STIR OF ECHOES on Disc

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Tuesday, February 01, 2000

When it hit theatres last September, STIR OF ECHOES was widely dismissed as a low-budget clone of THE SIXTH SENSE, while, the execrable, overdone, and ultimately stupid STIGMATA--a good idea for a movie, gone bad--opened the same weekend and went on to moderate success. This is a shame, as STIR not only has a better story; its visual plan is also more carefully thought-out, using a relative minimum of effects to maximum impact.

The presentation of the film is in some ways enhanced on DVD, although the little visual interludes separating the special menu items suggest an MTV-style movie more along the lines of SEVEN's opening credits than the actual film on view here. (On the other hand, the effect is genuinely spooky, and does put you in the mood for a good ghost story.) The Dolby sound captures the whispering effect that first indicates the ghostly presence, and the picture quality is excellent, although you may find yourself adjusting the contrast on your television. Some of the early interior scenes feature bright areas of light that fall off into almost complete blackness (the better to make you wonder what's hiding in the shadows), and it may take you a moment to decide whether the effect is accidental or intentional. And there are several moments when the sound drops out or the images briefly freezes, but these could be a problem with the player rather than the disc itself.

David Koepp's audio commentary is lively and bright, filled with self-deprecating humor and clever insights into the techniques of filming used. He immediately announces himself as a long-time fan of Matheson's work (although he misidentifies the star of DUEL as 'Dennis Hopper'; it's really Dennis Weaver). He also acknowledges other influences on the film (THE EXORCIST, ROSEMARY'S BABY, POLTERGEIST, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND) and goes on to credit the advice and suggestions gleaned from the many directors with whom he has worked in the past (Spielberg told him not to overdirect his child star; Brian DePalma suggested ways of shooting dialogue scenes without lapsing into standard television-style coverage).


Koepp is particularly proud of the hypnosis sequence, which he opted to film as a subjective experience from the point of view of Witzky, who is told to relax and imagine that sitting in an empty theatre with a blank screen. The impact of the sequence is somewhat lessened at home, because we the viewers no longer share the character's experience of sitting in a theatre ourselves. Still, most of the film's few digital effects appear here, gradually blacking out the surrounding detail until nothing but the white screen remains, with the unfocused blur that eventually clarifies into the word 'sleep.' (The home version has been blurred further to make sure that the word is unreadable until its revelation.) Koepp also takes pride in the low-tech approach to most of the other special effects ('I don't find digital effects scary') and rightly so, as the simple techniques he uses (having an actress move at one quarter speed while being filmed at six frames per second) yield results more impressive than the myriad effects in last summers THE HAUNTING.

If there is one disappointment in the informative and almost non-stop commentary, it is that Koepp manages to avoid mentioning THE SIXTH SENSE at all, only hinting at his disappointment about reaching theatres after several other horror films had already hit screens in the summer. One can't blame him for avoiding a comparison that has already been made often enough, but he could have taken the opportunity to point out the differences between the two films; and as a self-professed genre fan, he might have mentioned which of those films he liked and disliked.

Besides the audio commentary, the film also features the theatical trailer, set to a cover version of the Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black' (which features prominently in the film), and three television spots. Overall, the flashcut editing style is intriguing but a bit misleading. Artisan seems to have been trying to sell the film to a teen audience who weren't likely to empathize with the plight of a married couple, especially one with a husband and father who's starting to think his life is going nowhere. There is also a music video of Moist performing their song 'Breathe.' With clips from the film intercut with new footage of the band playing in a high-rise being demolished around them, the imagery is interesting if mostly irrelevant to the movie, again suggesting an attempt to reach the wrong audience.

Finally, there is a short featurette including brief interviews with Bacon, Koepp, and co-stars Kathryn Erbe and Illeana Douglas, followed by some behind-the-scenes footage. The featurette is pretty much a promotional item designed to spark interest in the film, so it doesn't provide nearly as much interesting information about the filming as the audio commentary, but at least it gives a far more accurate impression of the picture than the various commercials included here. The behind-the-scenes footage is presented as a series of brief clips separated by black outs, without narration or other linking devices. It's pretty much B-roll stuff, the kind of footage provided to television journalists for intercutting with interviews, but there are a couple of nice moments, as when child actor Zachary David Cope reacts to his on-screen mother's line of dialogue with the ad lib, 'She definitely said the F-word.'

All in all, this is an excellent presentation of a worthy film, which should make more people aware of what they missed in theatres.