| Kevin Bacon stars as Tom Witzky in this horror/thriller.
Tom lives with his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and his son (Zachary David
Cope) in Chicago. They live in a neighborhood with a good reputation,
but at a party with a bunch of his neighbors, Tom dares his sister-in-law,
Lisa (Illeana Douglas), to hypnotize him. She does, but when she
implants a post-hypnotic suggestion for him to 'open his mind', he begins
to see disturbing & confusing visions. His son has an imaginary
friend called Samantha, but Tom soon realizes that she is NOT imaginary,
but a ghost of a young girl that disappeared around this neighborhood a
few months ago. The closer Tom gets to the truth, the more dangerous
it gets. His wife begs and pleads with him to stop this insanity,
but when she talks with an African-American cop by the name of Neil (Eddie
Bo Smith, Jr.), she discovers that Tom may not be crazy. He tells
Maggie that her husband is now a receiver, and can't shut it off, let alone
figure it out. Tom tries to sort through the pieces, tries to get
Lisa to undo what she did at the party, but with all the hell going on
around him, it's difficult to not think he's not losing his sanity.
He digs deep (literally) for the answers, but he doesn't know where or
why. The revealations and ensuing images that eventually come about
are rattling and disturbing.
This movie was, at times, tense, and other times, creepy, but overall,
pretty intriguing. Kevin Bacon delivers a GREAT performance, and
the rest of the cast is pretty good as well. It was an Artisan Entertainment
release, and it shows. Every film that I've seen that they've put
out has always had a good & intriguing story with some DAMN good acting
and fine direction. Although, the ending might leave you feeling
a bit empty, but not the whole ending. The very end of the film will
still creep you out a bit, and show you that it's not a completely happy
ending. I give this four stars out of five because I think it could've
been better, but for what it was, it was pretty damn good. I definitely
reccommend this film on VHS or DVD! Check out the trailer & links
here for more info on this film. Also, for those who feel this is
film stole plot elements from The Sixth Sense, this film was based
on a book of the same name written by Richard Matheson & published
about 20 years beforehand. On a side note, the theatre used in the
hypnosis sequences is the Rialto Theatre in Joliet, IL, and it is the SAME
theatre where my high school graduation was held in June of 1998! |
