Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Stir of Echoes

I think you all know that Kathryn played Maggie Witzky in the movie Stir of Echoes in 1999.

Plot: In this supernatural thriller, Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) is a fairly typical working-class guy living in Chicago with his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and his son Jake (Zachary David Cope). One night at a party, Tom gets into a lively discussion with his sister-in-law, Lisa (Illeana Douglas), who believes in psychic communication and the power of hypnosis. He challenges Lisa to hypnotize him, and she plants in him a post-hypnotic suggestion to be more open-minded. But the results aren't quite what Lisa or Tom expected; Tom now senses an air of terrible dread throughout his house and is convinced that evil lurks just around the corner. He also sees the spirit of a girl from the neighborhood who disappeared months ago -- and Jake sees the spirit as well.
Stir of Echoes was based on a novel by Richard Matheson, whose work inspired such disparate films as Somewhere in Time and The Incredible Shrinking Man; it was written and directed by David Koepp, who wrote the screenplays for Jurassic Park and Mission: Impossible.
[Mark Deming, All Movie Guide]

Funnily imdb and wiki both write in their synopsis that Maggie is pregnant. I don't know where this comes from.

Untapdtreasure found two amazing behind the scenes videos I also want to share.



I'm fascinated over and over again from this Maggie Look Test video - amazing expression.



Very interesting, they used a doll for the exercises and not Zachary.

Both videos published from: Kris21108 on youtube.

6 comments:

  1. I only saw a part of this movie a couple months ago. I didn't really catch on what was happening. It was the scene where Tom was digging up the back yard.
    I love that look test video. I've never seen anything like that done before.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Havers,

    the time children are allowed to work on a set is very limited (I think it's 4 hours a day or so), so they would only use children when absolutely necessary. And I thought she mentioned being pregnant at some point...? It's been quite a while since I saw it, and I've only seen it once.

    Beverly,
    The story goes that when Vincent came in for his "camera" screen test as Bobby, all he did was sit on a chair and look, but his look was so intense, everybody at the camera test was blown away by his screen presence. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I studied this film very carefully while writing my book RICHARD MATHESON ON SCREEN (http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-4216-4), tentatively due out in early October, and can assure you it does indeed establish that Maggie is pregnant. As a matter of fact, Koepp originally planned to end the film with the birth of the child before settling on the current, and unnerving, closing scene. Although Matheson is usually a tough critic when it comes to films based on his work, even if he has written the script himself, he praised Koepp's work as both writer and director. One of the film's strongest points is its grounding in the utter reality of the characters, their milieu, and their relationship, a reality to which Erbe made an invaluable contribution.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Bev: I also just know this one look like test. I heard from the Vincent one TJara, but we never saw it. Although I would die for watching a tape from it.

    I really didn't remember the pregnancy thing. Okay it's over a year ago that I watched the movie the last time. But Maggie must be in her first trimester when looking at Kathryn's belly ;o)

    I like how Kathryn carried the doll. She would never handle Zachary like this...lol.

    Hello bradleyonfilm, welcome to my Kathryn blog.
    Thanks for this special insight.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kathryn really becomes Maggie. It's so cool to see her do a different character than Alex.(Although, as you know, I love Alex!) Her look test is absorbing! She is so special!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alex is also my favorite character...but Kathryn became other interesting girls, too. I really have to start discovering Oz.

    ReplyDelete