not horrible nor great

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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/

I only give this movie a 9 because it was a bit slow to get started. A young man gets out of jail and moves into his mothers old apartment. No one is quite sure how she died and the door had to be broken in for her body to be taken out. He makes some discoveries in the apartment that leave him with a lot of questions. One day as he's going to his apartment, he ends up in an elevator with a police officer. He doesn't say anything, but you can sense is discomfort as he feels like the officer is following him. He proceeds to his apartment and the officer enters the apartment next door. He begins to hear arguments in the adjoining apartment and bangs on the wall at one point to let them know he hears them. Occasionally he sees their little girl sitting in the hall playing a tiny play piano. Each day seems to pull him more and more into the events of this family. When we find out why the guy went to jail, we understand why he is reluctant to risk a possible fight with the man. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll end here. This movie should make us reflect on whether or not it is our business to step in when we see someone getting abuse. Like the woman that was raped and killed outside a building while no one did a thing to stop it, or the current gang rape that just happened. Ask yourself if you would put yourself at risk for someone you don't know and whether you would expect someone to step in if you were in some kind of danger at the hands of another person.

I find it ridiculous that this movie didn't get a good release while the likes of Boogeyman, They, The Unborn, and countless other Asian film remakes did! This movie is worth your time, to say the least.I won't really say it's slow paced as things started the moment the lead character got in the apartment. But it definitely is boring if your concept of a horror movie is limited to gore and run-for-your-life scenes after every 5 minutes of dialogue. This is more of an "alone at night horror movie" than an "invite friends over and have popcorn" type. The enjoyment lies in the appreciation of story, texture, and creepy atmosphere of the film, which the director served in good proportions.I liked how Yam Laranas outdid himself in the remake. The story is tighter, and the American lead actors were better than their Filipino counterparts...though I can't say the same for the supporting characters.In closing, let me just debunk a review here which commented on the other users' comments instead of commenting on the movie (and I'm committing the same crime now), but The Echo is at the very least a decent ghost movie...to call it "half-decent" is already being silly. The film is No Exorcist, but to discredit it just to balance out the opinion of those who thought it was good is self-deception.The movie is not without its imperfections, but it won't make you cry for your 90 minutes. Many contemporary horror movies did worse.

Ever since I heard about it, I wanted to watch this American production of a Filipino horror film, with the same director (Yam Laranas) at the helm. However, when I heard it went straight to DVD instead of wide theatrical release, I knew I had to temper my expectations.The first half of this movie moves at a literal snail's pace. There was nothing much to establish, yet it certainly took its time. Bobby Reynolds (Jesse Bradford) earns parole from his prison term and went to live in his mother's apartment, which had been abandoned since her recent death. However, he sees strange things and hears strange sounds while he is there. This entire scenario with the Mom was not in the Philippine version at all, yet so much time was spent on this side story here.However, in the second half, the movie finally comes alive when the story about the family who lived next door to Bobby finally gets dealt with in more of its gruesome detail. These scary scenes were shot very well, with the right amount of nervous tension. Still we see the victims do what most "horror movie victims" stupidly do to deserve their fates. The ending would seem to be quite simplistic given the extensive build-up to that point. This is especially true for us who had already seen the original before.Jesse Bradford did well to convey how a macho ex-con could be the central character of a horror film, which is not typical. He did much better than the original actor. I felt it was too bad that Iza Calzado, who was given the chance to reenact her original role in this American version, was given little opportunity to fully delve into her disturbed character of the abused wife. Some time could have been spent to describe her situation more, than the excessive time given Jesse to explore his apartment. Knowing her character more could have increased the audience's satisfaction with the story's final outcome.