begob Grim tale of a wrong that needs avenging.This is well made and mostly well acted. I did have problems with the lead character, who reacted in a daze to people around him, failing to answer their questions or trying to figure out his latest hallucination. Irritating.Biggest problem is the pace. It only kicks off at the hour mark, and the victims seem a bit random. Also, although the revenge is turned around in the end, it wasn't the husband who should have been revenging in the first place, should it? The opening audio is good, and when the starvation idea came on I thought we were off to a weird ride. But it turned into a simple ghost story. Plus how's he going to explain it all when the cops turn up?

bowmanblue Actually, a 'slow burner' denotes something that takes a while to get going. Sadly, 'The Echo' goes so slowly through most of the film, that you're probably asleep by the time the last act (and by 'last act' I mean 'last few minutes') comes along (either that or turned it off).The film follows a man recently released from prison, who returns home to find all sorts of spooky goings on in his apartment. The film start predominantly with him wandering from room to room, trying to work out where various noises are coming from. It is nicely shot, which does give it a suitable creepy atmosphere and, every now and again, there is the odd eerie scene.However, it's all too little and not often enough. Whatever spookiness is too sparse to really be bothered about. The ending isn't bad. There's the obligatory 'twist' (or should I say 'explanation'?) regarding what's going on, but, by the time it happens, will you care?http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Scarecrow-88 Bobby(Jesse Bradford; SWIMFAN) is an ex-con trying to get on with his life after prison, lands a job as a mechanic, returns to the apartment where his mom starved herself to death. Bobby is hearing sounds from the room next to his apartment, a cop abusing his wife, their traumatized daughter out in the hall. A tenant who lives down the hall also experiences sounds and visions that aren't there. Bobby's ex-girlfriend, Alyssa(Amelia Warner; QUILLS), studying to be a fashion designer, reluctant to start a new relationship with him even though she is responsible, in a sense, for his being sent to prison. Life for Bobby goes south fast. He calls the police on a domestic dispute learning that no one lives in that apartment where all that anger and destruction permeate loudly, the echo causing mental mayhem. The tenant down the hall, Joseph Wright(character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince) dies of fright thanks in part to the ghouls which haunt the floor. Bobby is put on suspension when a car is stolen, because he's the only one with a record(Rikers leaves you with a reputation you do not need hanging over you like a thundercloud). He misses an evaluation with his parole officer. Alyssa is experiencing the same hallucinations that Joseph Wright was and Bobby is undergoing.Like THE GRUDGE, a curse spawned from a past incident pollutes whoever comes in contact with it in THE ECHO. What lives on that floor leaves it's imprint on those that have the misfortune of remaining on it too long. THE ECHO is very similar in ways to THE GRUDGE. The victims' apparitions haunt Bobby, Mr. Wright, Bobby's boss(Carlos Leon), and Alyssa because each one sees, hears, and experiences their presence. Spiritual unrest manifests itself and this torments and terrorizes those the ghosts chooses. THE ECHO really is not much different than what the Asian ghost genre has been putting out for 12 years now. There's a reason behind the aforementioned unrest and the protagonist of the movie will have to find out why and how to solve the puzzle so he(or in many instances she)can have peace. In THE ECHO, the incident could've been prevented if someone had offered to help the mother and daughter, instead turning a deaf hear which resulted in tragedy. THE ECHO is pretty average fright fare, the usual musical cues telling the viewer to jump, some hideous make-up distorting the faces of the victims' ghosts. The ghosts pop up from behind or appear at various intervels to spook certain characters. To be honest, THE ECHO contributes very little to the American machine of remakes based on Asian horror films.

C-Ant 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