WhiteNoise (2005)

Directed by: Geoffrey Sax | 101 minutes | drama, science fiction, horror, thriller | Actors: Michael Keaton, Chandra West, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice, Sarah Strange, Nicholas Elia, Mike Dopud, Mitchell Kosterman

Scary movies for adults, it remains a tricky business. Are there still horror films to be made that really scare? ‘White Noise’ partially succeeds. Geoffrey Sax’s film, who made his name with TV series such as Bergerac, Spitting Image and more recently The Van Helsing Chronicles, is in two minds, and that is both its strength and its weakness.

Jonathan Rivers is introduced to the Electronic Voice Phenomenon by one Raymond Price – the man stalks Rivers after his wife is reported missing. Price appears to have built an extensive media center in his living room that produces vague messages and gritty images of ghosts. They are the dead – including Anna – and they want to warn us who else is in danger of leaving Earth soon.

Grieving Rivers becomes addicted to the opportunity to interact with Anna, but soon realizes that the messages could save lives. The scenes that follow are the strongest of the film. Among other things, Rivers saves a baby from a car wreck and his race against death is occasionally seriously macabre and convincingly portrayed, supported by cutting sound effects.

It all gets a bit vague at the end, but more about that below. ‘White Noise’ navigates between a whodunnit and a horror film and regularly misleads the viewer, right up to the denouement. This is due to the fact that Sax does not on balance opt for the spiritism via the ether that is central to this film. Why not? Well, it’s hard to have a happy ending when you talk about contact with the dead. He goes for a thriller and that makes sense: are they dark forces or is there just a murderous radio amateur behind it? That way you also keep the people who don’t like the phenomenon of EVP in the room.

Michael Keaton delivers a solid performance in ‘White Noise’, but his opponents get very little playing time. Deborah Kara Unger is fellow sufferer Sarah; her character and relationship with Rivers is barely fleshed out. The figure of Raymond Price also quickly disappears from the scene.

You actually expect that the makers give way to Keaton’s battle with the evil forces, but at the end an insignificant character is once again performed and then another turnaround is made. It turns out to be difficult for the makers to finish the story; the choice between a living and a ‘spiritualized’ murderer is not made. It’s brave of Sax to make such a nasty film – because after ‘White Noise’ you no longer go shopping happily or propose to your loved one – but a bit sloppy for such a big production.