History Film / StirOfEchoes

It had a MadeForTV Sequel, ''Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming'', which appeared on [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]], so [[Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie you know]] [[InNameOnly what to expect]].

''Stir of Echoes'' is a 1999 thriller written and directed by David Koepp, starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, Creator/KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 Creator/RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"What were we supposed to do? She was already dead."]]

At a party Tom Witzky (Bacon) scoffs at his sister-in-law Lisa's (Creator/IlleanaDouglas) belief in psychic abilities and the paranormal. She hypnotizes him as a joke, and plants a post-hypnotic suggestion that he be more "open" to everything, which causes his latent psychic powers to stop being latent. Even stranger and scarier, his son Jake's psychic abilities, which aren't latent, begin picking up on weird things in and around the house, much to the dismay of his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe).

* ShoutOut: Debbie is reading ''The Shrinking Man'' while babysitting Jake.

* GhostlyGoals: [[spoiler:entirely benign in this case: she just wants her corpse found and her murderer brought to justice.]]

* TownWithADarkSecret - Neighbourhood, actually, but the effect is pretty much the same.

[[quoteright:214:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/StirOfEchoes_7208.jpg]]

''Stir of Echoes'' is a 1999 thriller starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 Creator/RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

At a party Tom Witzky scoffs at his sister-in-law's belief in psychic abilities and the paranormal. She hypnotizes him as a joke, and plants a post-hypnotic suggestion that he be more "open" to everything, which causes his latent psychic powers to stop being latent. Even stranger and scarier, his son's psychic abilities, which aren't latent, begin picking up on weird things in and around the house, much to the dismay of Maggie.

Eventually Tom and son realize the presence they sense is a ghost of a girl who was murdered in the house some time ago.

At a party Tom Witzky scoffs at his sister-in-law's belief in psychic abilities and the paranormal. She hypnotizes him as a joke, and plants a post-hypnotic suggestion that he be more "open" to everything, which causes his latent psychic powers stop being latent. Even stranger and scarier, his son's psychic abilities, which aren't latent, begin picking up on weird things in and around the house, much to the dismay of Maggie.

''Stir of Echoes'' is a 1999 thriller starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

It had a MadeForTV Sequel, ''Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming'', which appeared on SciFiChannel, so you know [[InNameOnly what to expect]].

'''''Stir of Echoes''''' is a 1999 thriller starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

* AttemptedRape: What leads to the events in the movie that Tom has to relive through psychometry.

* EarWorm: In-universe. Tom hears his son humming a song, and Tom becomes obsessed with figuring out what song it is: ''Paint It Black'' by Music/TheRollingStones, specifically a cover version by Gob. [[spoiler:The song was playing during the murder, and was the last thing the victim heard as she suffocated.]]

* ShoutOut: Debbie is reading '''The Shrinking Man''' while babysitting Jake.

* ShoutOut: Debbie is reading TheShrinkingMan while babysitting Jake.

'''''Stir of Echoes''''' (1999) is a thriller starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

'''''StirOfEchoes''''' (1999) is a thriller starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

[[caption-width-right:214:]]
''StirOfEchoes'' (1999) was a film starring Mr. Six Degrees himself, KevinBacon. It's TheFilmOfTheBook of the 1958 RichardMatheson novel, though not a very strict adaptation of it.

* AttemptedRape - What leads to the events in the movie that Tom has to relive through psychometry.
* ChekhovsGun - Literal. Frank [=McCarthy=] makes an offhand remark about owning guns early in the movie. Do you think more than one gun will eventually play a narrative role?
* EarWorm - In-universe. Tom hears his son humming a song, and Tom becomes obsessed with figuring out what song it is: ''Paint It Black'' by Music/TheRollingStones, specifically a cover version by Gob. [[spoiler:The song was playing during the murder, and was the last thing the victim heard as she suffocated.]]
* GhostlyGoals - [[spoiler:entirely benign in this case: she just wants her corpse found and her murderer brought to justice.]]
* ImaginaryFriend - Tom and Maggie mistake who Jake speaks to at first as one of these. It's a ghost.
* OnlySaneMan - Maggie believes she's this, because she didn't develop any psychic sensitivities.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent - The ghost was cleverer post-death than in life, and more direct than a lot of ghosts in other media. She communicated with Tom as clearly as she could, considering his low power psychic ability meant she couldn't literally talk to him as she did with his son. She even convinced his son to talk to her sister to make more connections... which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] why she didn't just tell the kid all her woes directly. The only alternative being that she didn't want to involve him too much because of his age.

* SupernaturalProofFather - An aversion, as in this case, Dad and son get involved with the ghost, but Mom's the one LockedOutOfTheLoop.

!!Provides Examples Of:

* OurGhostsAreDifferent - The ghost was cleverer post-death than in life, and more direct than a lot of ghosts in other media. She communicated with Tom as clearly as she could, considering his low power psychic ability meant she couldn't literally talk to him as she did with his son. She even convinced his son to talk to her sister to make more connections... which [[FridgeLogic begs the question]] why she didn't just tell the kid all her woes directly. The only alternative being that she didn't want to involve him too much because of his age.
** Or he was too young to understand the whole story.

!!This film provides examples of the following tropes:

* EarWorm - In-universe. Tom hears his son humming a song, and Tom becomes obsessed with figuring out what song it is: ''Paint It Black'' by TheRollingStones, specifically a cover version by Gob. [[spoiler:The song was playing during the murder, and was the last thing the victim heard as she suffocated.]]