White Noise (2005)

Originally Reviewed

Thursday June 30, 2005

White Noise is the next chapter in the rise and fall of Michael Keaton (the rise being Batman, the fall being everything after that). Michael Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers, an architect whose famous author wife mysteriously dies. Supposedly she died by falling into the lake after pulling her car to the side of the road to fix a flat tire, which seems like a little unbelievable death. After her death Jonathan realizes he is being followed by a rather hefty fellow. In confronting the man he is told that his wife has been contacting him. Jonathan blows this guy off thinking he's insane, but soon begins to receive phone calls from his wife’s cell phone with only static on the other line. Then he gets a call at home with her voice calling out his name, this is enough to send him running to the fat man for answers.

The fat man has a massive equipment setup for recording what he calls EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), supposedly the dead attempt to make contact through the recording of static off the radio or static noise off the TV screen. While listening for his wife's voice Jonathan hears some angry voices, the fat man tells him to be careful as there are some voices from evil spirits that can cause the living harm. It's easy to believe the fat man has an agenda, until he is mysteriously killed. With him gone Jonathan begins to get overly involved in EVP recording, listening and recording static 24/7. He begins to get messages from people and then messages from his wife. Although it seems his wife is trying to tell him something...

Jonathan begins to realize that the messages he is receiving are not all from the dead but from the future, and his wife is trying to tell him to help certain people who are about to die. He begins to go on a crusade to save these people from certain death along the way he discovers the truth about his wife's death, and the evil behind the noise, a discovery that could end his own life.

White Noise is an average mixture of The Ring and Ghost. Even at only about an hour and a half it still tends to drag, but what will undoubtedly keep you interested is the mystery the story creates, you'll keep watching simply to find out what's going on. Thankfully the ending clears up everything, but I still found the film lacking substance and it tried too hard to be scary, only to fail on most of its attempts. If you have a night when you don't have anything to do it might be worth a rent, it's an extremely corny concept but may leave you looking at the static on a TV screen in a new light.

5/10