‘Stir of Echoes’ at 25: Kevin Bacon, David Koepp Discuss the Influence of Brian De Palma and Steven Spielberg, and the Shadow of ‘The Sixth Sense’

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist In 1999, there was a film released about a child who sees ghosts that was a massive hit. Five weeks after it came out, “Stir of Echoes” was released. “There’s no way that ‘The Sixth Sense’ wasn’t going to be a massive hit,” remembers Kevin Bacon. “Both myself and [writer-director David Koepp] — and probably our agents — begged them to put ‘Stir of Echoes’ out first.” Their plea fell on dead — I mean deaf — ears, and Koepp’s second directorial effort earned $23 million in theaters against the $672 million Shyamalan’s thriller eventually grossed.

Yet “Stir of Echoes” was well-received by critics and went on to have a thriving afterlife on home video, where it was successful enough that Lionsgate Films, the company that purchased original distributor Artisan, created a sequel, “The Homecoming,” in 2007.

Commemorating the film’s 25th year, and a new 4K UHD disc packed with new bonus content, Koepp and Bacon spoke to Variety about their work in bringing it to life.

In addition to reflecting on the advice Koepp received from longtime collaborator Brian De Palma (and the inspiration he drew from Steven Spielberg, whose “Jurassic Park” films he wrote), Bacon recalled his reluctance in real life to go through the same kind of hypnosis his character did, and the two of them look back together at the long shadow of Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” — and how time (and the then-nascent DVD market) helped them get out from under it. David Koepp: I wanted to do a scary movie.