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MeerStalker looks at STIR OF ECHOES!

Published at:  Jun 25, 1999 3:36:08 AM CDT

Hey Folks, Harry here, and here's another fella's look at STIR OF ECHOES, a truly tremendous horror film by David Koepp. (Click here for my Review) I got off the phone with Moriarty a bit ago, and he tells me that a mute henchmen of his with no typing skills told him upon seeing THE SIXTH SENSE, another of the upcoming supernatural horror tales, he felt it was utterly fantastic. So... Maybe. Just Maybe, this year will be as strong for horror as it is for Comedy. Here's MeerStalker...



Wow!

Just came out of a sneak preview of STIR OF ECHOES. Moriarty and Longshot
have already covered the plot synopsis in detail, so I will just relate my
feelings.

As a devotee of the White Wolf line of dark fantasy roleplaying games, I
found this movie to be an utterly good treatment of supernatural horror
in an otherwise ordinary setting. What happens to Joe Sixpack when his
psychic defenses are suddenly ripped away, exposing him to the cosmic
mindfuck of the spirit world? Perhaps...a descent into paranoia
and obsession? Oh yeah.

Bacon does an excellent job of portraying a simple man who is
simultaneously terrified and fascinated by what he begins to see around
him. Virtually all of the performances in this movie are deadnuts perfect,
starting with Kathryn Erbe as his skeptical (but devoted) wife, Kevin Dunn
as his beer buddy, and Illeana Douglas as the whiny sister-in-law. But all
the best lines belong to the character's son, Jake...

While watching the effects, only at one point do you really *feel* like you're
looking at an effect...but the subtlety of it gave me goosebumps.

About two-thirds of the way through the movie, a character appears to explain
what the fuck is going on to the part of the audience that isn't hip to the
supernatural...but Koepp and Matheson can be forgiven this clumsy mechanism.
One or both of them did some serious braining for this story, and it would
be wrong to send people away wondering what the hell just happened.

This movie will inevitably be compared to POLTERGEIST and THE SHINING --
each of which it bears a slight resemblance to. That's unfortunate, because
the things that make this movie cool are the differences...the style, the
mood, the whole atmosphere, which is so casual and ordinary, that the
spookiness seems all the more jarring.

Good acting. Good directing. Good script. I don't usually go for creepy
horror, but this one just rocked me.

call me

MEERSTALKER



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    Readers Talkback

  • Jun 25, 1999 3:57:31 AM CDT

    Wanna hear something really scary?

    by gg

    I think Illeana Douglas is cute!
    Yeah, I know, it

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jun 25, 1999 3:58:26 AM CDT

    Does this mean we can all get over shit like Scream

    by meat takeshi

    It finally sounds as if there is a renaissance of quality horror films. I believed it would never happen when we started down that Scream path of nudge nudge wink wink aren't we all so post modern garbage movies. This, Blair Witch and others seem to be accepting that the audience has a brain and working on this assumption , suggestion rather than elaborate gory set pieces are the way forward again.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jun 25, 1999 11:51:41 AM CDT

    It's no Blair Witch

    by morton

    Stir of Echoes is a good attempt at an intelligent horror film, but it really falls apart at its climax, which was really not much more than your typical Scream climax. The opening scenes suffer from a near-fatal case of "screenwriter's talk" in which supposedly blue-collar individuals try to sound dumb while spinning out lame metaphors that only a screenwriter would consider convincing dialogue. It also bears more than a passing resemblance to Close Encounters (power company lineman is exposed to supernatural force and tears his house apart looking for answers), although depending on when the Matheson novel was written, CE3K may have been the influenced party. I was glad it took things seriously, but a lot of it is conventional.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jun 25, 1999 12:08:36 PM CDT

    Good

    by -z-

    The more I hear about Blair Witch, the less I want to see it. But then again I enjoyed the Trigger Effect, which many people seemed to not like. I can't wait to see a good, well made ghost story. So I am very much looking forward to this flick.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Aug 06, 2006 9:52:38 PM CDT

    Perhaps we can add a dash of bay leaves too.

    by wolfpack

    Reply to Talkback

  • Aug 07, 2006 2:33:15 PM CDT

    Probably that Franzia wine in a box stuff.

    by wolfpack

    Reply to Talkback

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