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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
If you enjoyed "The Sixth Sense," you're gonna want to see
this supernatural thriller starring Kevin Bacon as a Chicago telephone
lineman who discovers horror lurking under his own roof after he's
hypnotized by his sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas) at a neighborhood
party. At first, Bacon's skeptical. He doesn't believe in mental
games, nor in ghosts. But when he hears his five year-old son (Zachary
David Cope) casually say, "Does it hurt to be dead?" to an unseen
apparition, he knows something's wrong. Then he "sees" a deathly pale,
terrified teenage girl who "disappeared" months earlier; she's a
vision, not real, but how did this tortured soul get on his
living-room sofa? And who will believe him? Certainly not his
just-pregnant wife (Kathryn Erbe), who finds his bizarre behavior and
obsession with spooky, otherworldly things quite disturbing. Not even
his defensive sister-in-law, who insists she only planted an innocent
post-hypnotic suggestion into his subconscious. Based on a 1958 novel
by Richard Matheson ("Somewhere in Time," "What Dreams May Come"),
screenwriter/director David Koepp cleverly builds the suspense slowly,
through character development not carnage, keeping the action low-key
and quite plausible. But many clues are revealed too early, and it's
quite reminiscent of Bacon's earlier film, "Flatliners," along with
"The Amityville Horror," even "The Shining." On the Granger Movie
Gauge of 1 to 10, "A Stir of Echoes" is a creepy 7. It's an eerie,
intriguing early Fall chiller.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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