The Echo

Had potential but really made no sense. All it ended up doing was pissing me off.

Connecticut native Jesse Bradford plays a quiet ex-con who moves into his dead mother's East Village apartment. A cop and his wife and young daughter live next door, and the ex-con often hears fighting going on in their apartment. He also begins hearing odd noises, which the landlord attributes to old pipes. He then begins seeing apparitions, which may or may not be his dreams. He discovers that his mother died of starvation, and a tape recording she left behind reveals she too was disturbed by odd noises and visions. When he finally calls the cops on the abusive neighbor, all hell breaks loose, starting with the fact that the apartment next door is vacant, and has been for quite some time. This is a English-language remake of a foreign-made 2004 thriller, made by the same director. It's definitely one of those vengeful spirit movies Asians apparently love so much. Bradford appears in just about every scene, and does a nice job.

This remake improves a little bit on the original and is far more better filmed and managed to be creepier. I thought the performances were pretty good and modest but nothing that packs a punch and if you seen the original you pretty much know what's going to happen and what is going to be the outcome in the end so they pretty much didn't add anything new or major to the story. I never thought anything about it was all that scary or terrifying just creepy, chilling and atmospheric and when all is said and done it's just another American horror remake but one of the more decent ones and one of the slickest ones out there but nothing groundbreaking. Overall if you are still not sick of Asian supernatural/horror like movies that's low on gore and high on chills and atmosphere and if you enjoyed the film 100 feet here you go, just don't expect anything new or unique. Worth a rental.

Bobby (Jesse Bradford), an ex-convict who served time for involuntary manslaughter, is released from prison and attempts to reclaim his life. Cut off by former friends and relatives the only person willing to reignite their acquaintance is Alyssa (Amelia Warner), Bobby's former girlfriend and reason for indictment. Bobby moves into his mother's apartment, who died when he was locked away. However almost immediately afterwards strange occurrences and noises bring Bobby to verge of insanity... Is is over yet? The craze of repackaging all the more-or-less decent Asian movies into American crap-fest seems to have passed its expiration date and hopefully "The Echo" is the last we have heard of this. "The Ring" and "The Eye" were passable, because of the novelty, but this time around the predictable range of frights and scares and weird moving Asian chicks does not make for a compelling watch, but for a tiresome pass-time. The script also begs for improvement, as it basically barely balances its credibility on a ghost family, which aims to hand out vengeance on all those who decided to turn a blind eye in times of need. This basically extends itself to anyone who haphazardly stumbles onto the floor. Naturally the ghosts enter into a killing spree when Bobby happens to move in, despite the events having taken place several years back and having nothing whatsoever to do with our chance hero. And by the way - what is it with the crackpot old lady riding up and down the elevator? It has no meaning to the story whatsoever.

This film had powerful acting and the plot was good but some scenes made me angry. Sometimes I think the directors have actors do what they think is acceptable for the film not considering whether it's realistic to the audience. What makes a good film is when it's realistic and everybody reacts in a way the majority would. The lesser complaints the better the film. I have several complaints but like I said, it was worth a watch at home. I could think of films that were ruined completely from being unrealistic, which isn't the case here. Like I said, not a strng ghost story but the plot and storyline was good and the acting was dramatic

~As will be reviewed in the June 2010 issue of Twisted Dreams Magazine - Contains spoilers!~ Have you ever seen someone in need and offered to help? Or are you one of those people who passes people by and thinks, someone else will do it – don't get involved? What if your lack of involvement caused devastating circumstances to the victim? What if because of your refusal to help, they sought vengeance against you? Meet Bobby. Newly out of jail (and I later found out that it was not his fault and was reminded of how badly the American "justice" system sucks. But you'll have to watch to find out why he was jailed!) and just wanting to start over again. He tries to pick up the pieces of what was once his life and moves into his deceased mother's apartment. And that's when the trouble starts. It begins with noises, odd and troubling sounds that wake him up and then the visions of his dead mother begin to play havoc with his mind and he is slowly sucked into a never-ending nightmare. His neighbor, Gina (Calzado) is an abused wife whose husband, Walter (played with far too chilling realism by Durand) likes to come home and smack around on both her and their daughter, Carly. Bobby may have been in prison, but he still won't stand for his neighbor – cop or not – to beat on his wife and kid and tries to help…but things just start getting stranger. The visions begin to happen more and more frequently and it's not just Bobby who finds himself thrust into the middle of something he doesn't understand. The visions also begin to manifest themselves to Alyssa (Warner) and to other tenants of the building. However…the more Bobby tries to help, the more dangerous Walter becomes with devastating consequences to Gina and Carly. But things are not as they seem and as Bobby slowly loses his sanity (or so he feels) he finds out the real reason why he's being tormented and what he has to do to stop it. This is a great Noir movie, simply seething with dark tension and chills. I sat on my couch, anxiously anticipating each scene and was so involved that my husband looked at me and said, "Holding hands with yourself, dear?" I looked down and my hands were clamped so tightly together I was cutting off circulation. Dark, tragic and with a stellar performance by Kevin Durand as the wife-beating cop that will leave you hating him, but feeling solemn compassion for him as well, culminate to a head in the explosive ending and you'll never quite look at cops…or apartment buildings the same, ever again.

The Echo is a classic ghost story. After being released from prison, Bobby moves in his deceased mother's apartment, in an old building and from there, strange things are felt and heard. The sets are great, the old building is perfect for this story. Jesse Bradford is adequate as the protagonist, a sort of well-meaning bad boy who got on the wrong track through no fault of his. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle, lots of people he interacts with... but nothing really grabs you. It's not that the things are necessarily flawed. The story is just following a conventional track that many fans of the genre have already seen, and it's been done better. There are no memorable scenes whatsoever in this film but you will probably not regret seeing it once if you like slow moving supernatural movies.

I have to admit that at first I was captured by Echo. The atmosphere created is great, the building that the plot is set in is pretty creepy, the actors do a great job and the back story of the main character coming out of jail also gave it a different and dramatic edge. After looking at the trailer for the original movie Sigaw it seemed thy remade it pretty equal story-wise and just put it in a New York Setting. So here is my problem... why the hell do we need remakes of these movies? If the original movie is good, watch it. I didn't even know that this was a remake when watching it but the clues are left and right. Its just the same thing as Ring, Ju-On, Dark Water and the likes. The basic plot is about something bad that happened in the past and haunts a building and its new inhabitants. We've seen it... the ghosts are female again with the difference that they don't really go for a ghost look here but for a more realistic zombie-kind look. The main character is portrayed really well, there is some nice scares but the more the story unfolds the more you are let down by a plot that just makes no sense to me. The end is a joke with no resolution whatsoever. Funny thing is that its a clichéd happy end with ghosts finding their peace but topped of with a rather bleak outlook for our main character. I hate happy endings but here i found it damn misplaced. Many things seem random... the fingernails in the piano, the whole piano melody thing, the hole in the wall, the people around the main character dying off like flies just because they knocked at his door once (Why hector has to die makes no sense unless you aim for the bleak ending and don't care for logic). We never learn why the ghosts can harm people by beating them up really bad and we never learn why its the good ones that get killed by the "good ghosts" (yeah, there is a bad one in there too!). Too many things are just thrown in there but most of it doesn't come together as a coherent story in the end. So if you take the mysterious unfolding of Ring, the haunted apartment story of Ju-On, the rather down to earth story behind the ghosts from Dark Water and put it all in a blender with a hundred ideas from other similar movies you get the mash that Echo is. Sure, its atmospheric but if you do a remake of a movie it needs to have a solid story and Echo simply doesn't. The writing is just bad. So the really good casting and acting as well as choice of setting is just plain wasted because some idiot studio went for another Asian remake because everybody does it nowadays. I never understood why they remade a mediocre Asia movie like "one missed call" and I don't get this one either. Stop wasting money on this rubbish and invest it into good local screenwriters scripts who surely come up with fresher and more coherent plots than these. Someone needs to start a petition to stop remakes of any kind, its gotten out of hand.

The Montreal screening was a testament of how good this movie is. OMG! This is really really scary. Slow in some parts but it totally brings the mood. The scares will stay with you even after you've left the cinema. Jesse Bradford showed some real acting chops and his character is so believable. The Echo is not your usual shrieks and screams. In fact the movie is very quiet. That is why it is so effective - you don't know when the scares will happen. The realistic treatment of domestic violence added to the horror of the story. If you like Rosemary's Baby or The Sixth Sense, then this is the perfect film for you. The movie is above par compared to most SCARY movies out there and I would say that this will be a cult hit. It's so sad that it's not picked up yet by North American distributors. Too bad for my friends in the west coast! I hope this gets released soon. The director is someone to watch out for. Très bon !

I must say i didn't expect much from this film. I myself am an absolute horror fan. I can say i watched almost every horror film worth seeing and browsing the internet looking to find some gems that might be not so fammiliare. When i bumped in to The Echo, the cover caught my attention. I didn't expect much from it because i didn't hear about it at all. Well what do u know! It was great! I really recommended this to all horror fans who like creepy ghost stories. Cause i cannot remember seeing one for the past years so creepy as this one. The story and acting is good. And the ghosts are also really scary. Also the score/soundtrack of the movie is great! Kept me on the edge of my seat, so highly recommended !