User Reviews

I love the first movie, I was really looking forward to this movie even, when it had different plot to it.

when it was first green lit, it was meant to be a True sequel. which was having Tom Witzky's son in high school and seeing similar disturbing visions like his father did in the first.

Some where a long the line it changed to A soldier returns home from the Iraq war only to be haunted by visions of the dead.

Now it stand a alone with no connection to first movie at all, I was not too keen on new plot but i did found this sequel decent.

I found this movie very entertaining as it did have very good bizarre scene that really liked seeing in this movie and I liked how they but spin in the plot for this movie, did not see that spin coming.

There were some gore scenes and one or two scare scenes, those scenes did not shock me but beating up scenes were was just nasty and horrible to watch,

i found that scene more shocking then any of the scare or gory scene.

I did enjoyed the ending of the movie, it kinda of happy how it ended. 5 out of 10

This is why people hate sequels. Rob Lowes is a good actor. He gets involved in these movies that just suck… like this one. The ghost in this lame sequel is trying to tell him something. Spoiler; it's telling him that his son along with friends killed him because they thought he was an Arab that hated America… based of course on his rude demeanor and tone towards American soldiers, easy mistake.

This movie was made by obvious liberals because a conservative republican would be pleased that an American stuck up for their country and said hey, you want to mess with my land and talk crap about our soldiers… well F-you. They should make a movie praising Americans for sticking up for themselves for once instead of preachy junk like this. The a-hole gets killed and then has the audacity to haunt the boy's father, (Lowe). At the end his son goes to jail and his wife gets shot and killed, while Lowes character seems to be placed into an asylum. Gee nice message thrown in my face to be tolerant of others. F uck tolerance! Whatever happened to America being home of the brave?

By the way... I'm not some racist redneck, I hate everyone equally

Guys! Consider the venue--it was a made for TV movie and I believe it pulled it off convincingly!! I kick myself when I read other reviews first--just don't do it--should be my mantra and I need to stick to it. This had everything a movie needs--cast, story, setting, probability, motivation, character and style--no, this was not a Hollywood blockbuster, nor did it pretend to be. Rob Lowe was under spoken and spot on wit the agony of a returning war captain. I generally liked it and I think if you go into it with an open mind, and not expect Kevin Bacon to pop out and tie the sequel to the original SOE, then you may take something away of value. 8 out of 10 K

It's not like the 1st film was so good, but it at least kept ur attention throughout the entire movie, unlike its sequel. Like most sequels do, this movie flopped. Pretty boring, & the plot was semi similar to the 1st film.. It was pretty obvious that the killers/teenagers were the targets. Especially obvious since the 1st movie's killers turned out to be the teenagers. But seriously though, if u watched the trailer for this sequel & thought it could be a good movie b/cuz the trailer did what it was suppose to do, make u think that this film would be worth the watch. It really was a boring movie & definitely isn't worth watching...

When coming across a direct to DVD sequel of a mainstream horror or sci fi movie movie, usually one cannot be blamed for staying away. The rental stores are full of such sequels that are abysmal due to poor acting, poor special effects, and most of all poor directing. One will both waste their time and their money trying to enjoy such nonsense.

Imagine the surprise when Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming, yes a sequel to a mainstream horror movie, proves itself to be a surprisingly intelligent thriller. The Homecoming won't win any awards but it does hold its own and is able to give a convincing story.

Captain Ted Cogan (Rob Lowe) holds himself responsible for the death of an Iraqi family during his tour of duty. Like many veterans, Ted only wants to return home to his family and forget the war so that he can go back to the life he once knew. The problem is that such memories never fade easily and home is never the same once you have been gone for so long. Ted's wife Molly (Marnie McPhail) and son Max (Ben Lewis) find that the husband and father they once knew is a different man.

However, something else haunts Ted. A series of graphic images of those who died in Iraq, including strange visions of what appear to be the future, stalk Ted. While he believes it to be mere post traumatic stress disorder, it soon becomes clear that something else is going on and that Ted is facing a different kind of ghost then he expected. While his family falls apart around him, Ted realizes that if he is to keep his sanity then he needs to solve the mystery of what is happening.

Much like the previous Stir of Echoes, a spirit demands vengeance and unless that vengeance is fulfilled then that spirit will take its anger out on whoever it can reach. The truth, however, is more horrific than even Ted could imagine and will force him to make the most difficult choice in his life. The ghost isn't one that followed him from Iraq. The truth is that the ghost wants vengeance against Max for a crime he committed......

Stir of Echoes Homecoming doesn't rely on gore to push the horror that Ted is experiencing. Instead it uses dialog and mood setting to give the feeling of Ted's isolation and confusion. Not the best movie but it is a good sequel that shows the original idea of Stir of Echoes is still interesting.

7/10

I was never really sure why people didn't like this move as much as the first. I was really impressed with the way this film was made. the plot is very similar to the first and just as entertaining. Another thing that I should mention is that this sequel is much scarier and creepier than the first one. The ending was not the best of the best but it was acceptable for the situation. The acting was just fantastic and most of the scenes were played out very well and quite believable. When the movie was over I almost immediately wanted to see it again. Not much to dislike about this sequel, unless you're not a big fan of tragic endings, but overall a very good sequel and great way to get some good scares.

National Guard Ted Cogan sees a van speeding up toward his watch ignoring the warning plates.

He orders to fire, but discovers that there was an Iraqi family in the van. He tries to save a young girl, but the vehicle explodes and his group are attacked.

When Ted recovers from his injuries, he returns home to his family, but he is haunted by the death of the innocent family, and another spectre.

When his son Max is severely wounded in a car crash where his girlfriend Sammi and their friend Luke die, Ted discovers who the tormented soul is and tries to do the right thing.........

Like many of the straight to DVD sequels that no one asked for in the early noughties, Stir Of Echoes 2 just rehashes all the best bits of the original, and just adds a different story around those key sequences.

And don't forget to add a star who was, or was going to be quite big once.

It's surprising to see Rob Lowe in something like this, he is a wonderful actor, but I'm guessing the smarmy yuppie type roles dried up after Bad Influence, and a certain home made movie.

But it's pretty watchable stuff the rationale behind as to why the ghoul is haunting him is quite intelligent, but the same couldn't be said for the very strange and totally bonkers ending.

It's not particularly scary, but as direct to DVD sequels to films you never thought would get one in a million years, this is perfectly perfunctory.

"Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming" is a mildly disappointing but decent sequel.

**SPOILERS**

Injured in battle, Ted Cogan, (Rob Lowe) returns home from the war in Iraq and immediately puts off wife Molly, (Marnie McPhail) and son Max, (Ben Lewis) by his militaristic attitude. The more time he spends at home, the more he's tormented by nightmarish visions and dreams about an incident during the war involving a small girl. As they get more frequent in terms of frequency and intensity, he is determined to find out the cause of the attacks. When his family become targets, he finds that the true cause of the attacks is based around an similar incident between his family and that the ghost of that incident, rather than the one from the War, is intent on hurting him and he must stop it before it hurts more than just his family.

The Good News: This here was decent enough when it counted. The main factor with this one is the ghostly visions in here being down-right creepy at times. Mixed along with the hallucinations and the sightings, these here are the highlight of the film with ease. From the encounter in the kitchen, the burnt ghost reaching out for him that comes from out-of-nowhere scoring a massive shock. The encounter with the widow is just as fantastic, being even better with the added bonus of the shocking, brutal kill to wrap it all in a great package. There's even more fantastic, fun encounters in here, with the Veteran's Hospital series standing out nicely with it's myriad of different sequences and tense moments. These are mostly helped out by the fact that the ghosts in here look fantastic, with the burnt flesh, distorted features, smoldering heaps of flesh and tattered clothes make for tons of great scenes with the ghosts. This one also has a fairly impressive action scene that kicks the film off, as the different traps, shootout and massive explosions that go off in the sequence are a lot of fun and definitely do a lot to make the film rather enjoyable. The last plus here is the fact that there's some really nice blood and gore in here, even if not all of them are deaths. From the views of the burnt corpses, which look suitably gruesome and graphic, there's a gunshot that blows half the victim's head off, one has words burned into their arm with a lighter, one shows the scars of being beaten and pummeled with a tire-iron and another couple are set graphically set on fire, complete with full-body burns. These here are the film's only real good points.

The Bad News: There was a couple flaws with this one that managed to hold it down. One of the biggest issue here is that the film manages to get heavily bogged down in politics and world events, especially towards the end. Despite it being something that might turn some off on sheer principle, the fact that it consistently does it by beating us over the head about the War and it's affects on those not directly involved make for some incredibly tough and irritating viewing at times. The severity of how it's beaten down is really where it gets it's really aggravating, because it drops the ghost angle to throw in the angle with the citizen seeking retribution for the political-based attack. These are almost as bad as the early scenes of the family drama and tension, which isn't that good and does the exact same thing, serve no purpose being there and have a bunch of rather irritating factors about them that can easily be left out without any consequences. These scenes are just aggravating to sit through and don't belong in the film. The film also manages to score a couple of rather lame ghost attacks as well, some of which don't even make sense. The entire encounter at the psychic's hotel makes no sense, there's the malfunctioning appliances that showcases an unmentioned-and-unnecessary power of moving objects around when it should really be about their interaction with each other and in effect really neutering the whole thing. The last flaw here is the entire middle segment, which features no ghost action at all. Mixed between the need to deliver the back-story about the events as they're going on, the most irritating elements of the family-drama and the first hints of the political tension, it has a lot of down-time and really shouldn't be. All told, these are the film's flaws.

The Final Verdict: While it's not entirely perfect, it's good enough to good parts to warrant a look at the very least. Really only recommended to those who liked the original or are interested in this who can overlook the flaws, while those who are turned off by the flaws are advised to seek caution with this one.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence

This movie was exceptionally well done for a Sci-Fi original movie, and in my opinion a very controversial one as well, considering the fact it deals with the current war in Iraq.

To begin with a man named Ted Cogan (rob lowe) and other soldiers kill a van full of people in Iraq creating a huge conflict, thus sending Ted and his men back home. When he arrives back to his house he starts seeing visions of the victims that were killed in the van. Finally, when all his buttons have been pushed Ted decides to try and find out why this is happening to him and what all the symbolic occurrences taking place really mean.

Now, here's the part that I found rather controversial, upsetting and at the same time sickening. I am myself an American, but during the part when Ted's son and two other of his friends kill what they believe to be an Iraqi citizen in the country side I felt ashamed to call myself American. Although people may think that this doesn't happen, it does. Maybe what bothered me about this scene the most was the brutality behind the murder. The beating, the dousing of alcohol, the setting him on fire, the locking him in a dumpster to burn so he can't get out, all of this seemed to be so hostile that I felt completely repulsed. And then there's the part of the mother, Molly. She confides in her husband that although this was horrible, she doesn't want her son to be charged with this crime and she asks her husband how they can cover it up.

All and all, the movie itself was good and entertaining, it was just the last fifteen minutes or so that bothered me. People may agree with me, or may not agree with me, either way it doesn't affect me. I just wanted to voice my opinion about what I found to be a rather disturbing sequence of events in the movie I just watched.