Echoes

Art student Richard Alfieri keeps dreaming that his twin brother—who died before birth—is determined to kill him and take over his body.Insanely melodramatic and extremely boring drama with no horror whatsoever.The suspense is completely absent as is the gore.After finishing one hour of this turd I was so utterly bored that I decided to rewind the rest of "Living Nightmare".I can't believe that this pile of garbage was actually released on DVD and so many real horror films are still obscure and unavailable for mass consumption.I rarely give low budget horror movies the lowest rating possible,however this one truly deserves a big fat 1 out of 10.

Echoes, AKA Living Nightmare, is not a horror flick. We follow a gifted artist who has a recurring nightmare, increasingly real and disturbing to Micheal Durant (Alfieri) who also plays his past life self, the Spanish artist Serrano. "The last thing I see," he tells girlfriend Christine (Nell), "the image that haunts me, is his face. Half in light. Half in shadow." Micheal wrestles with the meaning and power in this nightmare, and his strength to put his past life self to rest, with the help of psychic Gale Sondergaard. What's fascinating is the intensity of light and shadow, as well as stark close up, and background mirrors, clowns, murals, nudity and faces you have to be quick to see. Agreed, the music is wrong, wrong, wrong. It's Twilight Zone meets church organ. John Spencer (West Wing) makes a memorable appearance as friend Stephen. Paul Joynt plays a snobby rival, Ruth Roman is endearing as Micheals mother. The dialogue is uneven, but if past lives, psychics and the thin lines between artistic and insane, dream and reality interest you, there's lots here for you.

My review was written in November 1983 after watching the movie on a VidAmerica video cassette.

Filmed in Manhattan in 1980 and currently available on video cassette, "Echoes" is a romantic suspense picture with a supernatural plot device which doesn't pay off. Despite a good cas, film lacks the urgency and spectacular effects to attract attention in the thriller market (pic had a brief L. A. theatrical run earlier this year).

Richard Alfieri toplines (and pleasantly sings the out-theme) as Michael Durant, a Gotham art student who not surprisingly falls in love with Christine (played by the beautiful French actress Nathalie Nell), a successful ballet dancer. Durant, who has asthma causing wheezing attacks, is plagued by recurring nightmares in which he is caught in the arms of a woman by a mustachioed man who stabs and drowns him.

On the advice of his pal Stephen (John Spencer), Durant visits a psychic (Gale Sondergaard) who informs him he is the reincarnation of a Spanish artist who lived in the 19th Century. Questioning his mother (Ruth Roman) Durant becomes convinced his unborn twin brother (the fetus miscarried during pregnancy) was the reincarnation of the killer from his memory-dream, and he hallucinates the man as an apparition pursuing him on the subway and at a party.

Though Alfieri is a handsome, engaging actor, the role has him becoming boorish and very unsympathetic as he becomes consumed with his dream. His art career, managed by gallery owner Lillian Gerber (Mercedes McCambridge) goes nowhere; he drives away Christine with his unreasonable possessiveness and is booted out of art class by his teacher (played by the late Mike Kellin). Anti-climax has a car accident resolving the dream paranoia, with a happy ending unconvincingly tacked-on.

Main defect in Richard J. Anhony's screenplay is that Chrisitne bears no relationship to the anti-hero's dream-life. In romantic supernatural tales, some mythic or emotional resonance is usually created by linking characters on more than one level of existence, but that doesn't occur here, leaving a void. As directed by Seidelman, the strong supernatural factor comes off as merely a gimmick.

Thesping is fine down he line, with Gale Sondergaard particularly persuasive among the vet talent as a psychic. Cinematographer Hanania Baer contributes a stunning opening crane shot in Manhattan's theatre district, not matched by the mundane dream sequences that follow.