Stir of Echoes (Special Edition)

Starring:Zachary David Cope, Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Conor O'Farrell, Lusia Strus, Stephen Eugene Walker, Mary Kay Cook, Larry Neumann Jr., Jennifer Morrison (II), Richard Cotovsky, Steve Rifkin, Chalon Williams, Liza Weil, George Ivey, Lisa Lewis, Mike Bacarella, Christian Stolte, Eddie Bo Smith Jr.
Director: David Koepp
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The only real problem with Stir of Echoes has nothing to do with the movie itself, but with unlucky coincidence. Adapted from a Richard Matheson novel, this film arrived around the same time as The Sixth Sense, and surface similarities made it suffer by cursory comparison and the competing film's phenomenal success. It's a pity, because this one features one of Kevin Bacon's best performances, in a psychological thriller that makes a lot more right moves than wrong ones. Bacon plays a blue-collar guy who laments his ordinary life, only to learn, when his sister-in-law (Ileanna Douglas) hypnotizes him, that he is a "receiver" capable of seeing spirits and split-second glimpses of past and future events. It's a torturous gift to have--especially since his friendly Chicago neighborhood possesses a dark secret--and Bacon plays the role with an appropriate mixture of obsession and internalized torment.

Amazon.com

The only real problem with Stir of Echoes has nothing to do with the movie itself, but with unlucky coincidence. Adapted from a Richard Matheson novel, this film arrived around the same time as The Sixth Sense, and surface similarities made it suffer by cursory comparison and the competing film's phenomenal success. It's a pity, because this one features one of Kevin Bacon's best performances, in a psychological thriller that makes a lot more right moves than wrong ones. Bacon plays a blue-collar guy who laments his ordinary life, only to learn, when his sister-in-law (Ileanna Douglas) hypnotizes him, that he is a "receiver" capable of seeing spirits and split-second glimpses of past and future events. It's a torturous gift to have--especially since his friendly Chicago neighborhood possesses a dark secret--and Bacon plays the role with an appropriate mixture of obsession and internalized torment.

Similarity to The Sixth Sense applies only to the basic premise and the character of Bacon's young son. Otherwise, this is more of a hard-edged journey of self-discovery, marital crisis, and recovery, with Bacon's wife (played by the highly underrated Kathryn Erbe) involved in an underdeveloped subplot about a group of people who share Bacon's gift as paranormal "receivers." Furthering his career as a writer-director of intelligent thrillers, David Koepp makes a few missteps in pacing and thematic overkill, but overall Stir of Echoes is a sharp, sensitive thriller that unfolds to reveal a dramatically satisfying solution to its mystery. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

An atmospheric horror movie!.......2007-04-28

Stir of Echoes is one of my favorite horror movies. It is effective as a horror movie without resorting to excessive violence, gore or sex, and Kevin Bacon shines as the protagonist who suddenly finds himself 'gifted' in being able to see and hear supernatural entities. The old haunted house premise is given a twist here with Bacon trying to communicate with the spirit and hoping to discover what is preventing the spirit from being at rest...it is a sad horror story, and as another reviewer mentioned does have similarities with The Changeling, and of course The Sixth Sense [frankly I prefer Stir of Echoes]. If you are a fan of atmospheric horror, and love spine-tingling stories minus the blood, gore & sex then this is for you.

very spooky!.......2007-02-24

oh man are you in for a surprise with this film. kevin bacon invokes a whole new spirit ans a fresh new way of looking at the world between life and death.

Good but not memorable.......2007-02-19

"Stir of Echoes," updated from an old novel by Richard Matheson, came out in 1999 soon after the huge hit "The Sixth Sense." Whether intentionally or not, the two films resemble each other enormously: the restless dead communicate with a little boy, and an adult is drawn into that communication. "The Sixth Sense" (the only truly good thing by director M. Night Shyamalan) is more moody, inventive, and compelling (if a little self-important, like Shyamalan himself); it obviously hit a nerve with audiences and critics. Needless to say, it eclipsed "Stir of Echoes," a decent film but one that treads too well-worn territory. Somehow, the ordinary setting is *too* ordinary. I really didn't care about the dull lives of the characters; they were unappealingly presented. Neither did I care about the ghost, though her victimization in life gave me the same feeling of anger when I hear news items about similar violence against women. The acting is professional but uninspired. It's probably Kevin Bacon's best work, but frankly, that's not saying much. He generally delivers his lines in an uninflected monotone and is stiff throughout; and while Bruce Willis was almost as wooden in "The Sixth Sense," Haley Joel Osment's performance as the prescient child was so overwhelming and expressive that Willis hardly mattered. Here, the kid (played by Zachary David Cope) is almost window dressing so Bacon's dull performance has no help. The direction, by the screenwriter, is unobtrusive at least but it constantly borrows images from other films, often very irritating. Worth a look, but you probably won't want to go back for a second viewing. The extras are plentiful but unbelievably uninteresting. They are presented to look like the analogous features on the DVDs of "The Ring" and "The Sixth Sense." The distributor, Lions Gate, seemed to think so little of this film's marketability that they felt it necessary to connect it with two more successful--and original--supernatural thrillers of the period by imitating the DVD presentation.

Really enjoyable.......2007-02-09

I first saw Stir of Echoes on the SciFi channel, and I really enjoyed it. When I saw the film at the store this evening, I pounced on it.

This film is definitely well-filmed and very well-acted. Kevin Bacon and Kathryn Erbe are believable as a married couple, and the little boy who plays their son is great. I usually find that children play parts that are too precocious or too (whether purposely or not) annoying, but this boy was quite realistic.

I wouldn't call myself a huge horror or thriller fan, but this one was really good. (It helped that I watched it with the lights on....) The story did get somewhat predictable toward the end, but that certainly didn't stop me from buying it so I could watch it again.

One technical aspect that I didn't like--on the Special Edition DVD, the menus are incredibly annoying; this is probably kind of hard to grasp without actually seeing what I'm talking about. The menu design is supposed to be edgy--the menu names wibble and shift with distortions, and occasionally the text completely disappears. Again, this is part of the design because it corresponds to some scenes in the film and it adds to the mood. However, when I'm trying to actually access the deleted scenes or play the film, I don't want to have to wait and make sure I have "Play" selected while all I can see on the screen is the word "See" backwards. It's minor and doesn't affect the film, but it is a pain.

4/5. Good stuff.

Good, effective terror film.......2006-12-16

This is a good and effective terror film, one of the best of 1999, far better than the overrated, pretentious (and somewhat similar in plot) "The Sixth Sense". Actually, the plot of "Stir of Echoes" seems lifted from 1979's "The Changeling", a very good terror film starring George C. Scott that deserves to be better known. The scene where Kevin Bacon starts an excavation in his backyard hoping to find the remains of the person who has become a ghost has a very similar scene in the Scott movie. But similarities aside, this film will most likely satisfy those looking for good chills.

Average customer rating:

A little disapointing...

Stir of Echoes [Blu-ray]
Starring: Kevin Bacon , Illeana Douglas , Kevin Dunn , Kathryn Erbe , and Conor O'Farrell
Director: David Koepp
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: Blu-ray

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Release Date: 2006-08-29

Customer Reviews:

A little disapointing..........2007-01-06

Although I loved this movie, the picture quality is one of the worst I've seen on Blu-ray to date. The picture was very soft, and grainy in parts. Despite these facts, it is still visually superior than its standard dvd counterparts but no match for most of the Blu-ray disc I've seen. The sound faired much better, there was lots of separation and bass.

Average customer rating:

An atmospheric horror movie!
very spooky!
Good but not memorable
Really enjoyable
Good, effective terror film

Stir of Echoes
Starring: Zachary David Cope , Kevin Bacon , Kathryn Erbe , Illeana Douglas , and Kevin Dunn
Director: David Koepp
Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Customer Reviews:

An atmospheric horror movie!.......2007-04-28

very spooky!.......2007-02-24

oh man are you in for a surprise with this film. kevin bacon invokes a whole new spirit ans a fresh new way of looking at the world between life and death.

Good but not memorable.......2007-02-19

Really enjoyable.......2007-02-09

Good, effective terror film.......2006-12-16

Average customer rating:

Great movies, poor features
Stir of Echoes is great, Ninth Gate sure as heck is not.
Both perfect in environment...
No Dep(p)th
9th Gate

Stir of Echoes / The Ninth Gate
Starring: Johnny Depp , Frank Langella , Lena Olin , Emmanuelle Seigner , and Barbara Jefford
Director: Roman Polanski , and David Koepp
Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Amazon.com

Stir of Echoes
The only real problem with Stir of Echoes has nothing to do with the movie itself, but with unlucky coincidence. Adapted from a Richard Matheson novel, this film arrived around the same time as The Sixth Sense, and surface similarities made it suffer by cursory comparison and the competing film's phenomenal success. It's a pity, because this one features one of Kevin Bacon's best performances, in a psychological thriller that makes a lot more right moves than wrong ones. Bacon plays a blue-collar guy who laments his ordinary life, only to learn, when his sister-in-law (Ileanna Douglas) hypnotizes him, that he is a "receiver" capable of seeing spirits and split-second glimpses of past and future events. It's a torturous gift to have--especially since his friendly Chicago neighborhood possesses a dark secret--and Bacon plays the role with an appropriate mixture of obsession and internalized torment. Similarity to The Sixth Sense applies only to the basic premise and the character of Bacon's young son. Otherwise, this is more of a hard-edged journey of self-discovery, marital crisis, and recovery, with Bacon's wife (played by the highly underrated Kathryn Erbe) involved in an underdeveloped subplot about a group of people who share Bacon's gift as paranormal "receivers." Furthering his career as a writer-director of intelligent thrillers, David Koepp makes a few missteps in pacing and thematic overkill, but overall Stir of Echoes is a sharp, sensitive thriller that unfolds to reveal a dramatically satisfying solution to its mystery. --Jeff Shannon

The Ninth Gate
The horror of Roman Polanski is not about spectacle and shock but a goose-pimply sense of evil lurking just outside the frame and hidden behind the faces of slightly unsettling characters. For a while it looks like The Ninth Gate, adapted from the novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, might recapture the beautiful uneasiness of such masterpieces as Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. A calm, almost sleepy Johnny Depp plays cynical, unscrupulous rare-book hunter Dean Corso, who's hired by demonologist Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to authenticate a rare volume that, legend has it, was cowritten by Lucifer himself. Dean leaves a Gothic looking New York (re-created in Europe by Polanski as a sinister city of shadows) for Portugal and Paris to compare Balkan's volume with the two copies known to be in existence and uncovers a mystery with unholy ramifications. He also finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that involves Balkan, a widow who will stop at nothing to retrieve Balkan's book (Lena Olin, who gleefully bites and claws her way through the part), and a mysterious guardian "angel" (Polanski's wife, Emmanuelle Seigner) who shadows his every step. The Ninth Gate is full of rumbling menace and deliciously unsettling imagery, but Polanski's languorous direction and purposefully vague story render a film that's eerie without every becoming thrilling. It's perpetually on the verge of becoming interesting--right up to its obscure final image. --Sean Axmaker

Description

STIR OF ECHOES: Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) is a blue-collar worker, a family-man, the most ordinary guy in the world...who is about to be plunged into a shattering encounted with another world. And it doesn't matter that Tom doesn't believe in the supernatural. Because something supernatural has started to believe in Tom.

After he is hypnotized at a neighborhood party, Tom changes. He sees things he can't explain and hears voices he can't ignore. As the horrific visions intensify, Tom realizes they are pieces of a puzzle, echoes of a crime calling out to be solved. But when his otherworldly nightmares begin coming true, Tom wants out. He desperately tries to rid himself of his eerie, unwanted powers - only to be seized by an irresistible compulsion to dig deeper and deeper into the mystery that is consuming his life. When at last he unearths the truth, it will draw him into the long-buried secret of a ghastly crime, a vengeful spirit...and the lethal price of laying that spirit to rest.

THE NINTH GATE: Johnny Depp unlocks the gates to hell in Roman Polanski's newest thriller. Depp stars as Dean Corso, an unscrupulous rare-book dealer who is hired to locate the last remaining copies of "The Nine Gates of the Shadow Kingdom," a demonic manuscript that can summon the Devil. Corso becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving murder, theft and satanic ritual, and ultimately finds himself confronting the devil incarnate.

Customer Reviews:

Great movies, poor features.......2005-03-05

First off the movies are great. You can tell by the other reviews if you're interested in either of the movies themselves. My only problem is with the lack of features on both these DVDs. If you are a person that doesn't watch the bonus features or listen to the commentaries, then this double pack is the thing for you! Its a great deal in that case. I however like to listen to the commentaries and watch the "making of" features. Especially with good directors like Roman Polanski on Ninth Gate. I was pretty mad today when i went to wal mart and saw a new edition of Stir Of Echoes with added features (such as a commentary!!!!!).

Oh, well.

Stir of Echoes is great, Ninth Gate sure as heck is not........2003-08-26

Stir of Echoes is a terrifically engrossing supernatural thriller that perfectly blends mystery, horror, and drama into one deft mix. It also boasts Kevin Bacon's best performance.

The Ninth Gate, on the other hand, is a lazy motion picture that undeniably boasts strong atmosphere and intrigue, but fails to deliver upon its potential. The movie ultimately leads nowhere, a destination so unfulfilling it makes the previous two hours ten minutes a total waste.

Both perfect in environment..........2003-02-20

I think both films really pass on the climate they want and this contributes to their success and makes them much more interesting for the viewer.
In Stir Of Echoes, the mysticism and the unexpected always are on hold and in The Ninth Gate, fear for what will happen next, prevails.
In stir of echoes we have the technique of hypnotism which is very interesting and not usually used in a movie, and in the ninth gate we have the dark, ruthless book collector, who asks the also dark Depp, to find for him, a Satan's book...
Both films keep you anxious 'til the end with a slight difference that makes Stir of Echoes a better movie. The ending plays a big part in these movies and in stir of echoes it is better and very iteresting..Chills you to the bone...

No Dep(p)th.......2002-04-18

This had a lot of potential but ended up being rather disappointing. The main problem is that the story is a very deep and complex work which is brilliantly written (by Arturo Perez-Reverte under the title The Dumas Club) and the film simply does not match it for credibility. Depp's acting is wooden and featureless and although Langalla is convincing, Seigner's role in the film is never properly explained. All in all, a rather directionless effort that could have been far better given the right approach.

The plot involves Depp as an unscrupulous rare book dealer who is employed to track down 2 remaining copies of a Satanic Text that explains how to summon the Devil. His employer is a rich business man with an obsession with the Devil who also owns a copy of the book called "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows". He wants Depp to find out if one or any of them are fakes.

Depp then high tails it off to Europe to interview the reamaining owners and is soon encountering all sorts of sinister accidents. he is followed by "The girl" (Seigner) who appears to be his ally. It soon becomes apparent that there is a hidden agenda as people start dying. Eventually Langella, arrives on the scene to act out the ritual but its flawed and he dies. The girls identity is never revealed and this is a mistake( In the book, she is revealed as one of Satan's rebel angels). The film ends unsatisfactorily with Depp entering the Ninth Gate himself but we are led to believe that it's for love of the girl which is inaccurate. If Polanski had followed the book more accurately, it would have been more effective.

9th Gate.......2001-10-28

Johnny Depp in another superb performance. The Corso character carries the hokey premise, and the location footage in Europe is great. This film is a must see for anyone who wants a piece of Ned Flanders.

Average customer rating:

Stir of Echoes [Region 2]
Starring: Zachary David Cope , Kevin Bacon , Kathryn Erbe , Illeana Douglas , and Kevin Dunn
Director: David Koepp
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

DTS | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Average customer rating:

Stir of Echoes [Region 2]
Starring: Zachary David Cope , Kevin Bacon , Kathryn Erbe , Illeana Douglas , and Kevin Dunn
Director: David Koepp
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00005A0ZA

Average customer rating:

An atmospheric horror movie!
very spooky!
Good but not memorable
Really enjoyable
Good, effective terror film

Stir of Echoes [Region 2]
Starring: Zachary David Cope , Kevin Bacon , Kathryn Erbe , Illeana Douglas , and Kevin Dunn
Director: David Koepp
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

DTS | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

What Lies Beneath
Stigmata
The Mothman Prophecies
Frailty (Ws)
Gothika (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B00005A8SW

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

An atmospheric horror movie!.......2007-04-28

very spooky!.......2007-02-24

oh man are you in for a surprise with this film. kevin bacon invokes a whole new spirit ans a fresh new way of looking at the world between life and death.

Good but not memorable.......2007-02-19

Really enjoyable.......2007-02-09

Good, effective terror film.......2006-12-16

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