Stir of Echoes

Year: 1999

Country: USA

Tagline: Some doors weren't meant to be opened.  »

Plot: Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) is a phone lineman living in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago with his pregnant wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and his son Jake (Zachary David Cope), who possesses the ability to commune with the dead. At a party one evening, Tom challenges Maggie's sister Lisa (Illeana Douglas), a believer in paranormal activity and psychic telepathy, to hypnotize him. After putting him under, Lisa plants a post-hypnotic suggestion in Tom urging him to "be more open-minded." Tom then begins experiencing visions of a violent scuffle involving a girl who he later learns is Samantha Kozac (Jennifer Morrison), a 17 year-old that disappeared from the neighborhood six months prior.While Tom and Maggie attend a high school football game, Jake is overheard by his babysitter, Debbie Kozac (Liza Weil), as he speaks with Samantha. Debbie gets upset and snatches Jake, running off with him in the night. Meanwhile, Tom senses Jake is in danger and rushes home but finds him gone. Tom then sees strange flashes of red light that eventually leads him to the 'L' station where Debbie is speaking with her mother about Jake. When Tom and Maggie confront her, Debbie angrily questions them about her sister Samantha, explaining that she had an intellectual disability: having the mental capacity of an 8 year-old and thus, a child's tendency to trust strangers. Tom denies knowing her to Debbie, but admits to Maggie that she's the girl in his visions.Tom becomes obsessed with Samantha and begins probing members of the community about her disappearance. This attracts the attention of his landlord Harry Damon (Conor O'Farrell), Tom's friend, Frank McCarthy (Kevin Dunn) and their respective sons Kurt Damon (Steve Rifkin) and Adam McCarthy (Chalon Williams), who all dismiss Samantha as a runaway teen. During an afternoon walk, Jake and Maggie encounter a funeral where Chicago policemen are saluting in a ceremony; here a policeman named Neil (Eddie Bo Smith Jr.) immediately recognizes Jake's unique talent and invites Tom to a private gathering of like-minded people to learn more about what is happening to his son. Maggie withholds her conversation with Neil from Tom and goes to the meeting herself where Neil tells her the spirit that contacted Tom has asked for something and will continue to get upset if it doesn't get done. As predicted, Samantha begins plaguing Tom, eventually leading to his insomnia. He goes back to Lisa demanding she undo what she did, but when she hypnotizes him he's told by the spirit to dig. Tom complies and begins digging holes in the backyard and eventually tears up the house in a desperate attempt to appease Samantha.While Maggie and Jake attend her grandmother's wake at a relative's house, Tom inadvertently knocks down a shoddy brick wall in the basement and discovers Samantha's decomposed remains wrapped in a plastic sheet. He receives a vision showing him that before his family moved in, Adam and Kurt lured Samantha into the house to rape her. When she resisted, they unintentionally suffocated her and hid her body. Tom brings Frank back to the basement to disclose to him the crime and Frank breaks down and admits that Adam and Kurt had already confided their secret to him and Harry. Frank pulls out a gun and demands to be alone. As Tom leaves the basement, he hears a single shot and assumes that Frank committed suicide.Harry and Kurt suddenly show up and Harry, in his capacity as landlord, voices displeasure with the torn up house. They corner Tom with the intention of killing him to silence him, but Maggie arrives back home and Harry takes her hostage. Frank suddenly emerges from the basement and fatally shoots both Kurt and Harry in order to save Tom and Maggie. Tom then notices Samantha's spirit putting on her glasses and coat, smiling as she walks down the road and disappears. Afterwards, the family packs up a U-Haul and moves out of the house. Meanwhile, Samantha's mother and sister are finally able to give her a proper funeral and burial. Tom and Maggie smile happily as they drive away but Jake, however, tries to cover his ears to drown out the sound of the overlapping voices in his head.After being hypnotized by his sister in law, blue-collar family man Tom Witzky begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and his desperate search puts him into a life-threatening situation.

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