One of the things that must be frustrating about making movies is that so much competition exists. Even when you hit on a great idea, such as using a Richard Matheson novel for a story basis, others might be producing something similar. This isn’t unique to movies, of course. Some of us have had the experience while writing books. For those of us who watch movies online, rather than in theaters, the timing differential can still warp perspectives. I’d not heard of Stir of Echoes until I stumbled onto a website that lists horror movies that have a little something extra. While watching it I couldn’t help but think of The Sixth Sense, which I also saw at home, but quite a few years earlier than Stir of Echoes. The acting in the latter is quite good. The haunted kid pulls this off effectively. And Kevin Bacon and Kathryn Erbe do a great job as parents (actor-wise). Spoilers follow.
If you’ve intuited that the child sees dead people, you’re not far off. It’s actually only one dead person and it’s not a Shyamalanian counselor. But the spooky part is his dad begins to see them too, after he’s been hypnotized by his sister-in-law, who’s an amateur. At its heart the story follows the traditional trope of the undiscovered murder. It does a good job of hiding the perpetrators until near the end. The build-up is good also, with Bacon portraying Roy Neary-like obsession (interestingly, they’re in similar professions) quite well.
The scary part, for me, was the sense that you’re not in control of your own mind. There’s perhaps just a little too much possibility here. We tend to think we own our minds, but what if they’re really just on loan? I remember reading, as a high schooler, that religious people are difficult to hypnotize. Hypnosis is still not well understood. The larger fish in the pond is consciousness itself, which we really can’t even define. We do know that memories are altered with time, and we can demonstrate this to ourselves by rewatching an old movie and seeing what we got wrong. I suspect that’s why Stir of Echoes is so effective as a horror film—taking us into the realm of mind exposes us to so much that we really don’t understand. And since ghosts seem to be pretty believable, well, the combination works. Stir of Echoes is unsettling and a cut above much of what’s available for free streaming. So if you’re in the mood for a ghost story, this might just fit the bill.
