Review - Stir of Echoes

Makes you think twice about all those weight loss and stop smoking hypno-therapies . . .

Stir of Echoes absolutely freaked me out - well the premise of it anyway. The thought that while playing around on a Friday night, your whole life could change because some ding-dong decides to plant a post hypnotic suggestion. It just gives me the chills. The movie itself however, was just above so-so.

Tom (Kevin Bacon) and his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) are living in a self proclaimed “nice neighborhood”. They’ve got everything the house, the kid, the block parties. Not to mention the annoying sister in law, Lisa (Illeana Douglas) who happens to be majoring in some new age hypno therapy. Unfortunately for Tom - who happens to have a bit of the sixth sense - he pushes her into hypnotizing him and she ends up planting a suggestion that he be more open minded. Little did she know what doors she had opened.

Tom subsequently begins his crazy phase where he pounds down orange juice, ignores his work duties and tears apart his home because he keeps seeing visions of a young girl, Samantha (Jennifer Morrison) dying in his house. His episodes keep getting more and more realistic and he knows that he has to find out what has happened to Samantha’s troubled soul or he will die.

Apparently Samantha has also been trying to contact Tom’s son, Jake (Zachary David Cope) who also has a touch of the sixth sense and together they talk about what they are seeing. But they try to keep this a secret from Maggie as it tends to scare her.

To make a long story short, something very bad did happen to Samantha and it seems the whole neighborhood may have been in on it. This makes things very dangerous for Tom and his family as he literally digs for the truth.

A so-so film with a few pretty good scares. Kevin Bacon is a little over the top in my opinion and Kathryn Erbe was a bit wasted in her role. Being a big House fan, it was a little weird seeing Jennifer Morrison out of her Dr. Allison Cameron role, but overall Stir of Echoes was not too bad a film - definitely entertaining.

Directed by
David Koepp

Writing credits (WGA)
Richard Matheson (novel A Stir of Echoes)


David Koepp (screenplay)


Cast (in credits order) verified as complete
Zachary David Cope .... Jake
Kevin Bacon .... Tom
Kathryn Erbe .... Maggie
Illeana Douglas .... Lisa
Kevin Dunn .... Frank
Conor O'Farrell .... Harry
Lusia Strus .... Sheila
Stephen Eugene Walker .... Bobby
Mary Kay Cook .... Vanessa
Larry Neumann Jr. .... Lenny
Jennifer Morrison .... Samantha (as Jenny Morrison)
Richard Cotovsky .... Neighborhood Man
Steve Rifkin .... Kurt (as Steve Rifkin)
Chalon Williams .... Adam
Liza Weil .... Debbie the Babysitter
George Ivey .... Security Guard
Lisa Lewis .... Debbie's Mother
Mike Bacarella .... Train Station Cop #1
Christian Stolte .... Train Station Cop #2
Eddie Bo Smith Jr. .... Neil the Cop
Hyowon K. Yoo .... Korean Woman
Jim Andelin .... Elderly Man
Karen Vaccaro .... Upset Woman
Antonio Polk .... Homey
Rosario Varela .... Latin Woman
Duane Sharp .... Polish Priest
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kevin Scott Greer .... Party Goer (featured bit) (uncredited)
Lou Meza .... Gothic Street Punk (uncredited)
Larry Nazimek .... Block Party Participant (uncredited)
Kelly Trznadel .... Silent Bit (uncredited)