The Echo

One of the best Asian horror remake

I was fortunate enough to view the film during the Cannes Film Festival. And it was received by the critics and audiences with open arms. The original film, "Sigaw", was the first Filipino horror for a long time to be very atmospheric.

Directed by the original film's director, Yam Laranas, "The Echo" is a very fine and atmospheric film like the original. The changes from the original was obvious and was probably done to expand the character histories.

Delivering very frightening chills, "The Echo" is a step up to your average Asian horror remake.

After reading the other reviews I feel compelled to right a comment on this movie.

The other reviews describe it as a future 'cult hit', it is compared to 'The Exorcist' and how it is so realistic - 'something that may have happened in reality'?

Really! Well no, not at all, on any level. It is far too generic to be a cult hit, seen this type of film a million times (think 'Grudge' or 'The Ring' or any other east Asian remake), it is not even slightly like 'The Exorcist' (the build up really isn't that slow) and why the comparison is made I'll never know, as for realistic - gimmie a break, it's realistic if you live in 'spooky Asian ghost land', and last time I checked that place wasn't real.

So, in a nutshell what we have is a half decent ghost story that we've all seen before. If you've seen any of the other East Asia movie remakes then you know what to expect. In fact the 'scary' parts are identical in all the remakes - pale Asian lady and/or child pulling scary faces and moving about a bit strange.

I find it strange that when Hollywood remakes an Asian film they transplant China or were ever the original was made for the USA (Grudge being an exception), make all the characters Caucasian, but leave the scary people as Asians! Were the scary people in the Asian version Caucasian? No, so why not transplant the whole thing, I mean it's almost racist, and Asian women walking weird aren't scary!

Anyway, rant over, overall it's OK as a rental, but nothing to shout about.

5/10

Bobby Reynolds (Jesse Bradford) is on parole under close supervision. He moves into his late mother's apartment in an old apartment building. He gets a mechanics job with Hector Rodriguez. He reconnects with former girlfriend Alyssa (Amelia Warner). He keeps hearing disturbing sounds in the apartment.

This is a simple horror story. It's a slow burn. It so simple and so slow that it just lost me. I got bored. Jesse Bradford is fine. I've never been that impressed with him. This simple horror really needs Jesse to carry the whole film on his back. The setting is non-descriptive in a bland way. Nothing is grabbing me in this one.

Cliched characters and plot fill a dim visual screen in this film. Everyone seems lethargic on screen and makes dull mistakes. The film reveals what is happening about halfway through the film, but this does nothing to energize the storytelling. Instead, we are led to a plodding end that allows for the "anti-hero" to prove his mettle.

The Echo had a handful of scenes with an uncomfortable creepiness akin to classic J-Horror. Rarely do I reach for the remote anymore having experienced most every range of horror film out there, but this one seeped under my skin and had me on edge more than twice. And it is that sort of unsettling moodiness combined with frights you hafta' be paying attention to catch. You know, the kind where after they've come and gone you must back em up for a second take. Truly those "WTF" type instances.

Jesse Bradford plays Bobby, a twenty something recently released from prison after doing a stint for killing a guy who attempted to rape his HOT girlfriend (played by Ameiia Warner) in a restroom. Having nowhere else to go, he heads back to the ol' East Village NYC neighborhood. Mom has died a spooky death from starvation, he learns, when he moves in to her old apartment. There's bloody fingernails on the piano keys and rumbles in the walls and a mean-looking cop next door who enjoys beating his wife and little girl. Bobby starts to see things, though, and these things aren't making any sense and they're a bit ghastly to boot. It's when Bobby decides he can no longer put up with the abuse he is overhearing next door and reports it to the cops, only to have them respond to a completely vacant apartment next door, that things go from odd to friggin' strange.

Bobby's apartment reminded me a lot of the apartment in the game Silent Hill 4: The Room with its eerily watered down dingy browns and rusts. There are holes in the peeling plaster walls and everything gives off the mood of worn and filthy. It's a truly lonely place that flattened my spirits each time Bobby returned home.

The Echo is not without its disappointments and inconsistencies which converge on a far too abrupt ending that leaves the viewer feeling a bit jipped. Oh well, though. It is a decently freaky ride getting there.