A truly deserving and worthwhile entry for any horror aficionado, Stir of Echoes (1999) is one of those movies that quietly lingers with you. Starring Kevin Bacon as a father who begins to unravel after a hypnotic plunge into the abyss, this 1999 chiller casts a spell and checks all the right boxes.
Based on a novel by Richard Matheson, the story follows the Witzkys, new to the neighborhood: Tom (Kevin Bacon) and his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), who, armed with one of those trusty crackling baby audio monitors to keep tabs on their young son, Jake (Zachary David Cope), while they head across the street to mingle at their neighbor Frank's (Kevin Dunn) party. By the end of the night, amid the clinking beers and neighborly relaxing, Tom, a blue-collar telephone lineman and a skeptical Chicagoan, finds his life taking a dark and unexpected turn after a hypnosis session that thrusts him into a sinister spiral that shatters their cozy new start.
The movie has Bacon's characther Tom slump into a trance-like state under the soothing, siren-like voice of his sister-in-law, Lisa (Illeana Douglas), a wide-eyed devotee of the occult as she gently lulls him away. What begins as a harmless, playful party trick at Frank’s afterparty slowly morphs into a heart-pounding plunge into darkness, as Lisa’s words unlock a floodgate of eerie visions. The room’s joy is immediately replaced as Tom jolts back to reality, gripped by a sudden wave of panic and anxiety.
This moment shapes and propels Stir of Echoes into a tense and atmospheric supernatural horror-thriller, pulling us into Tom’s fevered quest for answers. Tom burns with a manic intensity as he’s consumed by the cryptic visions, each one like a piece of a puzzle tied to the ghostly vanishing of a neighborhood girl.
The movie draws those parallels and echoes the descent of another unraveling family man, that of George Lutz in The Amityville Horror. It's undeniable that both movies share resemblances. Each story centers on a husband who gradually loses his grip on reality under the weight of a supernatural influence. Both men teeter dangerously on the edge of madness, driven by forces far beyond their understanding, ultimately creating a ripple effect that profoundly disrupts the lives of their families.
Unlike the sprawling, demonic terror of Amityville, Stir of Echoes carves a quieter, more piercing path, rooting Tom in the pulse of a tightly knit neighborhood that’s as much a character as he is. Tom is left trying to navigate the elements around him in a maze of supernatural whispers.
Overshadowed by Bacon's character, we find that Erbe fades more into the shadows, her role as Tom’s steadfast wife, Maggie, relegated to fleeting glances and concern over Tom's behavior, pushed aside by the script’s focus on Tom's quest for the missing girl. Yet, the movie doesn’t falter because of this; Maggie’s sideline support barely dims the narrative but rather becomes one of its subtle strengths, allowing the story to stay focused and undistracted.
The same story rings true for the family's son, Jake, as he also fades into the margins. Aside from a bizarre demon-voice moment that feels jarringly out of place and briefly raises concern it might become a prominent part of the story, this misstep passes quickly. The movie thankfully moves away from that direction, maintaining a sense of mystique that isn’t overly forced, ultimately making Stir of Echoes an intriguing, attention-grabbing movie that delivers.