Echoes Of Fear is an Irish production with a US setting- and is the 5th film written & directed by Brian Avenet-Bradley- who seemingly since the early 2000s has put out mainly horror films. The films certainly well shot, and the tension/ atmosphere is good- also the whole story nicely pulls you in too, which is always a big positive. What often doesn’t quite come up to scratch is the acting, which is decidedly mixed- going from rather flat/ bland-to-passable, I know this can be an issue with B movie horror in general, but unfortunately, here it does at times it pulls the film down.

The film's plot finds young & timid woman Alisa(Trista Robinson) been given/ moving into her Grandfathers Hillside house- after he has supposable died of a heart attack. The plan is for her, and her rather shifting & uncaring boyfriend, to do up the place & resell it. But fairly soon Alisa starts seeing things- as first shadows, the darting sheets, then strange white figures- appearing from seemingly empty rooms & empty baths. Next door lives a seemingly kindly old man, who chain-smokes & drags around an oxygen tank- and he pops up ever so often to help. The film nicely builds its mystery & atmosphere- and along the way we get some neat J –horror eerier-ness, well-timed & surprisingly effective jump scares, and later slightly twisted/ creepy thriller content.

So onto the less positive side of the film, and the main issue here is lead actress Trista Robinson- when we first see her she dropping key plot points in a deeply bland manner, and as we move into the film her bland & wooden acting deepens, it’s not until far later in the film, when the more thriller side of things kick in, that she emotes any real emotion. The supporting cast largely doesn’t fare well either- the boyfriend, though slightly less wooden is unlikable, her girlfriend who turn-up for a bit is equally bland, it’s only the older neighbor who mangers to come across passable & believable.  I’ve been a horror film fan for the last thirty-plus or so years, so I’m used to haphazard- to bad acting- but Ms. Robinson certainly sticks in my mind as one of the more wooden leads I’ve seen in some time.  And this is a real pity, as around her is a good supernatural thriller, and one is kept held all the way through wondering how it will all resolve.

I’d reviewed the film from an on-liner screener link- so can’t comment on any extras on the finished disc. In conculsion it’s clear Mr. Avenet-Bradley has a passion for horror and knows how the use the tropes in a rewarding & effective manner- it’s just a pity that he couldn’t have found a better leading lady, because if he had I feel it would have jumped from a two & a half/ three mark film, up to a four. Certainly, this is worth a look if you like eerier-to-tense enough supernatural thrillers, just be prepared for the acting. The films out on download/ on-demand 20th of July, with the DVD following on the 3rd of August from Second Sight Films.