A scene from ‘Horsemen’

Dennis Quaid gives an absorbing performance as Aidan Breslin, a hardworking police detective who is an expert in forensic dentistry. He is tasked to solve a series of murders designed like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Famine, Pestilence and Death) to unleash hell on earth. The shock sequence where someone chances upon a platter of teeth torn out from a murder victims sets the tone for the movie. Aidan deduces that the series of killings, where the victims are mutilated, are connected with the Bible passage about the four horsemen. Much of the action is set on blood-splattered crime scenes to and on the lab where autopsy is performed on the victims. If you watch the CSI shows and “Dexter” on TV, this would be familiar territory.

Mixed with the grisly proceedings is Adrian’s messy family life that adds something moving and human to the story. A widower who lost his wife to the big C some years ago, he lacks time for his two sons. He’s more involved with his work as a cop. It’s his eldest son, Alex (Lou Taylor Pucci), who takes care of his younger brother Cory (Liam James).

Quaid shines better in these domestic scenes than when he’s doing cop work since he makes the conflict between his work and his family very touchingly credible. When Kristen (Chinese star Zhang Ziyi in a complex character she doesn’t get to interpret convincingly), the adopted and demented daughter of a victim, turns out to be linked to the killers, the film takes a shocking twist filled with social commentary about victims of society and parental negligence who want to get back on their parents.

If your threshold for violence is high, you’ll enjoy the images of blood and gore in this whodunit: Like a daughter torturing her own mother, people choking on their own blood while strapped up with fish hooks, and a character cutting himself open in front of his brother using a sharp medical instrument. Those who are turned off by bloodshed will surely just close their eyes to avoid the mayhem, which in all fairness, is not as graphic as in other serial killer movies.

As a murder-mystery, the narrative is told with a Dan Brown (“Da Vinci Code”) feel into it, as it also uses symbols of death and destruction in unraveling the murders that will remind you of the “Saw” series of movies. Directed by Jonas Akerlund, the tension leading to the climax is properly built up with properly sinister and creepy atmosphere in its dark winter locations. If you’re quite good at deduction, you’d easily guess what subsequently happens in the movie which definitely has some questionable plot strands in its script.

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Exuding great star quality of ‘The Echo’

After horror flicks from Thailand, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, the Philippines now has its turn to have a Tagalog film remade in Hollywood, “Sigaw,” with its original Pinoy director also megging it, Yam Laranas. The story is now set in New York City and some changes have been made, particularly in the lead character.

Bobby (Jesse Bradford) is now an ex-con shown being released from jail after three years for involuntary manslaughter. He killed the guy who’s trying to molest his girlfriend Alyssa (Amelia Warner). His mother died while he was in prison. He goes home to the old apartment building where she lived and her things are still in it, including decaying left over canned goods that she kept in her closet.

Bobby just wants to resume his life and finds work as a mechanic in the car shop of Hector (Carlos Leon, Madonna’s ex-BF with whom she has a daughter). He also visits Alyssa who’s now working as a waitress and studying fashion design at the same time. It’s obvious she’s still in love with him even if she felt hurt when he suddenly stopped answering her letters while he was in prison. Just like in the original “Sigaw,” things start to get creepy when Bobby starts hearing sounds in his apartment, including the noisy fights of the couple next door, a cop (Kevin Durand) and his wife (Iza Calzado), while their daughter (Jamie Bloch), is frequently seen playing her small piano on the corridor. Another tenant (Pruitt Taylor Vince, played by James Blanco in the original) also calls Bobby’s attention to the strange sounds he hears but, surprisingly, Bobby doesn’t entertain him.

The movie might be about just another haunted place, but Laranas certainly knows how to build up tension by creating the right kind of creepy and sinister atmosphere in most of his scary scenes. The mother and daughter, just like in the original film, are victims of domestic violence whose souls seek revenge because the people around them didn’t at all bother to help or rescue them while they’re being murdered.

The climax really packs quite a wallop. Bobby finally gets the guts to intervene and there is closure. It’s up to you if you’d buy that or not. Frankly, there are other questions that remain unanswered, foremost of which is why is Bobby, his mom, and the character Vince portrays are the only ones haunted and not the other tenants on the same floor? Are the other apartments on the same floor not occupied? This is never established.

Since this is the first local film to be remade in Hollywood by the same Filipino director at that, all local movie buffs should watch “The Echo.” It’s just a pity that it’s not being released theatrically in the US but goes straight to video in November. It’s only theatrically released in Asia. In all fairness, its offers more thrills and chills than some of the Asian horror flicks remade in Hollywood, like “Dark Water,” “The Grudge” and “The Eye.”

We’ve actually been pondering why its distributor didn’t think it worth releasing in theaters and we think the reason is the same complaint we had about “Sigaw” when we reviewed it then. It’s excruciatingly slow-paced, particularly the first half hour where nothing is happening at all. Most viewers now are reared on the remote control and if the movie or TV show they’re watching moves so slowly, their interest quickly wanes. This is the reason why in most horror flicks now, it’s customary that someone is disposed of in the first 10 or 15 minutes.

“The Echo” offers a good lead portrayal by Jesse Bradford as the haunted ex-con, as well as capable supporting performances from Leon, Durand and Warner. As for our very own Iza Calzado, she makes us proud as she’s surely outstanding as the ghost. Looking exceedingly good on the big screen and exuding great star quality, we hope this will open doors for her internationally as she also acts so well and can definitely give some Hollywood actresses a run for their money.