Friday Film: Stir of Echoes
For many of us, our daily lives consist of coffee, going to work, come home for dinner, watching television, and going to bed, only to wake up to do it all over again the next day. Some people long for a life less ordinary. The 1999 thriller Stir of Echoes shows just how appreciative we should sometimes be for our 'ordinary' lives.
| Stir of Echoes (1999) | |
| Directed by: | David Koepp |
| Produced by: | Judy Hofflund Gavin Polone |
| Starring: | Zachary David Cope Kevin Bacon Kathryn Erbe Illeana Douglas |
| Distributed by: | Artisan Entertainment |
| All Movie Guide IMDb Amazon.com  |
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The film takes place in a blue-collar Chicago neighborhood, where everyone on the block is friendly and familiar with each other. One of the residents is Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon), a telephone lineman who lives with his pregnant wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and young son Jake (Zachary David Cope). One late night, after several hours of drinking at a party, Maggie's sister Lisa (Illeana Douglas) starts a heated discussion about the power of hypnosis. Tom challenges Lisa to hypnotize him, claiming it can't be done. However, Lisa succeeds in sending him into a trance, wherein she plants a post-hypnotic suggestion to 'open his mind to all things' in an effort to make him more open-minded.
Long after the session is over, Tom is overcome with nightmares and hallucinations, usually involving a teenage girl who disappeared from the neighborhood several months ago. And he's not the only one who sees her. Little Jake must play the cool, rational balance to his father's increasing madness.
There are some beautiful shots of Chicago in this film, including a shot of Tom high on a telephone pole with an immense view of the Chicago River and bustling eL trains behind him. While the movie never specifically states what neighborhood the characters live in, Bacon's character mentions he came from Bridgeport and Back of the Yards. IMDb reports that some filming took place in Wicker Park.
As for the film itself, I found it to be very trippy. It can be difficult at times to discern from 'reality' and Tom's hallucinations, adding of course to the suspense and creepiness. The movie scared me at moments when I didn't expect it to but didn't over do it with gore or shock tactics. What I liked best is that it kept me on my toes. Too many films are predictable: you hear the suspense music and you know something is going to jump out and say 'Boo!' Such was not the case with this movie. Kevin Bacon's performance is brilliant, presenting a man's obsession which is just as frightening as his dreams.
Tags: chicago, Entertainment, films, ghosts, horror, movies, mystery, thrillerRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Entertainment, Filmed in Chicago
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