Release Date: 24 February 2005

Synopsis :

Until the sudden and mysterious death of his beloved wife, architect Jonathan Rivers (MICHAEL KEATON) considered himself a decent, rational man, one who would not ordinarily subscribe to any theories about communicating with the dead. But now, a stranger, Raymond Price (IAN McNEICE), has entered his life, claiming to have heard Jonathan’s wife, Anna (CHANDRA WEST), through EVP. Fueled by his grief as much as curiosity, Jonathan soon finds himself swayed by Raymond’s claims, validated by the recordings of Anna as well as the testimonial of Sarah Tate (DEBORAH KARA UNGER), who herself has found closure with her deceased fiancée through EVP. Jonathan comes to believe when Raymond says of the dead, “I can hear them, I can see them and I can record them.”
Then, the unthinkable—Jonathan himself captures Anna’s voice and image through recordings he has made; she has established direct contact. Anna’s message: for Jonathan to save the future victims of the brutal psychopath who took her life. But his dead wife’s communications are often fuzzy, challenging to decipher. And Jonathan, in his growing obsession with reaching Anna, fails to notice signs of impending danger, summed up by Raymond’s assessment of the souls who cross the divide from the other side: “They can’t all be nice.”
What Jonathan hopes to be true is, in fact, possible: our departed loved ones can reach us… but if they can come through, who, or what else, can also come through?

Movie Review:

What is EVP? Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP, are apparently paranormal sonic events of unknown origin, which can sometimes be heard (and captured in recordings) on various types of electronic apparatus, and which are usually discounted by skeptics as being simple forms of radio interference. Some people believe the voices have a demonic origin, others beleive that they are extraterrestrial attempts at communication, or that they may, in fact, be "projections" from the dead.

Basing on this phenomenon, it’s a no brainer that this subject will be one of the main focus of horror stories. But the real challenge for a horror movie is to do a serious. In this light, I have to give the folks that brought you “White Noise some credit. They were trying to do something serious. Unfortunately, while serious horror worked in films like “The Ring” and “The Sixth Sense,” it falls flat here.

In White Noise, Michael Keaton plays successful architect Jonathan Rivers, whose peaceful existence is shattered by the unexplained disappearance and death of his wife, Linda (Chandra West). Jonathan is eventually contacted by a man (Ian McNeice), who claims to be receiving messages from Linda through EVP. At first skeptical, Jonathan then becomes convinced of the messages' validity, and is soon obsessed with trying to contact her on his own. His further explorations into EVP and the accompanying supernatural messages unwittingly open a door to another world, allowing something uninvited into his life.

The film starts slow enough, showing the interaction and love that Jonathan has for his wife which hopefully gives the audience a feeling for his purpose in trying to contact her through EVP. The trouble here was the emotion he showed for his wife’s untimely death, it wasn’t strong enough. In the grand tradition of scare tactics as such theatrical second-hands like Kevin Costner’s Dragonfly and Halle Berry’s Gothika, White Noise is littered with false scares that every audience member should find familiar. Every time the music swells or a shot lingers, you can bet on a fake startler to follow up and this can get annoying sometimes. There were some very scary moments thrown in amongst the character pieces including what I would call, “The Trio” of death shown in the scrambled noise of the TV who nervously held your attention but never really delivered satisfactorily. Visually, “White Noise” is pretty compelling. However, it does suffer from some over-production. Somehow the film didn’t the film doesn’t fit together and plus, the execution of the film was terrible.

The performances are nothing to write home about. Michael Keaton, in his first starring role since 1998's Jack Frost, does what he can with his underdeveloped character. He spends most of the film whining in front of a TV screen. Deborah Kara Unger turns up as a character who truly defies death in her own way but is similarly underwritten. Ian McNeice is the only memorable character of the lot, but his screen time is unwisely slim.

If "White Noise" were to simply tell the story of a grieving widow who, through using EVP, unwittingly rustles up less-than-friendly spirits, the film might have had a chance at being both a scary cinematic ride and a thought-provoking rumination on life, death, and the possibilities of a place in between. Instead of trusting such an unnerving notion to guide his story and characters, director Geoffrey Sax strains all sense of credibility and the noted capabilities of Electronic Voice Phenomenon to present a motion picture filled with cheap, loud musical stings in place of actual scares and a rising nonsensical plot that involves everything from a serial killer to possession to evil spirits to cheesy apparitions to silly "Unbreakable"-style average-guy-turned-savior theatrics. It all becomes too much, an overstuffed, almost incomprehensible melting pot of bad ideas and countless story holes and it even comes topped with the "surprise" climax that is nothing more than a slap in the face to the audience members.

Movie Rating: C

Review by Lokman B.S.