Saturday 3 December 2011

Stir of Echoes (1999)

When I was a child, my parents where quite strict about obeying film ratings.  Not like most of the parents today, my younger cousins have seen films which I felt where inappropriate to 16 year olds, and they were nowhere near that age. I'm wandering... So as a child, a lot of the scary movies I was not allowed to watch.  So naturally as soon as I was old enough I watched all of the movies that I wanted to watch when I was still too young.
One of the films that really stuck with me was Stir of Echoes... This film had one of the most memorable shots.  A girl gripping the floor so hard with her fingers that her picking nail breaks off on the floor.  The problem was that for years i could only remember this scene, and one or two bits, but no name, no actor.  Luckily, our post production coordinator is really sharp on his movies and actors and so on, that when i told him about this scene, he immediately knew which movie it was.
So I searched for this 90's film and found it this weekend.  And boy did I enjoy this again.  Th is film has an exceptionally creepy boy - who even freaked me out a little bit, which says a lot because it takes a lot to freak me out, and even though I am not a big fan of Kevin Bacon, I did enjoy his stunning performance is this film.
 What I liked most about this film is how everything fits together so perfect.  There are no gaps with empty visual, empty story line, but at the same time it is not crammed with information.  The storytelling is fluid and natural and everything is well planned and very well executed.  Some of the  effects are real give-aways of the time when it was made, but then at the same time there are visuals and effects expressing certain feelings and ideas, which was much better executed than. It would have been executed had it been made recently - good example of not having something makes you do something that was even better, if you had your first option.
My recommendation for everyone, especially if you like some suspense thrillers, get this movie a large box of butter-lovers popcorn and watch it.  You won't be disappointed!