MOVIE COMPANY: Artisan Entertainment
CAST: Starring Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn and Zachary David Cope.
DIRECTED BY: David Koepp
WRITTEN BY: Richard Matheson and David Koepp
RATING: Rated R
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0164181
TYPE OF MOVIE: Thriller, Horror
DURATION: 99 minutes
Tom’s a regular guy, a utilities lineman, married, with a young son, his wife is pregnant; he hangs out with long-time pals in a Chicago neighborhood. At a party, his sister-in-law hypnotizes him, and he goes into a deep trance. Before waking him, she suggests that he keep his mind open. That night he sees flashes of violence and the ghost of a young woman. His young son, too, is “a receiver,” but while the boy is calm and coherent in his conversations with spirits, Tom is confused and agitated. Over time, the young woman’s story comes to the surface, and Tom begins a hunt for her body that puts him and his usually understanding wife, Maggie, in grave danger.
DVD EXTRAS:
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby
• Commentary by writer/director David Koepp
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailer(s), TV spot(s)
• Making-Of Featurette
• Moist “Breathe” Music Video
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage
• 3 Additonal TV Spots: “Threshold” TV Spot, “Listen” TV Spot, “Wife” TV Spot
• Widescreen anamorphic format
KNOWN DVD SECRET(S):Â None that I know of.
DVD REVIEW:
This movie came out the same time as “Sixth Sense” and unfortunately, since the two movies are similar but very different, people chose one film over the other and that film was “Sixth Sense”.
Well, for those who had the chance to see both movies, people debate which is better. I enjoyed “Sixth Sense” a lot and with “Stir of Echoes”, it is pretty good too. In fact, I like the supernatural explanations of “Stir of Echoes” more than the “Sixth Sense” but the main difference that separates the movie is budget and with the multiple storylines and happenings in “Sixth Sense”, you will enjoy “Sixth Sense” even more but respect “Stir of Echoes” for what they were able to pull off with the limited budget. What David Koepp had to work within the budget, he did what he could and he made the movie work.
As for the DVD, the colors are pretty good but one problem I have is that the movie is in Full Screen and not widescreen. Why? Perhaps Artisan felt they can release a special edition widescreen version in the near future. Possibly.
As for the audio, it’s good for a dialogue movie and the special features include a commentary, trailer, tv spots, a very short featurette and behind-the-scene clips of the making of the movie.
Again, another well movie from a not so big company but “Stir of Echoes” is worth checking out if you enjoy horror thrillers without the violence of a horror movie.
THE MOVIE:Â B+
THE DVD EXTRAS:Â B-
THE DVD OVERALL:Â B