By Karolina Gruschka
Cinema “Pionier”, ulica Krakowska in Strzelce Opolskie, Poland; built in the 1960s, it suffered a crisis it could never recover from, when home entertainment arrived in the East. Slowly, the building would decay to become the derelict and atmospheric cinema I so much loved in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was the kind of cinema that looked long closed from the outside, but had gangs of young punks and goths hanging about inside (and scary dogs), doing God-knows-what. The one screening per every couple of days would run only if at least four people would attend; this meant that often my brother, my cousin and I had to buy an extra ticket.
The screen was cold, smelled mouldy and had a weird vibe to it; it seemed like the ghosts of cinema’s past were still lingering (accentuated by the fact that there were head-shaped grease marks on the wooden headrests)…
“I want you to pretend you are in a […] movie theatre, you’re the only one there […], and in the whole pitch black theatre there’s only one thing you can see and that’s the white screen.”
There I am with my family sitting in this empty cinema looking at a screen that – Holy Shit! – looks like an extension of the movie theatre I am in, and there is this ghostly girl sitting in the front, about to turn around… I almost peed my panties. I might lose my (non-existent) street cred now, but Stir of Echoes (1999) is one of the few horror films that genuinely scared me. For days after I kept on seeing that girl and could not sleep without taking pills (herbal, ok?) to calm me down; years later I would cover my ears if somebody were to mention the movie. Why did this film have such a great effect on me? Speak to me on so many levels? Sure, I was quite young (you see, small local cinemas in Eastern Europe do not care about ratings), but I had seen worse by then, and this was a harmless 15.
I’ve often thought that a reason Stir of Echoes hit me so hard was the emotional affects it stirred in me (hello, hormonal teenager). Often, horror films tend to focus on predominantly two emotions, i.e. horror and disgust, or fear and horror; whereas Stir of Echoes had scenes that made me feel in equal amounts fear, horror, terror, anger, empathy and great sadness (I felt so terribly sorry and sad for the ghost girl). All this was probably enhanced by the fact that the effects and visuals were all I could go by in grasping the movie, since it was played in English (had a very basic knowledge of it then) with Polish subtitles (growing up in Germany, reading Polish fast was never my strength). The scenes where the protagonist Tom (Kevin Bacon) is trying to connect with the spirit of Samantha (Jennifer Morrison) have this odd, night terror vibe – oh, those night terrors I used to get as a kid! Combined with some shock effects and creepy, unnatural movements, this film had me destroyed by the end of it. Since then I will never, ever have anyone hypnotize me for the fear that some backdoor might be opened I will not have any control over. Here I am 15 years later still vividly remembering that night and shuddering at the thought of it. I got the DVD and have watched it once since its cinematic release in 1999 (although in Poland it might have been slightly later), but am scared to re-watch it now because I am home alone.
Stir of Echoes is based on a novel by Richard Matheson (which I have yet to read… maybe) and features Kevin Bacon as Tom. Yes, Kevin Bacon before all those annoying EE adverts, when he was still one of the coolest guys about (and slightly creepy). Tom moves with his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and little son Jake (Zachary Cope) to another area within Chicago. This “decent” neighbourhood seems to be great, everyone knows each other and there are constantly some communal events going on. During one of the parties, sceptic Tom gets hypnotized by Maggie’s friend Lisa (Illeana Douglas), who is training to be a hypnotherapist. What starts off as harmless fun ends in Tom becoming more open-minded, literally: he receives glimpses of the beyond.
He is, however, not alone in this; his little boy Jake, who, by the way, loves monster movies, has a natural sixth sense which is comparable to The Shining. Both can sense teenager Samantha, a ghost inhabiting the house, who is getting more and more pissed off as they do not get what she is trying to tell them. Tom is turning increasingly mad trying to understand Samantha, feeling that this is something important, something that will give meaning to his “stupid” and “ordinary” life. Maggie – bless her – is freaked out and hurt by all of this, but stays surprisingly strong and patient (despite being pregnant on top of that). I won’t say more to the story other than, maybe this neighbourhood ain’t that decent; even the nicest people can have skeletons in their closets…
15 years later, Stir of Echoes did not freak me out as much; back then, extra-textual factors might have contributed to the horrific (but awesome) experience I had. However, I still think it is a great movie and would recommend it to anyone who has not watched it yet. Yes, I admit Stir of Echoes is a mainstream drama/horror, but come on, what is wrong with that, eh? Get the DVD for a fix of 1990s and a massive dose of the uncanny.