Director: Ernie Barbarash
Writer: Ernie Barbarash (Screenplay)
Starring: Rob Lowe, Marnie McPhail, Ben Lewis, Tatiana Maslany, Shawn Roberts, Vik Sahay, Colin Williams
Plot: A soldier returns home from the Iraq war only to be haunted by visions of the dead.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Basic Sequel
Story: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming starts we follow soldier Ted Cogan (Lowe) stationed in Iraq who is involved in an incident where he loses a soldier and what looks like an innocent Iraqi family. Returning home Ted struggles to readjust to life with his family wife Molly (McPhail) and son Max (Lewis). Matter don’t become any easier when he starts seeing visions of the family turning up in corners of his life.
Failing to receive any medical help for his post-traumatic stress disorder Ted must seek help from other means which involves embracing his visions to find out why they are haunting him.
Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming follows the same path of the original with our main character getting haunted by ghosts who are trying to get a message to him. It would be fair to say not much is different apart from trying to add in racial tension from the stand point of Americans against anyone with the heritage of Middle Eastern Americans. The story does all bottle down to a ghost trying to expose the truth but it spends too much time pointing fingers in one direction when the story is actually about a different direction.
Actor Review
Rob Lowe: Ted Cogan is the war veteran whose call left an innocent family killed and himself badly injured. Returning home Ted finds himself being haunted by the family he had killed and must fight to understand what they want from him. Rob is good in this role without reaching all of his known skill levels.
Marnie McPhail: Molly Cogan is the wife of Ted who has been keeping everything together while he was away, she struggles to support Ted because of monetary issues the family is facing and starts to question everything Ted is doing. Marnie is solid in this role but doesn’t get enough screen time.
Ben Lewis: Max Cogan is the teenage son of Ted who has started rebellious stage of his life with smoking. He has struggled to deal with what happened to his father while he was away. Ben plays a character key to the final outcome but really is just a generic teenager.
Support Cast: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming has a supporting cast you kind of just see in moments without actually knowing what the point in most of them are.
Director Review: Ernie Barbarash – Ernie fails to capture the overall creepiness the first film has in what is a simple jump scare repeat process.
Horror: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming is a jump scare repeat process that never actually scares when it should.
Thriller: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming does try to keep us guessing throughout but giving us no hints early on doesn’t make the ending stratifying.
Settings: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming uses the everyday life of the former soldier for the setting which doesn’t really end up making the scenes feel anymore impactful.
Special Effects: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming has basic effects which work well enough for the film without saving it.
Suggestion: Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming is one I do think you can skip but you know what late night television viewing is acceptable. (Late Night TV)
Best Part: Arm burning.
Worst Part: Lazy jump scares.
Believability: No
Chances of Tears: No
Chances of Sequel: No
Post Credits Scene: No
Oscar Chances: No
Runtime: 1 Hours 29 Minutes
Tagline: This time, the door cannot be locked
Overall: Poor sequel to an enjoyable horror.
Rating
