Movie Reviews
Its a remarkable fact that our culture (along with the pervasive influence of Hollywood) has made a horror fest out of those who have passed away. Of all the philosophical scholars that have commented on this subject, the humorously-dry C.S. Lewis got it right when he stated that of all the people he could think of, the ones who are dead are the least dangerous. However, what the film White Noise considers is what I think to be one of the most infatuating topics to ponder.
But its not so much that I have an infatuation with it, but I can understand how it can go that far. For those who believe that the dead walk among the living, it is no surprise that when a loved one dies they want to seek some kind of help beyond that of this world. They need, for one reason or another, some sort of contact with that person they love in hopes for a withdrawal that they are satisfied with.
In White Noise, Michael Keaton plays Jonathon Rivers, a wealthy architect who has a child by a former wife, and another one on the way with a new wife. His relationship with his ex-wife is unbelievably pleasant, making an awkward situation with is current wife, popular novelist Anna Rivers. When she goes to work one day and doesnt come back, a massive search effort is put in progress. They find her car at the outskirts of a lake, but no body. So Jonathon keeps hope that she will turn up unscathed. But when five weeks pass, Jonathon gets a greeting from Raymond Price who tells him that he's received messages from his dead wife, and introduces EVP to him. EVP, as said in the beginning of the film, is Electronic Voice Phenomenon a form of communication with the dead.
According to a couple of experts, EVP was developed in the 1920s where any kind of recording device is set in a room and recorded for a long period of time. When played back, the result should be the voices of the dead (or, with a videotape, the images of the dead).
So Jonathon becomes obsessed with this subject and pours himself into making contact with wife Anna. Now, this is an interesting, and sometimes compelling psychological horror show, but I found myself even more skeptical of EVP by the end of the film than when I entered it. I cant be sure if the filmmakers were trying to accomplish some type of persuasion, but if that was a primary goal, then White Noise is a massive failure.
However, if this is simply a convention thriller with a bunch of small jumps and a couple of potentially big scares, then its nowhere near as bad as it should be. I call that sheer dumb luck because no matter how scary this will seem to some people, theyll have no idea as to what happens in the end. In my opinion, the ending mars any intelligent aspect of what could possibly have been a successful white-knuckler. The conclusion is so random and ridiculous that it ruins the previous running time. Too many copy cat horror films are being made right now, especially (but not surprisingly) in January, and even though White Noise is unscary and isnt worth a glance, you could do worse. **