The Echo (2008/I)

Director:

Yam Laranas

Writers (WGA):

Eric Bernt (screenplay) and
Shintaro Shimosawa (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 May 2009 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Open the door... I know you're in there.

Plot:

An ex-con moves into an old apartment building, where he encounters a domestic problem involving a police officer, his wife, and their daughter. When he tries to intervene, however, a mysterious curse entraps him.

Plot Keywords:

Apartment | Police Officer | Remake | Remake Of Asian Film | Remake Of Filipino Film

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Hrant Alianak	...	Max
Jamie Bloch	...	Carly
Jesse Bradford	...	Bobby
Iza Calzado	...	Gina
Brendan Carmody	...	University student
Kevin Durand	...	Walter
Jayne Eastwood	...	Lucille Jiminez
Bathsheba Garnett	...	Old Russian Woman
Marvin Hinz	...	Detective
Stacey LaBerge	...	Student
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee	...	Dr. Morris
Carlos Leon	...	Hector
Louise Linton	...	Katie
Robert Morse	...	Construction worker no 1
Vanessa Petronelli	...	Waitress
George Santino	...	Manager
Paulette Sinclair	...	Helen Davis
Courtenay J. Stevens	...	Older Cop
Pruitt Taylor Vince	...	Joseph
Amelia Warner	...	Alyssa

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, disturbing images and brief language.

Runtime:

South Korea:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Portugal:M/16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Vertigo Entertainment

Trivia:

This is a remake of the Filipino horror movie entitled "Sigaw".

Movie Connections:

Remake of Sigaw (2004)

Asian Horror Remakes and no ending in sight (I pray its around the corner)

I have to admit that at first I was captured by Echo. The atmosphere created is great, the building that the plot is set in is pretty creepy, the actors do a great job and the back story of the main character coming out of jail also gave it a different and dramatic edge. After looking at the trailer for the original movie Sigaw it seemed thy remade it pretty equal story-wise and just put it in a New York Setting.

So here is my problem... why the hell do we need remakes of these movies? If the original movie is good, watch it. I didn't even know that this was a remake when watching it but the clues are left and right. Its just the same thing as Ring, Ju-On, Dark Water and the likes. The basic plot is about something bad that happened in the past and haunts a building and its new inhabitants. We've seen it... the ghosts are female again with the difference that they don't really go for a ghost look here but for a more realistic zombie-kind look. The main character is portrayed really well, there is some nice scares but the more the story unfolds the more you are let down by a plot that just makes no sense to me. The end is a joke with no resolution whatsoever. Funny thing is that its a clichéd happy end with ghosts finding their peace but topped of with a rather bleak outlook for our main character. I hate happy endings but here i found it damn misplaced.

Many things seem random... the fingernails in the piano, the whole piano melody thing, the hole in the wall, the people around the main character dying off like flies just because they knocked at his door once (Why hector has to die makes no sense unless you aim for the bleak ending and don't care for logic). We never learn why the ghosts can harm people by beating them up really bad and we never learn why its the good ones that get killed by the "good ghosts" (yeah, there is a bad one in there too!). Too many things are just thrown in there but most of it doesn't come together as a coherent story in the end.

So if you take the mysterious unfolding of Ring, the haunted apartment story of Ju-On, the rather down to earth story behind the ghosts from Dark Water and put it all in a blender with a hundred ideas from other similar movies you get the mash that Echo is.

Sure, its atmospheric but if you do a remake of a movie it needs to have a solid story and Echo simply doesn't. The writing is just bad. So the really good casting and acting as well as choice of setting is just plain wasted because some idiot studio went for another Asian remake because everybody does it nowadays.

I never understood why they remade a mediocre Asia movie like "one missed call" and I don't get this one either. Stop wasting money on this rubbish and invest it into good local screenwriters scripts who surely come up with fresher and more coherent plots than these.

Someone needs to start a petition to stop remakes of any kind, its gotten out of hand.