Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After being hypnotized by his sister-in-law, Tom Witzky begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.
Stir of Echoes is a competent, atmospheric supernatural thriller that arrived in the shadow of The Sixth Sense the same year, which significantly dampened its reception and highlights its derivative feel. Kevin Bacon delivers a committed, grounded performance and the film builds genuine dread through its Chicago blue-collar setting, but the hypnosis-triggered clairvoyance premise and ghost-seeking-justice narrative hit familiar beats. Cinematography is workmanlike with some effective grimy tension but nothing distinctive. The mystery resolves in a fairly predictable manner with a climax that deflates rather than pays off the sustained paranoia. Solid mid-tier genre fare, but not especially distinctive.