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Stir of Echoes
Thriller


9.0

based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA 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.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	David Koepp Richard Matheson (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	David Koepp
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 1, 2000 Video: February 1, 2000 Theatrical: December 10, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	99 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	99

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...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Stir of Echoes is much more down and dirty (than "The Sixth Sense"), and the thrills are more visceral.

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.

Dallas Observer M. V. Moorhead

The scares early on are potent and get Stir of Echoes off to a chilly horror-movie start.

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.

Film.com Tom Keogh

It certainly has a place among the year's more accomplished productions.

Variety Joe Leydon

Koepp does a masterful job of grounding his intimations of the supernatural in a totally persuasive down-to-earth context.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The effectively creepy Stir of Echoes, is enough to make your blood chill.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

"Sixth" achieves a rare hushed poetry where Stir, for all its strengths, is more earthbound and familiar.

USA Today Andy Seiler

The economical, fast-paced style and creepy mood are reminiscent of "The Twilight Zone."

New York Post Rod Dreher

Studded with potent fright scenes and built on a rock-solid performance by the ever-dependable Kevin Bacon.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Kevin Bacon stars in one of his best performances.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The conventional ghost-appeasement scenario isn't very suspenseful, which may be part of the reason it's so gripping.

Film.com Robert Horton

The picture has an appropriately grungy sense of place.

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

(Bacon's) most believable, heart-wrenching and charismatic lead performance in many years.

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.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Needs less down-to-earth flavor and more unearthly force.

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A conventionally violent, do-or-die ending on such an unconventional movie.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Another thriller that packs a spooky wallop as it conjures an unseen world within reach.

Newsweek David Ansen

The movie tries too hard. Too bad. This coulda been a contender.

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.

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.

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.

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".

Stir of Echoes Thriller

Stir of Echoes
Thriller