Echoes

Scenic Joshua tree locations and modern architecture accent Echoes, a stylish supernatural thriller. In yet the latest horror happening featuring, what else, a writer summoning up the occult, independent filmmaker Nils Trim blends stalker elements with phantasmagoria and tribal mythology in this Southwest supernatural whodunit. In it, Anna (Kate French) is an aspiring writer who suffers from a few minor, common psychological issues, such as partially waking from chronic nightmares only to experience ghastly hallucinations while trapped in a state of sleep paralysis. OK, maybe that's not so minor or common.

But heavily medicated Anna has a solution that she thinks will provide good therapy for her condition: spend several days alone, mostly in her underwear, at her boyfriend's curtain-less glass house, It's OK, nobody will see her and fixate upon her -the only other person around for miles is a shadowy, lurking, unshaven man with no fixed address or US citizenship, who's squatting in a decaying trailer a few hundred meters away. There will be plenty of peace and quiet. too. This plot of land, renowned for the perplexing, fatal disappearance of its previous owner, is so isolated from civilization, there's not even any cell phone reception.

Makes sense.

What could possibly go wrong with this idea?

Well, plenty as it turns out, when Anna promptly runs afoul of an apparent wendigo -a particularly malignant one -who fixates upon and sets out to possess her. Plenty of strange occurrences ensue, some of which demand that we accept characters' unlikely choices, and forgive lengthy exposition at the end revealing a complex and melodramatically sensational back-story explanation. But then this is horror, and horror tales and movies often require that we accept melodramatically sensational back-stories, because if we insist upon being too logically demanding and analytic, we might reject the ideas of monsters and ghosts altogether.

So we shall allow Echoes to take its artistic license with the credible, we will enjoy its unusual twists and unpredictable, if not illogical turns, because in addition to having some tense moments which are really scary (an increasingly rare commodity in horror movies), Echoes showcases arresting locations and surreal dream sequences emphasized by striking cinematography.

Viewers may recognize actor Steven Brand, who plays Ana's boyfriend, from The Scorpion King, and the HBO series The Mind of the Married Man, and Kate French from horror movies Sutures and Channeling. Perhaps the most interesting cast members in Echoes however are cute Oxley, the dog who plays Ana's canine companion "Shadow," with almost human expressiveness, and in a sense, the boyfriend's modernist glass house itself, which features prominently in the film and bears a strong resemblance to the historic Stahl House, a Los Angeles landmark used as a location in numerous films, photo-shoots and ads.

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.

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.

After the movie ended, I struggled to reason why I hated it. I loved the first half (the slow mood-setting buildup and thick atmosphere), but once the action started happening, I started getting irritated. The action itself was well paced and unpredictable enough, but the characters' reactions (in particular the bizarre amoral yet judgmental attitude of the main character Anna) were what killed it for me, and I found myself not caring about her or anyone in the story.

For example, Anna commits a heinous act, possibly while under the influence of heavy medication and or supernatural forces. When she realizes what she has done, there's no hint of remorse but instead she immediately shifts into criminal mode, deftly covering her tracks like mob boss, even using sex as a manipulative tool, but then in the next scene she's hypocritically freaking out at her boyfriend for daring to show concern about her pill popping. Also in that scene she does the WORST cliché of a lover's quarrel: she smacks him out of nowhere, and HE apologizes. The film lost about 2 points right there.

The 2nd half of the film is rife with moments like that. She continues doing awful things while treating her boyfriend like he's the villain and she's the victim. Oh throw in a bizarre ghost who was also a horrible person in life but now on a righteous revenge mission, and we have a bona fide amorality tale where we're supposed to sympathize with characters who don't deserve a drop of sympathy.

It's a shame that the characters (mostly Anna) weren't developed more consistently, or at least in a likeable way, because as I said up front, the cinematography and mood setting was masterfully done. The setting was striking as well: set in the gorgeous vast, barren landscape of Joshua Tree in a remote glass house with no curtains. And the story had a ton of promise.

Instead this film is an unfortunate example of how everything can be working for a movie, but if you don't like the characters the whole thing will fall apart.

So it's not a fantastic film, but I did enjoy it. A slow start to the film, but it kept my attention and hot me thinking.The only thing annoys me about it, is the way it was ended was left open for a prequel, which would of been interesting to see where the writer would of taken it.