Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ninja Assassin
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Stir of Echoes
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
David Koepp
Richard Matheson (novel)
Directed by: David Koepp
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 10, 1999
DVD: February 1, 2000
Running Time: 99 minutes, Color
Origin: 99
Summary
RATING: R for violence, sexuality and language
Starring Kevin Bacon, Illeana Douglas, Kathryn Erbe, Zachary David Cope, Kevin Dunn, and Conor O'Farrell
After being hypnotized by his sister-in-law (Douglas) at a party, Chicago telephone lineman Tom Witzkey (Bacon) begins to see haunting visions of a murdered girl's ghost and struggles with his sanity when he realizes that he now has the power to see spirits.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Ghost Town Panic Room Secret Window
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
Stir of Echoes is much more down and dirty (than "The Sixth Sense"), and the thrills are more visceral.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
There's visceral horror, too, including a grisly image -- a horror-in-miniature involving a fingernail -- that located an open nerve in my jaded ability to endure screen violence.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer M. V. Moorhead
The scares early on are potent and get Stir of Echoes off to a chilly horror-movie start.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times John Anderson
What gives the movie its teeth is the very earthy Witzky family, who behave so much like real people you might think they are.
Read Full Review >Film.com Tom Keogh
It certainly has a place among the year's more accomplished productions.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Koepp does a masterful job of grounding his intimations of the supernatural in a totally persuasive down-to-earth context.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The effectively creepy Stir of Echoes, is enough to make your blood chill.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
"Sixth" achieves a rare hushed poetry where Stir, for all its strengths, is more earthbound and familiar.
Read Full Review >USA Today Andy Seiler
The economical, fast-paced style and creepy mood are reminiscent of "The Twilight Zone."
Read Full Review >New York Post Rod Dreher
Studded with potent fright scenes and built on a rock-solid performance by the ever-dependable Kevin Bacon.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A horror movie with a Hitchcockian veneer of the everyday, a story that taps into our fear not only of the paranormal but also of insanity and the secret evil that may lie beneath ordinary lives.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The conventional ghost-appeasement scenario isn't very suspenseful, which may be part of the reason it's so gripping.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
A scary, intelligent thriller that remains haunting long after it's over...features what has to be one of the creepiest first half-hours in recent film history.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
The ghost story is not half as satisfying as the lovely indie mood piece tucked inside it about a community tending to itself in the wake of a recent wound.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Elevates the horror genre with a refreshing intelligence and humor -- too bad it's not half as good at generating scares.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
(Bacon's) most believable, heart-wrenching and charismatic lead performance in many years.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Marvelous not in its evocation of horror but in the way it slowly chips away at the mundanities of day-to-day urban living.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Phoebe Flowers
A scream-out-loud movie, upsetting and deliriously effective. Problem is, Koepp relies almost entirely on the isolated shocking images, ignoring the human element at the center.
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Little internal logic and too many signposts. It's easy to see who in the neighborhood knows more than they're letting on, even without X-ray vision or ESP.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A conventionally violent, do-or-die ending on such an unconventional movie.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
Another thriller that packs a spooky wallop as it conjures an unseen world within reach.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
The movie tries too hard. Too bad. This coulda been a contender.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Compared with ("The Sixth Sense"), there's no contest. Stir of Echoes has been outrun and outclassed.
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Offers tricky fragmentation without mystery or mood; it's a mosaic of fear that grows less and less unsettling as it comes together.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
Some dazzling in-camera special effects, especially the ingenious idea of filming the story's ghost at a slow speed, six frames per second, giving the being a strange, otherworldly way of moving.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon
All that suspense falls dead at its climax, which proves to be a bore. The absence of a surprise ending and the lackluster spooks make this one worth skipping. I'm going back to see "The Sixth Sense."
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Director Koepp relies more heavily on editing tricks than old-fashioned atmosphere.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Bill S. gave it a7:
Great acting by all four main characters, and a spooky story. Claims this is a derivative of The Shining have it backwards, as this is from a book written well before Steven King's work.
Pat C. gave it a6:
A derivative of the "Shining" phenomenon, but without the family involved going totally insane. Not really enlightening, but not dumbed down either. A straightforward acknowledgement and interpretation of intangible perceptions. Nonetheless at the end one must ask, Is this all dead people think about?
Kristen gave it a 10:
I loved this movie! I saw it on tv so there, of course, were cover-ups of the "bad" words but even then it was awesome! The ending was sort of predictable but hey so are a lot of movies.
Anmar B. gave it a 10:
I've really got scared, And I liked the connected complexity, I really LOVE this movie .
Susan M. gave it a 9:
I loved the story and found it very suspenseful. I think that Lucia Struss was excellant and needs some recognition.
Jack gave it a 9:
Much better than the Sixth Sense, creepy, funny, believable, great movie!
Joe B. gave it an 8:
This movie was very enjoyable. It had plenty of chills and suspense, and an intelligent and believeable script. Kevin Bacon does a fine job, as does everyone else. I thought it was far superior and much more believeable than "The Sixth Sense".
