He may have been responsible for the live-action The Last Airbender, a film that anyone should only acknowledge with hefty reluctance, but after masterminding the likes of The Sixth Sense back in 1999, you can only knock M. Night Shyamalan so much. Indeed, the filmmaker’s iconic psychological thriller exerted a firm grip upon audiences back then, and continues to hold on throughout the ever-changing horror landscape.
The Blair Witch Project and The Mummy may have given it a run for its money, but there was another 1999 horror film that didn’t quite manage to find a seat at the table; the tragic party in question is the Kevin Bacon-led Stir of Echoes.
Based on the similarly-named novel by Richard Matheson, the author behind such titles as I Am Legend, the film stars Bacon as Tom Witzky, a telephone worker and the father of Jake, who is able to communicate with the dead. After getting hypnotized by his sister-in-law, Tom begins experiencing terrifying, violent visions.
Feeling it was overshadowed and under-appreciated, some fans over at r/horror have taken to praising Stir of Echoes, with one user kicking off the admiration with a lengthy recommendation for the film.
And the responders were all but ready to hop on to the Stir of Echoes bandwagon, with some users even suggesting it surpasses The Sixth Sense.
One user suggested the inverse, in which The Sixth Sense was such a good movie, that it was no fault of Stir of Echoes that the former was ultimately favored.
It’s a nice bit of traction for Stir of Echoes that will hopefully give horror buffs a satisfying gem to check out. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon’s current horror endeavors are taking the form of They/Them, which is now streaming on Peacock.