The Echo Game (Region 1 Edition)   Starring: Alisha Seaton, Jeannie Bolet, Melissa Lee and Judy Clement MTI Home Entertainment RRP: $24.95 039414521504 Certificate: R Available 27 September 2011

A female couple is raising a little girl who is the daughter of a woman called Rachel from a previous relationship. Rachel was long thought to be dead, but she had gone into hiding from an organisation called The Echo Project, which brought children into the establishment to study psychic abilities. Unscrupulous - even deadly - motives alerted the authorities, but the woman heading the illicit research managed to escape. Now, years later, she is attempting to find her lost children in order to once again make them play The Echo Game, and ultimately steal their powers away. The F.B.I. is on her tail, but time is running out as she learns of the presence of Rachel’s little girl...

There is no end of fictional (and alleged non-fictional, come to that) tales featuring an individual or group of people who possess special psychic or other supernatural abilities, and are hounded by an unscrupulous organisation who want nothing more than to know how they tick - even if it means killing them in the process. Everything from The Tomorrow People, Dark Angel and, my particular favourite in this field, the old Alan Dean Foster novel, Slipt, immediately spring to mind. It’s certainly nothing new to the horror film industry; in fact, the premise often follows the format of a ghost story. In this instance, a little girl is thought to be mentally traumatised in some way, because she starts to hold conversations with a person who can’t be seen.

So, hardly original but, nevertheless, effective. Indeed, this is quite an enjoyable little film, even if I did develop my own precognitive powers and manage to predict how it would end. Although there are supernatural elements (no more so than the climatic confrontation), The Echo Game plays out closer to a psychological thriller.

The main villain of the piece is well-portrayed; however, I had to ask myself: if she could kill almost anyone, using only mind control, they why did she require two nasty henchmen? I suspect that the answer lies in dialogue exchange.

The film ends quite abruptly, suitably diverting attention away from the couple of loose ends, such as how the little girl can even go up against a woman with the combined powers of other children. Don’t let it be a concern and just enjoy the film.

7

Ty Power