Intimations ofrnMortalityrnby George McCartneyrnStir of EchoesrnProduced by Gavin Folone, JudyrnHofflund, and Michelle WeiskrrnDirected by David KoepprnScreenplay by David Koepp, baaed onrnthe novel by Richard MathesonrnReleased by An Artisan EntertainmentrnThe Sixth SensernProduced by Spyglass Kntertainmentrnand Hollywood PicturesrnDirected by M. Night ShyamalanrnScreenplay by M. Night ShyamalanrnReleased bv Buena Vista PicturesrnThe ghost skin’ has an honorable tradition.rnWriters as diverse as Shakespeare,rnPoe, Hawthorne, and IlenrvrnJames hae rung cliangcs on its eonventions.rnIt’s easv to see vh’. Audiencesrnlo e a good hannting. Some are so avidrnfor ghosdv visitahons that they are read)’rnto be scared sillv b- tliosc that don’t evenrnl)otlicr to show np —witness The BlairrnWitch Project.rnAt its best, the genre cnts to the mortalrnchase and confronts us with life’s rdtimaternissues, tamed for the moment widiinrnthe precincts of fiction. Afterward,rnflushed with terror and pitv, we get tornhac a comforting snack and a goodrnnighfs sleep: not a bad deal to accept asrnue make our fateful course dirough thisrnworld. And if the writer has done his orrnher work, we ma even find ourselves facingrnthe next day with greater wisdom andrnstrengthened moral courage.rnStir of Echoes and The Sixth Sensernboth ha’e this tradihon in mind. No, neiriicrrnrises to the leel of Macbeth or Turnrnof the Screw. (What does in our time?)rnrhe’ are, neerdieless, unusuallv ambihous,rnthoughtful films well worth seeing.rnUnhl its formulaic thriller ending, directorrnDax id Kocpp’s Stir of Echoes is anrnunsettling, prooeatie ghost .stor adaptedrnfrom Richard Matheson’s 1958 novel.rnIt’s packed with surprises that go well bc-rnond the usual ectoplasmic eruptions.rnThe narrative centers on Tom Witzk}’,rnplayed incisiveK’ bv Kevin Bacon. He’s arntelephone lineman who finds himselfrndisconnected from his jovial Polish-Irishrnworking class conimunih’. At a neighborhoodrnbeer parh’, he’s a moping Hamlet,rncmotionallv self-exiled from hisrnfriends’ drunken merriment. Life seemsrnstale, flat, and unprofitable. Why? “I justrndidn’t expect to be so ordinary,” he explains.rnNot surprisinglv, he’s about to receirne some ghostlv exhortations to unco-rner an extraordinarv secret his ordinarvrnworld has been hiding.rnHis college-educated sister-in-lawrn(phned with goof)’ earnestness b’ IlleanarnDouglas) diagnoses his malaise as a siderneffect of his closemindedness. Shernridicules him and his friends for neverrnlooking bcN’ond the six-block radius ofrntheir fortress commimitv. Tom rejectsrnher analysis and on a dare allows her tornhvpnotize him in an effort to open hisrnmind. Louring his trance, he receives ‘isionarv’rnflashes so brief as to be nearK subliminal.rnBut there is no mistaking theirrnaura of menace. More troubling, theyrndon’t go awa after he is restored to consciousness.rnThev reappear insistenth,rndisrupting his dailv life as they grou inrnlength and detail. In one vision, a singlernbloody tooth filmed in monstrous eloseuprnrattles across a wooden floor. In another,rna huge nail tears from a finger.rnMore visions follow. A ghost of a missingrngid, visible onlv to him and his five-earoldrnson, Jake (pla’ed with charming naturalnessrnb}’ Zacharv Daid Cope), showsrnup in his house. “Don’t be afraid of it,rnI^addy,” Jake innocently implores, tr ingrnto allay Tom’s growing distress. Apparently,rnthe bo)’s mind is naturallv open tornthese communications from the spiritrnworld because, unlike his father’s, it hasrnnot been closed bv social conditioning.rnBut I’m guessing. The script is unclearrnon riiis point.rnj’Vfter failing to rid himself of his haunting,rnTom decides to get to the bottom ofrnit, literall). At the ghost’s request be beginsrndigging up his yard, tearing up hisrnfloors, and terrifying his wife, Maggiern(Kathryn Erbe in a mccK understatedrnperformance). Although Tom, in hisrnfrenzied hew ilderment, doesn’t seem tornhave anv idea what his excavations willrnuncover, the audience can guess casilvrnenough. I will leave )’ou the pleasure ofrnoutguessing Tom. I do, however, want tornconsider what I take to be the narrative’srnallegorv, clevcrK’ introduced bv the hypnotismrnscenes.rnUnder his h)-pnotie spell, Tom findsrnhimself in a vast, old-fime movie palace,rngazing at a huge 1940’s-shle screen onrnwhich his troubling isions appear withrnluminous intensih’. I’his screcn-withinthe-rnscreen passage returns at the middlernof the film and implicitly serves to remiiidrnus that we have come to the theaterrnto be put under a spell ourselves. Whilernunder that spell, we, like Tom, may disco’rner more than we anfieipated. Our di.scoxeries,rnhowever, are not to be found atrnthe center of the film but at its edges.rnThere, we glimpse what seem at firstrnmerely incidental details: a cordonedrnblock part bursting with beer-fueledrnbonhomie; hundreds of neighbors marchingrnin near-tribal frenz’ to a high schoolrnfootball matcli; Tom and Maggie sportingrntattoos on their arms and torsos; w’iesrnsneering at fiieir husbands for being in arnpriapic state nearly three hours a day andrnnot all that parficidar where thc’ plug in;rnMaggie calling from her grandmother’srnfuneral to report that her famih membersrnare “all fine, drunk and fighting with onernanother”; a child left innnonitored inrnfront of a tclcision, horrified by PhernNight of the Living Dead as adult zombiesrncannibalize the v’oung.rnIn these glancing asides, Koepprnsketches file state of contemporary massrnsocieb., besotted b a popular culture thatrnencourages indulgence in the e|uiekrnthrills of booze, industrialized sports,rnubiquitous pornograph)’, impersonal sex,rnand iolent entertainment. The man’rnwho setde for fiiis parod)’ of die good life,rnas Tom does before his mind is opened,rnassume it is the “ordinarv” .state of affairs.rnrhe are the hapless moral imbeciles wernmeet dailv, so drugged b)’ a soulless materialismrnthat diey arc content to sit b’ asrna weird alliance of commercial interestrnand political expedienev deours fiieirrnchildren with eas) corruptions, leavingrnriicm destitute of natural idealism andrnmoral insight. It’s no wonder diat, whenrnMaggie implores Tom to stop his obscssirne digging, he rcfiises. “This is die mostrnimportant thing that’s c’er liappened tornmc in iiiv dumb life,” he shouts. Indeed,rnit is. What he finds will answer the iiarra-rnEat atrnLee’s Chinese Restaurantrn3443 N. Main Street, Rockford, ILrnDECEMBEK 199q/4:rnrnrn