A lot of well-known actors get their start in low-budget horror flicks, but Kevin Bacon happened to cut his teeth in one of the most well-known horror movies of all time, Friday the 13th. Few actors star in a classic horror movie out of the gate and then find mainstream success on their own the way Bacon did. He doesn’t often wax nostalgic about his time at Camp Crystal Lake, although that seems less because he feels above it than it does that it was thirty-seven years and almost eighty roles ago.
Friday fans (like yours truly) will always remember him as Jack, the likeable guy who ended the summer of 1980 with one hell of a sore throat, but it’s important to remember that he also has some other phenomenal genre work to his credit. One such film didn’t have me expecting much at first, but by...
Friday fans (like yours truly) will always remember him as Jack, the likeable guy who ended the summer of 1980 with one hell of a sore throat, but it’s important to remember that he also has some other phenomenal genre work to his credit. One such film didn’t have me expecting much at first, but by...
- 5/24/2017
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
The eeriest thing about the new scare movie "Stir of Echoes" is its uncanny resemblance to the hit film "The Sixth Sense". The two films share so many plot points -- a little boy seeing dead people, a man and boy bonding to the exclusion of the boy's mother, the search for a young girl's murderer -- that one could be the ghost of the other.
But if "Stir of Echoes" is hurt by being released after "The Sixth Sense", the film suffers an additional disadvantage. It has more than a few frightening moments, and writer-director David Koepp does a commendable job of building tension in the early going. But by choosing a more conventional path than "The Sixth Sense", this film feels much more ordinary.
The similarities are probably not going to hurt boxoffice performance, however. So Artisan can hope for good opening numbers that hold up into the second weekend.
Jake Zachary David Cope), the young son of a Chicago blue-collar family, often talks to unseen people. But his parents, Tom Kevin Bacon) and Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), seem oblivious to this curious behavior. Then on a dare, Tom's sardonic sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party.
Immediately, Tom starts hearing and seeing weird things, not unlike his son -- only not as clearly. As the visions continue, Tom comes to realize the family house plays host to the spirit of a teenage girl, who is making demands on him.
Based on Richard Matheson's 1958 novel, Koepp's screenplay is compelling enough for the first couple of acts as Tom struggles to make sense of his visions and his son's paranormal abilities. But problems arise when the audience's "psychic" abilities exceed those of the characters.
At a certain point, it becomes patently obvious how the girl died and who her killers are. All that remains is for Tom to search for the body. Unfortunately, this search becomes an obsessional dismantling of the house that takes up an excessive amount of screen time.
Then the climax -- where seemingly half the neighborhood proves culpable in either the girl's death or the cover-up and there's an attempt to murder at least two more people -- throws credibility out the window. This nonsensical noisiness stands in stark contrast to the quiet but startling revelations that mark the conclusion of "The Sixth Sense".
Like that film though, "Stir of Echoes" benefits from a awesome performance by a young actor. Cope, who has appeared in six commercials, has such an open spirit and calm demeanor that he makes Jake feel like an old soul in a very young body.
Bacon is always a fine actor, but sometimes his intensity doesn't work for the role. Here his character is so tightly wound from the beginning that Tom undergoes less a transformation than an entrenchment. Erbe makes the most of her third-banana role, evoking the pain and the effort to connect of a person who finds herself essentially the only nonbeliever at a convention of psychics.
STIR OF ECHOES
Artisan Entertainment
Producers: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund
Writer-director: David Koepp
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: James Newton Howard
Costumes: Leesa Evans
Editor: Jill Savitt
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jake: Zachary David Cope
Tom: Kevin Bacon
Maggie: Kathryn Erbe
Lisa: Illeana Douglas
Frank: Kevin Dunn
Harry: Conor O'Farrell
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
But if "Stir of Echoes" is hurt by being released after "The Sixth Sense", the film suffers an additional disadvantage. It has more than a few frightening moments, and writer-director David Koepp does a commendable job of building tension in the early going. But by choosing a more conventional path than "The Sixth Sense", this film feels much more ordinary.
The similarities are probably not going to hurt boxoffice performance, however. So Artisan can hope for good opening numbers that hold up into the second weekend.
Jake Zachary David Cope), the young son of a Chicago blue-collar family, often talks to unseen people. But his parents, Tom Kevin Bacon) and Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), seem oblivious to this curious behavior. Then on a dare, Tom's sardonic sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party.
Immediately, Tom starts hearing and seeing weird things, not unlike his son -- only not as clearly. As the visions continue, Tom comes to realize the family house plays host to the spirit of a teenage girl, who is making demands on him.
Based on Richard Matheson's 1958 novel, Koepp's screenplay is compelling enough for the first couple of acts as Tom struggles to make sense of his visions and his son's paranormal abilities. But problems arise when the audience's "psychic" abilities exceed those of the characters.
At a certain point, it becomes patently obvious how the girl died and who her killers are. All that remains is for Tom to search for the body. Unfortunately, this search becomes an obsessional dismantling of the house that takes up an excessive amount of screen time.
Then the climax -- where seemingly half the neighborhood proves culpable in either the girl's death or the cover-up and there's an attempt to murder at least two more people -- throws credibility out the window. This nonsensical noisiness stands in stark contrast to the quiet but startling revelations that mark the conclusion of "The Sixth Sense".
Like that film though, "Stir of Echoes" benefits from a awesome performance by a young actor. Cope, who has appeared in six commercials, has such an open spirit and calm demeanor that he makes Jake feel like an old soul in a very young body.
Bacon is always a fine actor, but sometimes his intensity doesn't work for the role. Here his character is so tightly wound from the beginning that Tom undergoes less a transformation than an entrenchment. Erbe makes the most of her third-banana role, evoking the pain and the effort to connect of a person who finds herself essentially the only nonbeliever at a convention of psychics.
STIR OF ECHOES
Artisan Entertainment
Producers: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund
Writer-director: David Koepp
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: James Newton Howard
Costumes: Leesa Evans
Editor: Jill Savitt
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jake: Zachary David Cope
Tom: Kevin Bacon
Maggie: Kathryn Erbe
Lisa: Illeana Douglas
Frank: Kevin Dunn
Harry: Conor O'Farrell
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/10/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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