Review: The Echo / Cert: 15 / Director: Yam Laranas / Screenplay: Shintaro Shimosawa, Roy Iglesias, Yam Laranas, Eric Bernt / Starring: Jesse Bradford, Amelia Warner, Carlos Leon / Release Date: Out Now
After serving time for manslaughter, Bobby (Bradford) is released on probation. He moves back to the old apartment complex where his mother lived (and died) while he was locked away. Finding a job as a mechanic in a local autorRepair shop, Bobby slowly sets about rebuilding his life. He doesn’t count on the ghosts (both literal and not) which also inhabit his apartment.
Starring Jesse Bradford (Swimfan and Flags of Our Fathers, and not the guy who played the sexy gardener in Desperate Housewives, as I thought he was) and a remake of an obscure Filipino horror film, The Echo has been knocking about since 2008. An uninspired, unoriginal ghost story, it’s not hard to see why. I’m unfamiliar with the movie which it is based, but if it’s anything like this, I’m unsure why a remake was deemed necessary. It’s reminiscent of Dark Water and several other movies from the J-horror boom a few years ago. It even has a creepy little dark haired girl hanging about in the corridors of Bobby’s block.
The only actor of any note amongst the cast is Kevin Durand, of Lost bit-part fame. He’s barely in the film, but playing an abusive violent police officer, the scenes in which he appears are by far the best. Bradford does what he can, but he’s neither charismatic nor sympathetic enough to carry the film. It’s barely above the level of Swimfan. How he got a job working for Clint is beyond us, although he does have a handsome, muscular, all-American look about him. His acting, like every single other thing in the film is just average. The Echo is one of the most consistently average movies you’ll ever see. It probably sat unreleased for five years because everybody involved simply forgot they ever made it.
Although there’s nothing particularly wrong with The Echo, it doesn’t do a single thing worth recommending it for either. It’s (predictable joke) merely an echo of other, better films.
Extras: None
