Echoes, AKA Living Nightmare, is not a horror flick. We follow a gifted artist who has a recurring nightmare, increasingly real and disturbing to Micheal Durant (Alfieri) who also plays his past life self, the Spanish artist Serrano. "The last thing I see," he tells girlfriend Christine (Nell), "the image that haunts me, is his face. Half in light. Half in shadow." Micheal wrestles with the meaning and power in this nightmare, and his strength to put his past life self to rest, with the help of psychic Gale Sondergaard. What's fascinating is the intensity of light and shadow, as well as stark close up, and background mirrors, clowns, murals, nudity and faces you have to be quick to see. Agreed, the music is wrong, wrong, wrong. It's Twilight Zone meets church organ. John Spencer (West Wing) makes a memorable appearance as friend Stephen. Paul Joynt plays a snobby rival, Ruth Roman is endearing as Micheals mother. The dialogue is uneven, but if past lives, psychics and the thin lines between artistic and insane, dream and reality interest you, there's lots here for you.
