User Reviews

The ECHO is the Hollywood remake of the Filipino horror movie from director Yam Laranas entitled "Sigaw" which is also released in the international market with the similar title "The Echo" The story begins when a young ex-con comes home to the apartment where her mother who passed away, lived. He curiously tries to find out what happened to her and why she died. He discovers that the apartment he lives in is having strange occurrences. He finds drops of blood, hears noises of things that are not there, and at the same time, he is also concerned about his apartment neighbor; a mother and daughter who is being victimized by an abusive live-in partner. All these things that haunt him soon affect his life, his work, and his relationship. He even begins to question his own sanity. Soon enough, he must face these things so that it will bring him peace.

Supposedly one that should be categorized as something which is more of a Ghost Story and Psychological Drama, THE ECHO is rich in stylistic visual images. An artful blend of bleak beauty in terms of cinematography and atmosphere, with the eerie vibe created by its storyline. The moments of horror may not be too bloody (except perhaps for one scene that had me biting my own finger) but they indeed transmit the sense of gloom well into its audience.

Jesse Bradford obviously did a better performance than Richard Guttierez (in the original version). His fear and sense of paranoia can communicate well with the audience. Iza Calzado is as haunting as she was in the original. I actually felt that the movie needed more focus on Iza whose role in the original was underlined well, and was very relevant with real world issues of abuse.

The Echo takes a lot of time to build up the horror. The slow build-up is reminiscent of old horror movies like The Exorcist, which takes its time to make its characters whole and establish a familiarity with the audience before it spills out the full extent of the horror.

The minor problem with The Echo is that if you have already watched the original Echo movie which is known here in the Philippines as "Sigaw" and you already have an idea what these hauntings are all about and why they occur, you might feel that it tends to drag and bore, because the surprise is already spoiled for you. Much of the movie's appeal relies on not knowing why these things happen.

As much as my heart goes out to the director, though, I am sorry to say that I felt that the build-up just dragged too slowly. Some sequences felt like it was just an exercise of waiting for something to happen. I feel that this needed to be re-cut, just to delete off the sequences that are horribly unnecessary. The subplots in between the horror sequences sometimes feel uninteresting. There is a good pay-off at the end but its pay-off is not as satisfying as, say, The Exorcists' final act which all goes off to hellish chaos. Instead, its pay-off is still storyline-based. It does not go off in a whimper, no, it does unleash some hell. But not enough to get it off its track, as it maintains its disciplined pace, leading to an appropriate end which makes the story go full circle. You will soon realize that this is NOT the Exorcist; this is a Ghost Story.

If you watch this movie, do not expect this to be like your run-of-the-mill slasher flick or torture horror; you should just expect a good ghost movie. There is some violence and gore in it, but this is no monsterfest. It is never goofy and it treats its own story in a very serious manner. It feels like something that may have happened in reality. That is actually its beauty because many other horror movies out there tend to overblow their stories to a point that it feels bogus and cartoonish. The Echo takes its time and is more or less grounded in reality. Quiet, but eerie. Just like the ghosts that live around us.

The Echo had a handful of scenes with an uncomfortable creepiness akin to classic J-Horror. Rarely do I reach for the remote anymore having experienced most every range of horror film out there, but this one seeped under my skin and had me on edge more than twice. And it is that sort of unsettling moodiness combined with frights you hafta' be paying attention to catch. You know, the kind where after they've come and gone you must back em up for a second take. Truly those "WTF" type instances.

Jesse Bradford plays Bobby, a twenty something recently released from prison after doing a stint for killing a guy who attempted to rape his HOT girlfriend (played by Ameiia Warner) in a restroom. Having nowhere else to go, he heads back to the ol' East Village NYC neighborhood. Mom has died a spooky death from starvation, he learns, when he moves in to her old apartment. There's bloody fingernails on the piano keys and rumbles in the walls and a mean-looking cop next door who enjoys beating his wife and little girl. Bobby starts to see things, though, and these things aren't making any sense and they're a bit ghastly to boot. It's when Bobby decides he can no longer put up with the abuse he is overhearing next door and reports it to the cops, only to have them respond to a completely vacant apartment next door, that things go from odd to friggin' strange.

Bobby's apartment reminded me a lot of the apartment in the game Silent Hill 4: The Room with its eerily watered down dingy browns and rusts. There are holes in the peeling plaster walls and everything gives off the mood of worn and filthy. It's a truly lonely place that flattened my spirits each time Bobby returned home.

The Echo is not without its disappointments and inconsistencies which converge on a far too abrupt ending that leaves the viewer feeling a bit jipped. Oh well, though. It is a decently freaky ride getting there.

Ever since I heard about it, I wanted to watch this American production of a Filipino horror film, with the same director (Yam Laranas) at the helm. However, when I heard it went straight to DVD instead of wide theatrical release, I knew I had to temper my expectations.

The first half of this movie moves at a literal snail's pace. There was nothing much to establish, yet it certainly took its time. Bobby Reynolds (Jesse Bradford) earns parole from his prison term and went to live in his mother's apartment, which had been abandoned since her recent death. However, he sees strange things and hears strange sounds while he is there. This entire scenario with the Mom was not in the Philippine version at all, yet so much time was spent on this side story here.

However, in the second half, the movie finally comes alive when the story about the family who lived next door to Bobby finally gets dealt with in more of its gruesome detail. These scary scenes were shot very well, with the right amount of nervous tension. Still we see the victims do what most "horror movie victims" stupidly do to deserve their fates. The ending would seem to be quite simplistic given the extensive build-up to that point. This is especially true for us who had already seen the original before.

Jesse Bradford did well to convey how a macho ex-con could be the central character of a horror film, which is not typical. He did much better than the original actor. I felt it was too bad that Iza Calzado, who was given the chance to reenact her original role in this American version, was given little opportunity to fully delve into her disturbed character of the abused wife. Some time could have been spent to describe her situation more, than the excessive time given Jesse to explore his apartment. Knowing her character more could have increased the audience's satisfaction with the story's final outcome.

Bobby (Jesse Bradford), an ex-convict who served time for involuntary manslaughter, is released from prison and attempts to reclaim his life. Cut off by former friends and relatives the only person willing to reignite their acquaintance is Alyssa (Amelia Warner), Bobby's former girlfriend and reason for indictment. Bobby moves into his mother's apartment, who died when he was locked away. However almost immediately afterwards strange occurrences and noises bring Bobby to verge of insanity...

Is is over yet? The craze of repackaging all the more-or-less decent Asian movies into American crap-fest seems to have passed its expiration date and hopefully "The Echo" is the last we have heard of this. "The Ring" and "The Eye" were passable, because of the novelty, but this time around the predictable range of frights and scares and weird moving Asian chicks does not make for a compelling watch, but for a tiresome pass-time.

The script also begs for improvement, as it basically barely balances its credibility on a ghost family, which aims to hand out vengeance on all those who decided to turn a blind eye in times of need. This basically extends itself to anyone who haphazardly stumbles onto the floor. Naturally the ghosts enter into a killing spree when Bobby happens to move in, despite the events having taken place several years back and having nothing whatsoever to do with our chance hero.

And by the way - what is it with the crackpot old lady riding up and down the elevator? It has no meaning to the story whatsoever.

I find it ridiculous that this movie didn't get a good release while the likes of Boogeyman, They, The Unborn, and countless other Asian film remakes did! This movie is worth your time, to say the least.

I won't really say it's slow paced as things started the moment the lead character got in the apartment. But it definitely is boring if your concept of a horror movie is limited to gore and run-for-your-life scenes after every 5 minutes of dialogue. This is more of an "alone at night horror movie" than an "invite friends over and have popcorn" type. The enjoyment lies in the appreciation of story, texture, and creepy atmosphere of the film, which the director served in good proportions.

I liked how Yam Laranas outdid himself in the remake. The story is tighter, and the American lead actors were better than their Filipino counterparts...though I can't say the same for the supporting characters.

In closing, let me just debunk a review here which commented on the other users' comments instead of commenting on the movie (and I'm committing the same crime now), but The Echo is at the very least a decent ghost movie...to call it "half-decent" is already being silly. The film is No Exorcist, but to discredit it just to balance out the opinion of those who thought it was good is self-deception.

The movie is not without its imperfections, but it won't make you cry for your 90 minutes. Many contemporary horror movies did worse.

After reading the other reviews I feel compelled to right a comment on this movie.

The other reviews describe it as a future 'cult hit', it is compared to 'The Exorcist' and how it is so realistic - 'something that may have happened in reality'?

Really! Well no, not at all, on any level. It is far too generic to be a cult hit, seen this type of film a million times (think 'Grudge' or 'The Ring' or any other east Asian remake), it is not even slightly like 'The Exorcist' (the build up really isn't that slow) and why the comparison is made I'll never know, as for realistic - gimmie a break, it's realistic if you live in 'spooky Asian ghost land', and last time I checked that place wasn't real.

So, in a nutshell what we have is a half decent ghost story that we've all seen before. If you've seen any of the other East Asia movie remakes then you know what to expect. In fact the 'scary' parts are identical in all the remakes - pale Asian lady and/or child pulling scary faces and moving about a bit strange.

I find it strange that when Hollywood remakes an Asian film they transplant China or were ever the original was made for the USA (Grudge being an exception), make all the characters Caucasian, but leave the scary people as Asians! Were the scary people in the Asian version Caucasian? No, so why not transplant the whole thing, I mean it's almost racist, and Asian women walking weird aren't scary!

Anyway, rant over, overall it's OK as a rental, but nothing to shout about.

5/10

The Montreal screening was a testament of how good this movie is. OMG! This is really really scary. Slow in some parts but it totally brings the mood. The scares will stay with you even after you've left the cinema. Jesse Bradford showed some real acting chops and his character is so believable. The Echo is not your usual shrieks and screams. In fact the movie is very quiet. That is why it is so effective - you don't know when the scares will happen. The realistic treatment of domestic violence added to the horror of the story. If you like Rosemary's Baby or The Sixth Sense, then this is the perfect film for you. The movie is above par compared to most SCARY movies out there and I would say that this will be a cult hit. It's so sad that it's not picked up yet by North American distributors. Too bad for my friends in the west coast! I hope this gets released soon. The director is someone to watch out for. Très bon !

This remake improves a little bit on the original and is far more better filmed and managed to be creepier. I thought the performances were pretty good and modest but nothing that packs a punch and if you seen the original you pretty much know what's going to happen and what is going to be the outcome in the end so they pretty much didn't add anything new or major to the story. I never thought anything about it was all that scary or terrifying just creepy, chilling and atmospheric and when all is said and done it's just another American horror remake but one of the more decent ones and one of the slickest ones out there but nothing groundbreaking. Overall if you are still not sick of Asian supernatural/horror like movies that's low on gore and high on chills and atmosphere and if you enjoyed the film 100 feet here you go, just don't expect anything new or unique. Worth a rental.

Had potential but really made no sense. All it ended up doing was pissing me off.

One of the best Asian horror remake

I was fortunate enough to view the film during the Cannes Film Festival. And it was received by the critics and audiences with open arms. The original film, "Sigaw", was the first Filipino horror for a long time to be very atmospheric.

Directed by the original film's director, Yam Laranas, "The Echo" is a very fine and atmospheric film like the original. The changes from the original was obvious and was probably done to expand the character histories.

Delivering very frightening chills, "The Echo" is a step up to your average Asian horror remake.

Connecticut native Jesse Bradford plays a quiet ex-con who moves into his dead mother's East Village apartment. A cop and his wife and young daughter live next door, and the ex-con often hears fighting going on in their apartment. He also begins hearing odd noises, which the landlord attributes to old pipes. He then begins seeing apparitions, which may or may not be his dreams. He discovers that his mother died of starvation, and a tape recording she left behind reveals she too was disturbed by odd noises and visions. When he finally calls the cops on the abusive neighbor, all hell breaks loose, starting with the fact that the apartment next door is vacant, and has been for quite some time. This is a English-language remake of a foreign-made 2004 thriller, made by the same director. It's definitely one of those vengeful spirit movies Asians apparently love so much. Bradford appears in just about every scene, and does a nice job.

The Echo is a classic ghost story. After being released from prison, Bobby moves in his deceased mother's apartment, in an old building and from there, strange things are felt and heard. The sets are great, the old building is perfect for this story. Jesse Bradford is adequate as the protagonist, a sort of well-meaning bad boy who got on the wrong track through no fault of his.

There are lots of pieces to the puzzle, lots of people he interacts with... but nothing really grabs you. It's not that the things are necessarily flawed. The story is just following a conventional track that many fans of the genre have already seen, and it's been done better.

There are no memorable scenes whatsoever in this film but you will probably not regret seeing it once if you like slow moving supernatural movies.

Okay so I'm not sure that I will be a realistic judge of this film. All I know is Jesse Bradford is so freaking hot in this movie it's hard for me to see anything else. But as for the little scares here and there they made me jump a few times and I found the story line interesting. A young man right out of prison takes over his deceased mother's apartment only to discover it's haunted by vicious ghosts. I mean if I'm being honest we've seen this before really well (the ring, grudge) and really horrible (shutter, grudge 2) so this falls right in the middle. It's got some really good moments and some mediocre ones and Jesse Bradford sporting a gorgeous bod and playing a little bit of a tough guy with a heart which he does pretty well with. This is a remake of a thai film I haven't seen so I can't judge it against that. But as for this movie I don't seen any reason why this couldn't have gone to theaters especially when horrible films like the unborn and jennifer's body do.

I'll say something for The Echo... it'll keep you guessing about what the heck is going on. This feeling doesn't subside over the ending credits, BTW.

After a very s-l-o-w beginning (a few more impatient people may give up by then) of a guy wondering around a crappy apartment building not doing very much else, we finally get to the meat of the action. This involves the dude witnessing a vicious assault on the lady next door by her thug of a husband.

What complicates things is that the hubby is a cop, and the guy is a freshly released ex-con, and we think this'll cause the central conflict: should the dude report the abusive husband to the police, and risk getting himself sent down again by corrupt officers? After all, the couple do a have a (somewhat creepy) little girl as well to consider the safety of...

Nothing like as simple. He discovers later that the apartment next door has been abandoned for years and is in a state of complete disrepair, so the guy reaches the not impossible conclusion he might be going crazy. That is, until his girlfriend visits him, and starts experiencing strange visions herself...

The middle section of The Echo is it's strongest suite, with a tangible sense of suspense lingering in the air. Nervous tenants at the block reveal horrible secrets about the past, ghoulish hallucinations pop out of nowhere and the meandering film finally starts to develop a true sense of purpose.

That is, until the finale... which is big on sound and fury but offers little in the way of proper explanation. I THINK I got it after a bit of thought, but the confused ending also raises more questions than it answers.

Like, how the... oops, I don't want to go into a lot of detail. Spoilers, and all that. Just ask yourself one question afterwards, though... did you, as an honest viewer, feel completed satisfied with what you just saw?

My confident guess for the vast majority would be a resounding 'no'. 5/10

Bobby Reynolds (Jesse Bradford) is on parole under close supervision. He moves into his late mother's apartment in an old apartment building. He gets a mechanics job with Hector Rodriguez. He reconnects with former girlfriend Alyssa (Amelia Warner). He keeps hearing disturbing sounds in the apartment.

This is a simple horror story. It's a slow burn. It so simple and so slow that it just lost me. I got bored. Jesse Bradford is fine. I've never been that impressed with him. This simple horror really needs Jesse to carry the whole film on his back. The setting is non-descriptive in a bland way. Nothing is grabbing me in this one.

This film as a horror/thriller did it's job pretty well for me and the girlfriend. There was a pretty effective creepy atmosphere throughout and a few decent jumpy parts. The acting and script on a whole are good, not amazing but enough to keep you interested.

The thing that really made this mediocre was the ending, seemed to me like the writers just kinda gave up or something as it doesn't wrap up the story at all. Also the ghosts just seem to randomly attack people who have nothing to do with their past just cause they're p***ed off or something...

A decent horror flick to watch in the dark, definitely worth the watch for me.

Cliched characters and plot fill a dim visual screen in this film. Everyone seems lethargic on screen and makes dull mistakes. The film reveals what is happening about halfway through the film, but this does nothing to energize the storytelling. Instead, we are led to a plodding end that allows for the "anti-hero" to prove his mettle.

I must say i didn't expect much from this film. I myself am an absolute horror fan. I can say i watched almost every horror film worth seeing and browsing the internet looking to find some gems that might be not so fammiliare.

When i bumped in to The Echo, the cover caught my attention. I didn't expect much from it because i didn't hear about it at all.

Well what do u know! It was great! I really recommended this to all horror fans who like creepy ghost stories. Cause i cannot remember seeing one for the past years so creepy as this one.

The story and acting is good. And the ghosts are also really scary. Also the score/soundtrack of the movie is great! Kept me on the edge of my seat, so highly recommended !