Stir of Echoes, writer/director David Koepp’s excellent adaptation of Richard Mathieson’s novel gets a wonderful 4K UHD Steelbook Edition for its 25th Anniversary.
The Film
Sometimes a film is overshadowed by another because of what, at face value, are similarities. Stir of Echoes is one of those films. Unjustly overshadowed by The Sixth Sense even though the only commonality is someone who has the ability to see ghosts. The David Koepp adaptation of the Richard Mathieson short is an adroit film that brings both dark humor and darkness that shows that the scariest monsters are never ghosts, ghouls, or goblins but human nature.
Tom and Maggie (Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe) have just settled into their suburban Chicago duplex. They’ve become part of the neighborhood, their kid (Zachary David Cope) a bit odd is still making friends, and Tom is looking at a promotion. At a party, Tom agrees to be hypnotized by his psychic sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas), which unlocks an ability Tom never imagined. Tom begins to see visions both from the past and the future without context. The only clue is the visions all center around a recently missing teenager (Jennifer Morrison), and that he and his son may have the same gift. As Tom begins to dig, both figuratively and literally, for the truth behind the disappearance – he may have put his family’s life at risk.
Stir of Echoes is the kind of film that we rarely get nowadays. A film that understands that to accentuate the genre you must ground the characters. There is a wonderful sense of real-world problems of working-class people. Tom and Maggie and their community, their issues, and their life feel real in a way that’s relatable. They talk about being overworked, promotions, high school football games, sex, and their in-laws… things that real couples talk about. That grounding that Koepp gives the supernatural and horror feel even greater when it begins to infect the family’s life.
Much of the enjoyment of Stir of Echoes is how it continually evolves from the original concept of a haunting inside of a house. Though the film is 25 years old one does not want to ruin the twists and turns that occur during the third act. One can say that Koepp’s script does lay the groundwork for the eventual reveal if one looks closely or upon repeated viewing.
Which ultimately is the best compliment one can give to Stir of Echoes. You will want to revisit the film not only to see its brilliant construction but because it’s just a great film.
The Transfer
This all-new, 4K restoration presented in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) is an improvement to all previous editions of the film. Lionsgate has treated Stir of Echoes with the same kind of respect they have with any of their 4K UHD new releases. The work done here is simply jaw-dropping. The film literally looks like it was filmed yesterday. The transfer is sharp, and clean without any hints of scratches or blemishes on the negative. The color reproduction and contrast levels because of the Dolby Vision encoding are both deeper in their details giving us a darker luminous and far more textured and beautiful image. There isn’t a scratch, blemish, or issue with the picture. It is free of any sort of digital artifacting or DNR to remove the grain. Stir of Echoes in its 4K UHD iteration is near a perfect mirroring of its 35mm origins.
The Extras
They include the following;
- Audio Commentary with Director David Koepp
- Visions of the Past: Re-visiting Stir of Echoes (2024 NEW featurette)
- Establishing Shot with Fred Murphy (2024 NEW featurette)
- Flipping the Switch: Directing Stir of Echoes
- Maggie’s Memories: Inside Stir of Echoes
- Opening the Door: Designing Stir of Echoes
- Making of Stir of Echoes
- Sight of Spirits: Channeling the Paranormal
- Behind the Echoes
- The Mind’s Eye: Beneath the Trance
- Special Effects
- Production Design
- Interviews with Cast and Crew
- Behind the Scenes
- Scene Comparisons
- Screen Tests
- Deleted Scenes
- Promotional Materials
- Breathe Original Music Video
- Theatrical Trailer
The archival Audio Commentary from the original DVD with Director David Koepp opens with wanting to direct a “spooky” film and finding Richard Matheson’s novel A Stir of Echoes by chance – and the reasons why the book filled requirements for him to create a truly great horror film. Some of the details include a discussion of Mathieson’s work as a novelist, screenwriter, and TV writer; Koepp is a Greenbay Packers fan (as is this reviewer which makes Koepp instantly an all-time writer/director in this reviewers estimation) – which leads to a hilarious Kevin Bacon story; a discussion of the mentorship and friendship Brian DePalma has given him – including a few pointers the director gave him; a larger discussion of the hypnosis scenes and how many of the tricks were accomplished; what he was trying to accomplish with the sex scene in the film – and if he thought he was successful with its intent; the original 60s song that they were using during production and how they had to change it to Paint it Black in post; the advice Steven Spielberg gave him on directing children; a larger discussion throughout about the contributions of composer James Newton Howard’s score; his insistence on using practical make-up FX over CGI FX – and pointing out these moments throughout; a great discussion throughout the commentary track about the middle-class family and community he constructed in the film; a larger discussion of the various actors that appear in the film and the ones that he cast locally in Chicago; and much more.
Visions of the Past: Re-visiting Stir of Echoes (17:39) – is an all-new featurette/interview with writer/director David Koepp on all aspects of making of Stir of Echoes from finding the source material, production, visual FXs, editing/post, and the eventual release. Much of what’s discussed is on his commentary track though the featurette does employ visuals (e.g., everything from scenes from the film, b-roll footage, behind-the-scenes footage, even storyboards) to give us context to what Koepp is discussing. This beautifully made featurette has some truly great 8mm footage from behind the scenes of the film and pre-production.
Establishing Shot with Fred Murphy (8:22) – is an all-new featurette/interview with writer/director Koepp and cinematographer Fred Murphy and their collaboration on Stir of Echoes. The duo, filmed separately, discuss the visual style and how that relates to the location, sets, color, and the importance of the collaboration with the production designer and Murphy. Additionally, the best part of this featurette is the inside look at the color timing for this new 4K UHD edition with Color Kostas Theodosiou and Murphy. The duo discusses working with the various prints they have and modern tools to bring the truest vision Murphy had for the film, the dangers and caution about overuse of the tools, and maintaining the integrity of the original release print. Another beautifully made featurette on the visual style of Stir of Echoes.
Archival Bonus Content – All archival features, culled from the multiple different releases, can be accessed within a submenu. They have also included the following note (that will appear on whatever featurette that you play first in the archival submenu):
The following bonus content is provided in its original format and quality. Some content may exhibit film defects and imperfections in playback.
It’s these types of small grace notes that one loves, Lionsgate gives some extra context to the archival bonus material because they were produced over 25 years ago. Bravo to the studio for making sure that the consumer is aware, many of which were probably not born before this title was released.
- Flipping the Switch: Directing Stir of Echoes (17:28) – an archival featurette looking at writer/director David Koepp discussing how he came to direct Stir of Echoes, his previous efforts as a director that informed his decisions for his next feature he would direct, the legacy of Richard Matheson, the ideas that he placed into his adaptation of the story, the budget, choosing Chicago and why; the trouble that weather brought to the production; and much more. There is crossover between the new interview, and the commentary track but Koepp does provide some interesting and different information in this interview.
- Maggie’s Memories: Inside Stir of Echoes (11:14) – an archival interview with star Kathryn Erbe begins with her career beginning and the transition from playing younger roles to actor and getting hired for Stir of Echoes. Erbe discusses her love of horror films, her meeting Koepp and the casting process, working with Kevin Bacon, the collaborative nature of Koepp as a director, and much more. Erbe provides an honest look back at her career and what made working on Stir of Echoes so vital and special in her career.
- Opening the Door: Designing Stir of Echoes (15:59) – an archival interview with production designer Nelson Coates begins what attracted him to the project. Coates discusses the preproduction process with the location manager in Chicago and their requirements, his purpose as a production designer and what he brought to the film’s visual storytelling, the space they found for soundstage purposes and all the issues that come with that, the locations they finally chose – and how many different locations they had to use to accomplish the various requirements needed for the story, the collaboration with Koepp and his requirements, and much more. It’s wonderful that Coates gets to discuss a huge aspect of the production that special features rarely cover with details – the production/set design.
- Sight of Spirits: Channeling the Paranormal (10:36) – an archival featurette that looks at “real life” paranormal events and Matheson’s own thoughts on the matters. The featurette looks at the group of “investigators” and the real-life crimes they have investigated. It also features Matheson discussing why he created A Stir of Echoes and the perceptiveness of children to the paranormal. This is definitely an interesting look at this “science” whether you can believe it or not. Comments by Parapsychologist Dr. Larry Montz and novelist Richard Matheson.
- Behind the Echoes (21:03) – this making-of featurette goes over the entire production with comments by the cast and crew. The featurette is broken down into Writing, Producing, Story, Casting, Zachary, Director, and Wrap. The making-of uses a healthy amount of B-roll video shot during the production and on-set interviews to create a solid surprisingly in-depth look at the production of Stir of Echoes.
- The Mind’s Eye: Beneath the Trance (10:22) – an archival look at hypnosis both in the film, the history behind it, and the current/past health concerns. Featuring interviews with Dr. Marc Schoen (along with a look at him hypnotizing someone), novelist Richard Matheson (discussion of his use in the novel), Illeana Douglas (who plays the character who hypnotizes Kevin Bacon’s character), and others.
- Special Effects (3:52) – an archival behind-the-scenes look at some of the iconic moments and how they were accomplished – much of it done “in camera”. The all-too-brief featurette does contain some great behind-the-scenes look at the raw VFX footage. It features comments from VFX Supervisor Casey Cannon, writer/director Koepp, executive producer Michelle Weisler, and others.
- Production Design (3:52) – an archival behind-the-scenes look at the production design and what specifically the production designer does and the location scouting required in Chicago to bring this film to life. It features comments from production designer Nelson Coates, executive producer Michelle Weisler, and others.
- Interviews with Cast and Crew (8:18) – a collection of on-set interviews featuring director Koepp, actors Kevin Bacon, Illeana Douglas, Kathryn Erbe, producer Gavin Polone, and executive producer Michelle Weisler.
- Behind the Scenes (5:53) – a collection of the raw b-roll video footage shot on location during the shoot. The footage appears with live sound and no commentary.
- Scene Comparisons (11:32) – an interesting archival featurette that shows – via spilt screen – the actual completed scene and the raw behind the scenes footage. The scenes the featurette covers is the Hypnosis scene, the Train station scene, the return to the Hypnosis theater, and the digging in the backyard scene.
- Screen Tests (6:46) – a rare look at something that isn’t normally put onto special features – screen tests. Not so much for the audition process but camera tests to see how certain things will look before going into actual production. It’s broken down into various sections Tom dirt tests, Maggie look tests, and Samantha ghost look tests. All are presented with James Newton Howard’s score.
- Deleted Scenes (4:53) – the collection of deleted scenes includes Tom revealing what Maggie who is pregnant is having, Maggie relighting the water heater, a moment with children during the Tom and Maggie backyard fight, and Tom shopping at the hardware store.
- Promotional Materials
- Original Promo (4:48) – an EPK style look into that looks into the film’s story and making of.
- Original Promo Short (2:21) – the shorter version of the original promo that looks into the film’s story and making of.
- Theatrical Trailer (1:31)
- TV Spots (2:03) – four 30-second TV Spots.
- Breathe Original Music Video (4:26)
The Final Thought
Lionsgate has given Stir of Echoes a truly great stacked 4K UHD upgrade it so richly deserves for its 25th Anniversary. Highest possible recommendations!!!