A young woman, who’s grandfather has died, arrives at his home to clear it out. But as mysterious things happens, she begins to uncover secrets about him and the house…

Echoes Of Fear at it’s very basic level shares some similarites with 2012’s The Pact and 2022’s Barbarian; a young woman, a house and secrets. However, that is where the similarities end.

The key difference, what makes Barbarian so good, is that while you have an uneasy feeling from the start, the film takes its time building that unease and tension before it finally reveals its secrets.

Echoes Of Fear (and The Pact to a degree), from the beginning, plays its hand. It suggests something wrong from its opening and while it does build some tension and unease, it is more designed to deliver shocks. If Barbarian is a thriller/horror film, Echoes OF Fear, from the outset wants to be a horror film.

Written by Brian Avenet-Bradley and directed by him and Laurence Avenet-Bradley, Echoes Of Fear does deliver some well time shocks and the mystery to be fair is revealed by its end well.

But it suffers major flaws too. It’s characters are too cliched, including a rather annoying boyfriend character. The reveals when they come aren’t that much of a surprise in truth. It is very obvious.

The final act does drag a bit, taking too long. Perhaps an edit, perhaps a rewrite, working more on the mystery at its heart rather than the reveal would have worked better.

Performance wise, Trista Robinson (whom I’d seen in 2013’s The Human Race) is okay as Alysa, the woman at the stories heart. Better is Hannah Race as her best friend Steph and Paul Chirico plays the annoying boyfriend Brandon well.

While there are a lot of cliche’s in Echoes Of Fear, some or most you’ll likely see coming, it’s not a bad film. It also, to its credit, isn’t as explicit as it could be, considering aspects of its story.

Not a bad film, one despite its flaws I do think it is worth a watch.

Rating: *** out of 5