Echoes (DVD)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Steven Brand, Kate French, Steve Hanks
Directed by Nils Timm
Distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Promises, promises – not only being a catchy tune from the long-departed 80’s (God, I miss those days), it just seems fitting to toss these words into this particular review. You see, when one holds out hope for the possible enticement of a scare, or a jump, or maybe perhaps a slight chill on the back of the neck from a film that LOOKS as if it could deliver the goods, only to leave you wanting more like a chubby kid who watches his candy bar get stuck against the window in one of those dispensing machines.
In other words, Nils Timm’s Echoes was the candy bar, and I indeed was the fat kid.
In the film we follow Anna (French), a beautiful young writer whose ability to pen words to paper has been hindered by nightly incidents that include sleep paralysis, compounded with the terrifying visions brought on in her nightmares. Slowed down by a heavily dosed prescription that she pops like breath mints, her need for a break is fulfilled by her boyfriend, Steven (Brand), at his ultra-nouveau, glass-walled refuge located deep in the desert – this structure is the vista of the film and is simply breathtaking, although frightening to an extent.
As Anna’s mind begins to catch a brief respite in the short time of their visit, it quickly becomes obvious that she’s not alone. The reason for the quick-to-occur separation anxiety is that Steven takes off in a rush back to the office, leaving her to fend alone against the hallucinations that plague her, particularly the images of a woman with grayed skin and blacked-out eyes visiting her at night… creepy, but her reasoning for hanging around the home comes as no surprise to anyone who takes a moment to think this one out – hell, if I got it, ANYONE can!
In order to throw the perfect lateral so as to misdirect the defense (sorry, I’m still missing the NFL), we have the inclusion of the creepy neighbor (Hanks) who lives in a closet-sized trailer miles away from the glass house and a mystifying cameo from Billy (Lost Boys) Wirth as a gift shop shaman/spiritualist/Indian trinket maker who speaks to Anna about the possibility of possession and attempts to offer an explanation as to why she’s dealing with so much crap when all she really needs is a few more pills, a couple glasses of wine, and a serious bedsheet-kicking slumber-fest, preferably in a 4-star hotel somewhere in the city as opposed to way out in the desolated sandtrap she’s currently in.
What I’m getting at here is that the scares are more watered down than a 12-dollar drink at a ritzy nightclub, a serious downer indeed. The performances are mid-level, with only the slightest feel as if there is a serious problem.
Upsides? Well, French is quite the vision to behold, as well as the locale, but aside from those two pros (and a cute dog), you’re honestly left with a Lifetime Movie Network Saturday afternoon thriller that tempts you with a prospective home run but swings and misses badly. My advice? Give this one the old skip-aroo and just be thankful that you’re not the one responsible for Windexing all the glass in this abode… now THAT’S a frightening scenario.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
