If you watched one movie about someone who saw dead people in the summer of 1999, then it was probably The Sixth Sense. M. Night Shyamalan — who directed this summer’s divisive thriller, Trap — rode The Sixth Sense to the top of the box office as it became a blockbuster and eventually earned six Oscar nominations. But that meant that Stir of Echoes, another supernatural thriller that shared many of the same themes, was almost completely overshadowed by Shyamalan’s breakout film when it arrived a month later in September 1999.
Screenwriter and director David Koepp adapted Richard Matheson’s 1958 novel of the same name and gave it a modern update. Regardless, Stir of Echoes only finished with $23.1 million worldwide. That may be one of the key reasons why Stir of Echoes has never fully been fully embraced on its own terms. But now that the 25th anniversary of Stir of Echoes has arrived, it’s time to look back and see if it still holds up as a great horror movie.
Kevin Bacon delivers a great performance
Considering that Kevin Bacon has been acting professionally since 1977, he’s got a remarkably high percentage of good films to his credit. Stir of Echoes may be underrated, but it’s also got one of Bacon’s best performances as everyman Tom Witzky. Aside from the fact that his son, Jake (Zachary David Cope), can already perceive the dead at the beginning of the story, Tom is about as normal as it gets.
Things take a strange turn for Tom when his sister-in-law, Lisa (Illeana Douglas), accidentally unlocks his own supernatural perceptions with a hypnotic suggestion. Bacon makes Tom’s subsequent freakouts really believable, as he’s both scared and angered by his new gift. Future Law & Order: Criminal Intent star Kathryn Erbe is also quite good as Tom’s wife, Maggie Witzky, but Bacon keeps this film grounded in reality even when his character is losing control of his life.
It’s a genuinely creepy ghost story
One of the common threads between this movie and The Sixth Sense is that the dead have unfinished business on Earth, and they won’t rest until someone takes care of it for them. The thing that separates Stir of Echoes from Shyamalan’s film is that the ghosts really feel like they don’t belong in this world.
The primary ghost in this movie is a recently deceased young girl named Samantha Kozac (House and Once Upon a Time star Jennifer Morrison). Samantha isn’t a malevolent spirit, but once she starts haunting Tom, she nearly drives him insane in order to get him to do what she wants. It’s a creepy experience on its own, and it also makes Tom’s waking life begin to crumble.
Stir of Echoes also works as a crime thriller
It would be too big of a spoiler to explain why Samantha’s spirit is so restless, but we can say that a heinous crime was committed against her. That forces Tom to play amateur detective as he has to figure out what happened to Samantha, and why his neighbors are so eager to see her case swept under the rug.
Ghosts only have limited powers in the land of the living, and the people that Tom really has to worry about are the ones who are still breathing.
The ending leaves a strong impression
Without giving any specifics away, the film does resolve Samantha’s unfinished business and it brings Tom’s story to an end. But the conclusion also reminds us that Jake had his second sight first, and it’s not going away just because this particular problem has been resolved.
Instead, the movie closes on a semi-ominous note by giving viewers a taste of what it’s like to have Jake’s gift in a world filled with spirits who want something from him.
Watch Stir of Echoes on Freevee.