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White Noise
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Starring: Michael Keaton, Chandra West, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice
Script: Niall Johnson
Running Time: 1:41
Country: USA
Year: 2005
Official Site: White Noise
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In White Noise, a paranormal thriller built around an occurrence known as EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), a widower (Michael Keaton) who's in contact with his wife in the afterlife gets more than what he bargained for when he gets mixed up with a trio of evil spirits.
While the market has been abounding with ghost films of all kinds, including the latest craze for Japanese horror flicks, White Noise slightly differs from the rest of the pack, as it focuses on a lesser-known phenomenon, approached here from a realistic angle, but also because it features middle-aged characters rather than a bunch of teenagers with overblown hormones.
The film is set in a psychological tone, taking time to give a place to a grief so strong that it will logically lead to a need for communication between the dead and the living. White Noise advances slowly and, from the slow pace to the moods and use of TVs as channels with the dead, it is clear that this is an Americanized offspring of the Japanese Ringu-type wave, which also guarantees that your experience will be creepy rather than scary.
While the first half of the film is pretty satisfying as a realistic tale, the second half of the film turns into full Hollywood mode, with the arrival of nasty entities and the involvement of a serial killer. The break in rhythm and tone is so clear that it looks like the two parts were written by a different screenwriter—which isn't the case—for two distinctive audiences: adults and teenagers. By the end of White Noise, you get the feeling that this is one these movies better fitted for your DVD player than for the big screen. And the people at Universal are fully aware of this since they packed this release with cool extras, even organizing a real live EVP experiment at the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Blvd for the DVD release.
I must admit I was more fascinated by the bonus features than by the picture itself, since they explore the EVP phenomenon through interviews, a how-to guide and most of all a live filming of actual recording sessions held at an eerie castle in Hollywood Hills and at the Excalibur, a notoriously haunted nightclub in Chicago. These extras are scarier than the movie. And for those who would like to give it a try or are unsure about the veracity of the events witnessed, the how-to guide shows you how to simply do it yourself, with a tape recorder. Whether you are a believer or think they're charlatans, just take your recorder, head to the creepiest cemetery near you—I might give it a shot at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery—and you will see for yourself. It's certainly where the main value of this DVD package lies, first by piquing your curiosity and then giving you the means to experiencing it yourself.
Fred Thom
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White Noise review
