In 1999, a well-written, perfectly acted, and fascinating horror movie was released. In Stir Of Echoes, Kevin Bacon played a regular guy named Tom Witzky who lives and works in Chicago. He's happily married to Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and they share a son named Jake (Zachary David Cope). Everything seems to be well in his world... until Tom realizes that he has a connection to the supernatural that will change everything. And he just might be able to figure out a mystery that took place in his very neighborhood.
While Stir Of Echoes has a big star in Kevin Bacon, it was released in September 1999, one month after a huge horror movie came out that definitely overshadowed it. Stir Of Echoes is an impressive, horror movie that suffered from bad timing.
On August 6th, 1999, The Sixth Sense was released and it became a massive hit. The movie grossed $293,506,292 domestically, according to Box Office Mojo, and critics loved it. It has a 90% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes and 86% on the Tomatometer. The Sixth Sense received six Oscar nominations, which is definitely impressive. With one of the best horror movie twists ever, when it turns out that Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is really dead, it's no wonder that this movie did so well with critics and audiences. Unfortunately for Stir Of Echoes, it's also a horror movie about the supernatural, and it was released on September 10th, 1999, getting lost in the shadow of The Sixth Sense.
If The Sixth Sense and Stir Of Echoes hadn't hit theaters around the same time, it's easy to imagine that Stir Of Echoes would have made a bigger impression among horror fans. The story is definitely there: after Lisa, Maggie's sister (Illeana Douglas), hypnotizes Tom, Tom realizes that he can see Samantha Kozac (Jennifer Morrison), a teenage girl from the area who went missing. Tom's visions are fascinating and show that he can access another world besides this one.
The movie takes a compassionate approach to the missing girl trope. Tom wants to help find out what happened, and when he ends up finding Samantha's body in the walls of a house in the neighborhood, he realizes that his instincts have been right all along. Tom learns that Kurt and Adam, two boys from the neighborhood, attempted to assault Samantha and then murdered her. It's a horrible story that the movie doesn't dwell on for too long.
In an interview with The A.V. Club, director David Koepp shared that while the book that Stir Of Echoes is adapted from is in California, Koepp thought that a Chicago setting would be better for the movie. Koepp explained, "I liked the working-class setting, so I tried to think of another city with older architecture and some working-class neighborhoods that I was personally familiar with. I grew up in Wisconsin, and my mother is from the South Side of Chicago. I liked the way Chicago looked, and I felt like I hadn't seen a ghost story set in that kind of setting before." This works well as Tom, Maggie, and the other families on the street just want a good, honest life and they are traumatized by the horror that took place in the neighborhood. It's a nice, quiet block where bad things aren't supposed to happen.
Stir Of Echoes is an underrated 1990s horror film and also shares some things in common with The Sixth Sense. Both movies feature main characters who feel a duty to solve a mystery and help people. They're also tied to the spirit world and can see and hear things that others can't. Both films also have child characters, as Haley Joel Osment became famous for portraying the role of Cole Sear. While Cole and Jake aren't scary horror movie kids, they do make quite the impression. The movies also each have a famous actress playing a young adult character: Jennifer Morrison does a good job as Samantha in Stir Of Echoes and Mischa Barton famously played Kyra, a young girl whose mother poisoned her in The Sixth Sense.
Stir Of Echoes joins horror movies with endings that aren't spelled out. While Tom and Maggie decide to move away, which is a great idea since this neighborhood has bad, creepy vibes, Jake can hear the static and sounds of the supernatural, suggesting that he will continue to see and hear strange things even when the family is in a new location. While there could have been a sequel, as it would be cool to follow Jake's journey, the conclusion does feel right. If Stir Of Echoes had been released at another time, it definitely would have more fans. There's a lot to appreciate here.