Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming

[FrighT MasteR]

Movie sucks. Should have a review soon.

[DrSatan]

I think this post is sufficient. That's all it takes for some movies.

[FrighT MasteR]

True. Here's my review anyway:

Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming

5/10

This is yet another unnecessary sequel to a film that was released nearly a decade ago. Studios now aren’t just delivering remakes to mainstream audiences, but they’re also polluting the genre by revisiting old and forgotten releases that never needed a sequel to begin with. When this project was first announced a couple years back, it was originally going to be a continuation of the first film, this time following the son of Kevin Bacon’s character, who’s now a senior in high school and begins to have visions like his father once did. After that idea was scrapped, a couple new writers came on board, and eventually settled on another story.

So, in this film we start off with Rob Lowe’s character – a National Guard captain stationed somewhere in Iraq, who orders to fire on a mysterious van that’s speeding towards the military zone. After the van catches fire and explodes, the captain realizes that the charred corpses inside are a family of civilians. Before he can access the situation, a group of terrorists attack and he’s knocked out by a nearby RPG. After waking up a couple weeks later in a military hospital, he’s sent home. The mind games begin immediately upon his return, as he’s constantly plagued by visions of the burnt corpses of the family. Is it all in his head or is he really seeing the spirits of the dead?

The movie wastes no time in playing with our heads, as we witness the captain continuously see things that aren’t real (like someone shooting themself in the head, only to show up minutes later alive and well). This leads us to constantly be questioning whether what we’re seeing is really happening or not, and it gets old pretty fast. The story finally begins to go somewhere when the captain receives the name of an unknown man, who can supposedly help explain what’s happening to him. At this point we’re revealed that he’s receiving these visions, because the spirit(s) wants him to do something, and until he finds out what it wants, the visions will get worse and worse, until it possibly kills him and his family.

In other words, we’re watching the first film all over again, only this time the story is not as smart, nor as scary. Throw in some political undertones and we’ve got Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming. To top things off, we're given a poorly written and predictable climax. I can see why it premiered on the Sci-Fi channel before going straight to DVD. Poor Rob Lowe. I didn’t catch this film when it aired on TV, so I couldn’t say whether anything was added the DVD release, but considering there’s not much as far as gore goes (or language for that matter), likely not much has changed. Being a big fan of the first film, I saw this flick with an open mind, and was still painfully disappointed that such a bad movie would even bare the same name.

OVERALL:

If you've seen the first film, then you've seen this one too. Do yourself a favor and skip this pointless sequel.

[Il Duce]

Movie blew the big one, I barely even watched it all on scifi channel if that tells you anything about it.

[Chief Falling Rock]

ahh gotta love the "its not a remake its a sequal.........honest" type movies.

[ASoron0424]

Stir of Echoes was fantastic, I loved it. And even though Rob Lowe did pretty well in the TV mini-series of Salem's Lot, I guess he never should've tested his luck. But I think he's a good actor over all, reminds me a bit of Kevin Bacon actually.

[Toxic Voorhees]

one of the most pointless sequels ever made.

[steelba]

The first was garbage, no surprise the sequel is too.

[smokey]

I guess i will just stick to the first one then.