It’s time give this stylish and powerful ghost story as much love as The Sixth Sense (1999). 

Directed by David Koepp, who previously scripted some of the most well-known films of Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, and Brian De Palma, Stir of Echoes explores psychic communication with the dead in a thriller that has refreshing humor and heart. Released less than a month after The Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes is set in a Polish community in Chicago. A disillusioned family man (Kevin Bacon) attains psychic powers after his sister-in-law (Illeana Douglass) opens his mind under hypnosis. He sees the ghost of a teenage girl, and nothing will stop him from solving the mystery of her death. The film makes use of Metra and the CTA, the Avondale neighborhood, and Oak Woods Cemetery on the South Side. 

Stir of Echoes is based on the 1958 novel by Richard Matheson, who also wrote I Am Legend (1954), The Shrinking Man (1956), Hell House (1971), and What Dreams May Come (1978), all of which spawned acclaimed film adaptations, in some cases with Matheson himself as screenwriter. He scripted most of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, numerous fan-favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, and unforgettable television films The Night Stalker (1972) and Trilogy of Terror (1975). His character of Carl Kolchak moved to Chicago for the full-length TV series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975).