| The Echo | |
|---|---|
Official Poster |
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| Directed by | Yam Laranas |
| Produced by | Roy Lee Doug Davison |
| Written by | Eric Bernt Shintaro Shimosawa |
| Starring | Jesse Bradford Kevin Durand Amelia Warner Iza Calzado |
| Music by | Tomandandy |
| Cinematography | Matthew Irving |
| Editing by | John Coniglio |
| Release date(s) | November 10, 2009 (direct to video) |
| Language | English, Italian |
The Echo is a 2008 American remake Horror film from a Filipino film originally titled Sigaw (translates into either "Shout" or "Scream" in English). Yam Laranas who co-wrote and directed the original film, also directed the remake movie, which was written by Eric Bernt.
After serving prison time for manslaughter, Bobby is released on probation from Rikers, and moves to the old apartment in East Village, New York, where his lonely mother lived and passed away while he was incarcerated. He finds a job as mechanic at the Houston Auto Repair shop owned by the supportive Hector Rodriguez and tries to rebuild his life.
However, he is deemed an outcast and his former friends and neighbors do not want to talk to him. He meets his former girlfriend,Alyssa, who works as waitress and studies in a design school, and they tentatively resume their relationship. Bobby begins hearing weird noises and finds blood in his apartment, and overhears an argument between an abusive police officer and his wife and their daughter next door in Room 517. He finds bottles of pills in the bathroom and learns from the manager that his mother had locked herself in her apartment for a week prior to her death.
When Bobby next hears an argument ensue in Room 517, he bangs on the door and tries to intervene. The police officer comes to his door and tells him to mind his own business. On another evening, Bobby overhears the police officer beating his wife next door, and the daughter standing in front of his door. He invites her in and calls the police on the tenants next door. However, it turns out that Room 517 has been empty for several years. Bobby continues to hear things; his experiences affect his job performance, and his relationship with Alyssa starts to deteriorate, with her thinking he is crazy.
Meanwhile, one other tenant had been experiencing the same visions as Bobby—he comes face-to-face with the ghosts in his apartment, and his body is later discovered, with the police looking at Bobby as a possible suspect. The ghosts of the mother and daughter begin haunting other individuals who have connections with Bobby and the apartment building: Alyssa, as she is taking her design final; Hector, when he comes to Bobby's apartment in order to apologize for a misunderstanding. While interrogating other tenants, Bobby discovers that, years ago, an abusive police officer had beaten his wife to death when she tried to leave him, and dumped his daughter's body down the garbage chute. But although the wife had banged on other people's doors and screamed for help, no one had been willing to intervene (including Bobby's mother, who had then experienced the haunting), and the ghosts of the family continued to haunt the apartment.
Hector, while looking for Bobby, dies by falling down a staircase after running from the ghost of the daughter. Alyssa, also haunted by the ghosts, runs to Bobby's apartment looking for him, but winds up being dragged to Room 517 by the ghost of the police officer—mimicking the way the wife was murdered. Bobby hears Alyssa's screams of pain, and saves her. While tending to her back in his room, Bobby witnesses the scene as it had occurred those years ago; yet, this time, Bobby doesn't let the entire scene play out and rushes to intervene just as the police officer is about to give the final blow to the wife. The wife then incapacitates the husband and embraces her daughter in relief.