hypnosis by Lisa, where she gives him a post-hypnotic suggestion (an instruction given to someone under hypnosis which they will carry out once the trance ends) telling him to be more open-minded. Yup, you can already imagine how this goes. Shortly afterwards, he begins seeing and experiencing things, and to top it all, it also seems that their young son Jake is doing so, too, and that Jake has been seeing dead people for much longer than both Tom and Maggie have been aware. Now daddy’s in for the ride too. What Tom and Jake are experiencing in the house, seems to be connected to the disappearance of a 17-year old girl named Samantha Kozac. It all turns into an obsession where Tom tries to turn the entire place upside down in order to find out what happened to this girl, and why he and his son keep seeing her.
Stir of Echoes is a supernatural horror film from 1999, based on a book by Richard Matheson, and written and directed by David Koepp (who later directed Secret Window from 2004 starring Johnny Depp, and You Should Have Left from 2020 once again starring Kevin Bacon in the leading role). Now, if you asked someone if they’ve seen that supernatural horror film from 1999, about a man and a boy seeing dead people, they would most likely answer “oh, yeah, you mean that film called The Sixth Sense“! At least they would not be very likely to answer “Stir of Echoes“. The Sixth Sense became a major success, while this movie more or less got thrown in the shadows…which is a little bit of a shame because this is a pretty decent supernatural thriller, but it came and went like so many other movies. Typical example of truly bad timing.
Now, one thing I tend to really love about supernatural horror movies, at least in the ones that goes for a darker and more serious tone, is the mystery and gradual build of it. All of that “what really happened“, “what is really going on“, that makes you wonder and anticipate the answers. In a story about a ghost you already know that the ghost is dead, but what you want to know is why and what happened to them. This movie works very well in that regard. Sure, there’s the usual ghostly tropes and clichés as can be expected, but the solid execution makes it very enjoyable for those who want a mystery-fueled supernatural horror film. Unless you’re one of those who expects people to reinvent the wheel for every new movie, of course.
Kevin Bacon is fine in the role as the skeptic man turned believer, and he’s often so irrational in his behavior that you almost start wondering what exactly is up with this guy. Yeah, we all know that seeing dead people can take its toll, but c’mon man, even your five-year old son is able to cope with this in better ways than you do! With that being said, a lot of people in the neighborhood seem to cope with things in the wrong ways, which of course goes a long way in describing how certain working-class neighborhoods who are striving to appear like a “decent upper-class” place, will often hide their issues rather than deal with them.
Compared to The Sixth Sense, there aren’t really any truly scary moments in Stir of Echoes, but it is an entertaining and mysterious supernatural horror film mixed with some crime elements, and one that should be a pleasant watch if you want a ghostly crime mystery from the end of the 90’s.
Note: David Koepp was also writer and producer of this year’s Cold Storage, which we haven’t seen yet but most likely will soon.
Writer & director: David Koepp
Country & year: USA, 1999
Actors: Zachary David Cope, Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Conor O’Farrell, Lusia Strus, Stephen Eugene Walker, Mary Kay Cook, Larry Neumann Jr.
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164181/
Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is a book dealer who specializes in rare items. He is hired by a wealthy collector named Boris Balkan, who has acquired “The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows“: a 17th century book that is rumored to be able to summon the Devil himself. It is said that the author of the book, Aristide Torchia, wrote the book in collaboration with the Devil, and that only three copies survived. Balkan suspects that only one of these books are authentic, and that’s the reason he’s hired Corso: so he can inspect the other books and determine which one is the real deal. Corso accepts the job, and begins his travels to check out the other books. Soon, he comes into contact with a mysterious woman who appears to be following him…and he’s getting more and more drawn into a supernatural conspiracy.
During the Mexican-American war in the mid 1800’s, Captain John Boyd is sent up in the mountains to Fort Spencer, a secluded camp where a small group of weirdos keeps it guarded. One evening a disturbed, frozen Scottish man named Colquhoun arrives. He tells a horrible story about his gang of people somewhere up in the mountains, who were forced to eat each other in order to survive. Some of the men join Colquhoun and head up to the mountains to look for survivors.