Stir Of Echoes review

The human mind controls everything that we see, feel and experience, yet it is still a mystery to scientists. It interprets the images that flash before our eyes, and in extreme cases, acts as a defence mechanism, burying shocking memories deep within the subconscious.

Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon), a devoted family man with a loving wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and five-year-old son Jake (Zachary David Cope), has a special gift which has been hidden in the deepest recesses of his mind since birth: he possesses the ability to see the spirits of the dead.

Late one night at a boozy party, Tom jokingly agrees to be hypnotised by his new age sister-in-law Lisa (Illeana Douglas). Once under her spell, Lisa tells Tom to open his mind completely to the world around him, thereby unleashing his dormant powers.

Immediately, his head is flooded with fractured images of blurred faces and a bloodied hand; a girl screaming for help. These terrifying visions refuse to subside once he's awake, becoming increasingly vivid, to the point where he sees the ghostly figure of a young girl (Jenny Morrison) sitting next to him on the sofa.

Fearing that he is losing his sanity, Tom stops going in to work and stays home to await his next visitation. Thankfully, his son also has the same unique gift and tells his father "Don't be afraid of it, Daddy." The girl, it transpires, is the missing sister of the Witzky's babysitter, and Tom soon becomes convinced that the apparition is trying to tell him something.

When the girl orders him to "dig", he makes a grisly discovery within his home which could have devastating repercussions for his marriage, and the entire Chicago neighbourhood where he lives.

Although it bears superficial similarities to The Sixth Sense, Stir Of Echoes is a much creepier and, in many ways, much more engrossing picture.

For a start, it doesn't hang on a gimmick or single twist, preferring a sustained build up of tension and a series of shocks and surprises which evolve organically from Tom's voyage into the supernatural.

Performances are strong across the board from youngster Cope who is remarkably confident for his age, to indie queen Erbe whose increasing frustration at her husband's behaviour, and being the sole member of the family who cannot see the ghosts, strikes a pleasing balance with Bacon's tour-de-force central turn.

His slow but gradual transformation from quietly spoken and hard-working family man to virtual recluse remains completely plausible, accentuated by his haggard, almost deathly appearance.

Writer-director Koepp demonstrates a flair and confidence behind the camera, using simple tricks (extreme close-ups, shooting a scene from an odd angle) to suggest an other worldy atmosphere. He cleverly shoots the ghostly Samantha at a different speed to the rest of the film so there is a slight jerkiness to her movements. Consequently, there is an ambiguity about the spirit which is scary, almost entirely on a psychological level. Chilling stuff.