“Whatever door you opened in my brain, I want you to shut it — now!”

Justin’s rating: Yeah this is one gift I really would not want to have

Justin’s review: While “twinning” movies — films released by different studios around the same time with the same premise — do not solely exist in the ’90s, it sure seems like a bulk of them do! Some had a superior entry, while others were equally good in their own right. But none of these got quite as railroaded as Stir of Echoes, which had the misfortune of being that “other” movie where a guy sees dead people released in 1999.

While this boasts a very different plot than The Sixth Sense, the sheer popularity of M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout hit meant that Kevin Bacon’s horror mystery — which released a month later — had no room to breathe. So it’s taken a while for Stir of Echoes to crawl out from under The Sixth Sense’s shadow and be recognized as a rather great little gem in and of itself.

Want some geek cred to make you sit up and pay attention to this, by the way? Stir of Echoes is adapted from the 1958 novel by Richard Matheson of I Am Legend fame. Plus, it’s not a movie based around a twist ending, so that might even put it one up on Shyamalan’s M.O.

Tom (Bacon) is a blue-collar wanna-be musician whose life seems to scream for “something more.” That’s perhaps not the best wish to have, however, as unbeknownst to him, he and his family live in a house haunted by a presence that only his young boy can see. But when Tom is put into a hypnotic state at a party — during a really freaking cool sequence, I must add — his eyes become completely open to the spirit realm and the associated population, and he’s not very happy about the effects. Paradoxically, however, he’s excited to find a purpose for his life through whatever mission this might be leading him to do.

This doesn’t merely mean that Tom sees dead people but that he also starts feeling and remembering things that never actually happened to him, not to mention getting precog visions and seeing signs. Only his son seems to understand what’s happening to him, but he’s too young to be a proper guide in this situation. Oh, and there’s a police officer who seems to share their particular gift of “receiving” who explains a thing or two.

Tom starts to slide down a path toward insanity as he becomes increasingly obsessed with the mystery of a specter who appears in his house, a girl named Samantha who everyone say ran away six months ago. He becomes unhinged the way that only Kevin Bacon can, which understandably freaks out his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), who is sympathetic to the ghost story but also trying to keep her family together. I actually really liked how this movie explores how this unusual situation both puts stress on this marriage and draws them together in the end. It’s more multi-dimensional than expected.

My main beef with this film is in its climax. While things are explained to satisfaction, the main characters make some incredibly dumb decisions that serve only to put everyone in danger and prolong the final act.

Dead people sightings aside, Stir of Echoes shouldn’t be put in the same category as The Sixth Sense. That’s not really fair to it. This is more of a simmering mystery with supernatural elements, and the mystery isn’t particularly mysterious, if that makes sense. The atmosphere is top shelf, there are a few genuinely creepy moments, and the drive toward justice and resolution make this worth seeing. Take it on its own terms, and you might be very pleasantly surprised by how good this is — and how criminally overlooked for the time.

Intermission!

• Bugs pajamas > firetruck pajamas
• “Does it hurt to be dead?”
• “Say something.” “Bummer.” “Something else.”
• “What’s the worst that could happen?”
• The hypnosis movie theater is freaky and cool, makes you feel like you’re going to be hypnotized
• Could’ve done without the pulling-out-your-own-tooth thing
• “You’re awake now, daddy!”
• The freaky red screen, wasn’t expecting that
• The shrouded graveyard statues are cool
• “Boy’s got the eyes on him. X-ray.”
• Hello scary trap door under the kitchen
• Are you seriously telling me that a musician wouldn’t know “Paint It Black?”
• “Tom, look at the screen!” DIG
• “Wow. Look what I’m not cleaning up.”
• Fax machines! We’re definitely in the ’90s!”
• Why wouldn’t you call the cops first, Tom? You’re an idiot.
• Feathers — that kid was smart not going home