Kevin Bacon to attend a 25th anniversary screening of Stir of Echoes in Hollywood

Beyond Fest has announced something that should make fans of 1999’s tragically under-appreciated film Stir of Echoes very happy. There will be a special 25th anniversary screening of the film in Hollywood on Saturday, December 15.

Stir of Echoes was based on the book A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson, and if you think his book was a one-hit wonder, boy are you wrong! Matheson also wrote I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come and the short story Duel, all of which were made into films.

His book Hell House was adapted to film as The Legend of Hill House, Button, Button’s onscreen title is The Box, and Bid Time Return was adapted as Somewhere in Time (starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve).

David Koepp was a big fan of Matheson’s work, and he directed and wrote the screenplay for Stir of Echoes. Kevin Bacon stars as phone lineman Tom Witzky, just an ordinary working man with a pregnant wife and young son.

Little Jake has a special gift that Tom and his wife Maggie will learn more about as the film progresses, but the scary stuff begins at a party. Maggie’s sister Lisa is a big believer in the paranormal, and Tom is very skeptical. But everything changes when Lisa hypnotizes him, suggesting post-hypnotically that he become “more open-minded.”

That suggestion works a little too well, and Tom begins to have visions involving 17-year-old Samantha Kozac, a mentally challenged girl who disappeared six months earlier. And just to make things a little more complicated, little Jake often talks to Samantha as well.

The paranormal activity that Tom is experiencing starts to wear on his mental health, and Samantha tells him to dig…which he does.

Stir of Echoes is a great, dark, and genuinely creepy film, and Kevin Bacon delivers a compelling performance. The rest of the cast is solid too, particularly Kathryn Erbe as Maggie, Zachary David Cope as Jake, Ileana Douglas as Lisa and Kevin Dunn as Tom’s friend Frank.

And let’s not leave out Jennifer Morrison’s performance as the ghostly Samantha, whose every on-screen appearance leads to goosebumps.

It’s a shame that such a good horror movie didn’t gain a bigger following, but Stir of Echoes came out around the same time as The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project, both of which were huge successes. It may be that the fan base was too far split for a third spooky movie to hit big.

So, on to the special screening of Stir of Echoes. In attendance will be Kevin Bacon and David Koepp. If you want to be a part of the screening, it will be held at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California, beginning at 7:00 p.m.