Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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.

Though I had no idea when I watched this, that it is a Remake of a movie called "Sigaw" (not to be confused at all with Jigsaw). Unfortunately I haven't seen the Original that is why I am judging this solely without any input from the Original. Maybe I would've only given it 5/10, if I had seen the Spanish language version that came before it, maybe I would've thought it improved it, as another reviewer did right here on IMDb on the comments section.But back to this, that has some nice acting and some really good looking people involved in the main roles. Don't let that distract you from the plot though. On the other hand, the beginning (audio) is so eerie, the movie that is following could never fully live up to that (on the horror scale that is). Still even with phoned in performances by Kevin Durand (gotta admire his physical presence) this still has a few things going for it. So the main character acts weird and doesn't really do or ask the things he should. But we're almost used to that in horror movies nowadays. The tension filled story almost completely makes up for that.

Bobby (Jesse Bradford), an ex-convict who served time for involuntary manslaughter, is released from prison and attempts to reclaim his life. Cut off by former friends and relatives the only person willing to reignite their acquaintance is Alyssa (Amelia Warner), Bobby's former girlfriend and reason for indictment. Bobby moves into his mother's apartment, who died when he was locked away. However almost immediately afterwards strange occurrences and noises bring Bobby to verge of insanity...Is is over yet? The craze of repackaging all the more-or-less decent Asian movies into American crap-fest seems to have passed its expiration date and hopefully "The Echo" is the last we have heard of this. "The Ring" and "The Eye" were passable, because of the novelty, but this time around the predictable range of frights and scares and weird moving Asian chicks does not make for a compelling watch, but for a tiresome pass-time.The script also begs for improvement, as it basically barely balances its credibility on a ghost family, which aims to hand out vengeance on all those who decided to turn a blind eye in times of need. This basically extends itself to anyone who haphazardly stumbles onto the floor. Naturally the ghosts enter into a killing spree when Bobby happens to move in, despite the events having taken place several years back and having nothing whatsoever to do with our chance hero.And by the way - what is it with the crackpot old lady riding up and down the elevator? It has no meaning to the story whatsoever.

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.

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.