Echoes

Interesting premise, poor execution. Anna Parker (French) is a writer who is at the mercy of sleep paralysis that brings about frightening visions. On the advice of her boyfriend Paul (Brand) she takes a trip to a house in the desert, where her visions become more "frightening." In actuality, there are no scares here, just a series of scenes that move at a tortoise's pace and does nothing to hold the viewer's attention. You'd get more frights from a rerun of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." This is a Netflix film, and the quality of that service has become mediocre at best, and just think: these are the folks who knocked Blockbuster out of the game.

3.5 / 10.

It was interesting and had an okay mystery, but in the end I didn't like it. Also, I didn't like it because it's not well explained and has nothing to do with sleep paralysis. The acting was okay, but it's not horror.

Frankly I did not expect much when I came across this film, as I was drawn to watch it merely for the fact it is shot in Joshua Tree, which is one of my favorite spots to visit. I must confess I enjoyed this movie a lot and it kept me on the edge of my seat, although it is not packed with horror which I expected. The movie is rather a thriller with supernatural elements, which is more my personal taste anyway so this wasn't a disappointment to me. The performances were surprisingly decent, although I at times found it hard to believe the romantic relationship between the two lead characters. In the first half hour of the movie the pace was is bit slow, but the visuals really makes up for this and then it turns into a great story with a few nice twists.

Not an outstanding story in itself except for it's concept Sleep Paralysis, but solid and a good classic revenge story. Except Billy Wirth and Steven Brand, the cast was unknown to me, but holds up the performances pretty good throughout. Lead actress is at times hard to empathize with and would have liked to feel more depth to her particular performance, but generally believable. Sleep paralysis is an intriguing phenomenon and first time I have seen this in a feature. Found myself researching for quite a while after watching the movie and was surprised this phenomenon has not been played out in a movie until now. The music is tasteful and interesting choice of house where the story plays out. Definitely has the look, pacing and feel of a European movie. The most action happens towards the end, which I would have wanted a bit more of throughout. Not a bad movie, quite unique of its kind today, so I would personally recommend it.

This could have been a great thriller. The idea of sisters changing lives was a great concept. But the script is poorly written. And the acting of the Leni character was poorly executed. That fake Southern accent was atrocious. And her demure was unconvincing. Half the time I didn't understand the relationship between the characters. I kept saying is that their other sister? Are those two people friends? Did these girls actually grow up in this area because everybody acts like they don't know them very well.

I decided to watch the whole thing to just find out what happened. But it was very painful. Very painful. My recommendation is don't even start it.