‘Stir of Echoes’ Is a Supernatural Cult Classic [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review]

Is 1999 the best movie year ever? I think it might be. That’s far from an original take of mine, and seems to be common knowledge. There’s even been a book chronicling the iconic films that were released on the eve of the turn of the century called, you guessed it, Best. Movie. Year. Ever. 1999, the year in movies, was the most appropriate exclamation point to the 20th century in movies, an explosive transition into the 21st century where movies were the mecca of transgressive culture. On the eve of Y2K, where the world could have theoretically ceased to exist, the movie industry would have gone out with a big bang. I’d do basically anything for the movie slate in 2025 to be on par with the depth and volume of quality of the movies released in 1999. Well (sigh), anyways, this year marks the 25th anniversary for all of the movies released in 1999. One of those films that is celebrating its 25th anniversary is Stir of Echoes, from writer/director David Koepp, and starring Kevin Bacon.

For this anniversary, the good folks over at Lionsgate have an all new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook of Stir of Echoes, packed with all new special features, even an additional Blu-ray disc. It’s been a while since I watched Stir of Echoes, so getting to revisit the movie on this all new transfer was an awesome experience. So, let’s get into some Stir of Echoes…

I feel like the best place to start has to be with the writer of the original source material, a novel titled A Stir of Echoes, by the late and truly great Richard Matheson. Matheson is one of the most revered and influential writers in the genre, and in my opinion, probably was an alien, considering how proficient he was even with the sheer volume of works credited to his name. It would be obnoxious to even run down the list, but just to cherry pick one of many for the sake of brevity, my personal favorite of all of his works is an episode from The Twilight Zone, called The Last Flight. The Last Flight is about a time-traveling British fighter pilot that is just a remarkable piece of short storytelling.

The Last Flight is just one of many Twilight Zone episodes written by Matheson, as he was an integral part of that show throughout its run. I’ve always been mesmerized by Matheson’s unique ability to stretch the imagination of a story just enough where it is still considered fantastical, but it can be realistically terrifying as well. A true savant, and one of a kind storyteller. Matheson’s fingerprints were scattered across different storytelling mediums, but his work as a novelist was probably what he was most well-known for, mainly because a few of his novels were adapted into hit movies, most notably I Am Legend, adapted multiple times, with big stars, The Shrinking Man and of course, A Stir of Echoes, adapted into Stir of Echoes by David Koepp…

David Koepp is probably the most successful screenwriter that you’ve never heard of. I don’t mean that as a dig, Koepp just isn’t exactly a ‘famous’ writer for lack of a better term, like say a William Goldman or Shane Black are. But, the work that Koepp has done, or at least was heavily involved with, has grossed over $2 billion(!) dollars combined at the worldwide box office. That’s a staggering amount of money. Now, having written Spider-Man (2002), Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds of course make up the bulk of that box office total, but nonetheless, this is a guy who wrote Bad Influence and Carlito’s Way. In the late ’90s and early aughts, Koepp went on an impressive run that included writing the screenplays for Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes, David Fincher’s Panic Room, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Stir of Echoes (adapted from Richard Matheson’s novel), and Secret Window (adapted from Stephen King’s novella), in a five year stretch, having directed the latter two movies. That’s a murderer’s row of collaborations with iconic filmmakers making accessible and popular genre work. To boot, this stretch is sandwiched in between a bunch of Spielberg assignments. Safe to say Koepp is a trusted scribe. To me, Koepp’s work as a director is interesting because the material he’s adapting is so dark, but his filmmaking technique is stylish and glossy, turning incredibly dark source material like Secret Window and Stir of Echoes into visually entertaining movies with fun performances all over the place. 

Stir of Echoes stars Kevin Bacon as a Chicagoan, Tom Witzky, who experiences paranormal visions after being hypnotized by his sister-in-law, played by Illeana Douglas, at a neighborhood party. While experiencing these visions, Tom stumbles across a semi-recent cold case murder. A seventeen year-old girl from the neighborhood, Samantha Kozac, played by Jennifer Morrison, has been missing for the past six months, with nobody knowing anything about her whereabouts. Tom has scattered visions that lead him to believe that she was viciously murdered, in the neighborhood nonetheless. Throughout the movie, Tom struggles to decipher all of the clues presented in visions, mostly by the ghost of Samantha Kozac, and goes crazy in the process, much to the chagrin of his wife, Maggie, played by Kathryn Erbe. Unbeknownst to Tom and Maggie, their son, Jake, has the natural ability to communicate with the dead. Unlike Tom, where it needed to be unlocked after being hypnotized…

Some of the most effective sequences in the movie involve Jake’s visions, especially a scene where he is watching TV, and Samantha appears on the screen. But, I think the movie has way too much Jake. and I was not a fan of the I-See-Dead-People secret society thing that is shoehorned into this story. Jake, quite literally, stumbles upon this secret society by running into a police officer at the cemetery. In a classic movie moment, Jake is running around in this cemetery, and of course Maggie is either the slowest person on planet earth or Jake is the fastest human alive, because he separates from her like he is Randy Moss running a go-route. The Neil character seemed kind of like an attempt at a Dick Hallorann type from The Shining, shoehorned into this story, and I just thought that it really wasn’t necessary at all, other than to work Maggie and Jake a little more into the story.

I’m sure viewers of this movie at the time of its release and shortly after in 1999 had a little bit of The Sixth Sense fatigue to a degree as well, and I’d assume this subplot didn’t work for anyone at the time. In my opinion, it is the least interesting point of the movie. I’ve never read the source material, which kind of exposes me a little bit, but I cannot believe that this subplot feels as shoehorned into the novel as it does in the movie. If I was asked to give notes, I would have said ditch that entire subplot, and never leave Tom. A little bit of Jake is okay, it leads to some effective scares, but this movie should have been all Tom front to back, like a movie-length version of an episode of Cold Case, but instead of it being from the perspective of a detective, it is from the perspective of some random guy in the neighborhood. More Kevin Bacon solving the murder mystery, and less paranormal society stuff would have been nice…

I made my gripes about Stir of Echoes clear, but I also want to commend Koepp for how well-executed the visual presentation Stir of Echoes is. I don’t think it’s Koepp’s best writing, but it most definitely is his best directing. Everything involving the ghost of Samantha Kozac is so much better than it had to be, and honestly, I could have used so much more of it. The scares in Stir of Echoes aren’t exactly typical build-up and pay-off sequences, or even atmospheric dread and whatnot, but instead are much more frenetic and even schizophrenic. The energy always feels more like a fever dream more so than a deliberately conceptualized collection of jump scare sequences. I always appreciated that aspect of Stir of Echoes. It feels choppy in the best way possible.

This Stir of Echoes steelbook is phenomenal. The case art is done using a perspective distortion technique where it seems like it is just a blank-faced Kevin Bacon, but when you angle it to see it from the sides, you can see Samantha Kozac and even Bacon’s facial expression come into focus. I have no idea how this is even possible, but I will be reading all about the science behind this. All this to say, the case art is some of the sharpest I’ve seen.

I also love being able to choose between the Blu-ray disc and the 4K Ultra HD disc, as both are included in this set. The special features included are pretty standard, but nothing gets me going like a good audio commentary track, and the commentary track included is with David Koepp. Audio commentaries can be the best and cheapest film school you can find, in my opinion, and I would seriously urge fans of movies to get out there and buy as many DVDs in any format just for the education you can get on how the film you presumably love, or even hate, was made. I’m a pure sucker for these commentaries, and the Stir of Echoes one is a good one to have. Also part of the disc of course is a collection of featurettes, interviews and deleted scenes. So much content and all worthy to check out. If you are a Stir of Echoes fan, or just a collector, then this set is a must have for your collection…

Overall, I really dig Stir of Echoes. It’s not the best movie in the world, but that’s what I love most about it. Stir of Echoes thrives in its simplistic and unique to its time presentation, to go with an accessible and fun-to-solve mystery story that pays off in the end, sort of. I personally love this era of movies, especially movies from 1999, because I love to watch these films with the context that there is a real shift occurring in Hollywood at this specific time where the popular movies were becoming more and more eccentric, and the movie industry was a big part of the transgressive cultural shift that was going on in this country, especially in the entertainment industry as a whole. I highly recommend Stir of Echoes to anyone that hasn’t seen it yet. It’s a lean and mean ninety-four minutes of fun. And this disc set is high quality stuff…

Wicked Horror Rating: 7/10

From Lions Gate Entertainment, this limited edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Steelbook of Stir of Echoes is available to purchase as of December 17th, 2024.

BUY HERE!