Interférences

I first heard about White Noise when I saw the TV advert. Before then I didn't even know it existed. I watched the trailer online and decided that I would go and see it. Now being a fan of films like The Sixth Sense, I thought that this film would give me everything I wanted. It has Michael Keaton in it, and he rocks. Unfortunately the film did not deliver. It tried to be another Sixth Sense or Stir of Echoes, and failed miserably. It has a very promising start, but the middle just drags on repeating itself, and ends with a completely poor twist which any monkey could have figured out. Unfortunately like most "Scary" films nowadays it relies on loud noises and bangs to make the audience jump. This film could have been so much more. It's a shame because it was a good idea.

White Noise is a film that takes a true scientific phenomenon, and makes a film out of it. The phenomenon is one which involves electronic recording/broadcast equipment. In amongst white-noise (that crackle and hiss you get on a blank recording) and static on untuned TV reception there are voices and images discernible. Sometimes these voices have been clear enough to work out, and many people believe they are the voices and images of those who have died, trying to contact the living.

In the film, Michael Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers, an estate agent who loses his wife. When he is approached by Raymond, a man who lost his son years ago and claims he has heard from Jonathan's wife, it draws him into the phenomenon, and pretty soon he becomes obsessed, recording his own tapes and viewing/listening to them for messages. Then, suddenly, the messages become clear, and seem to be premonitions. Can he decipher the meaning of the messages, or will he disturb something best left alone? I was uncertain going into the film what to expect. Too many times the film world have come up with a great concept, but failed to deliver anything more than mediocre when it is a horror subject. Expecting another Godsend, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty good film, with some nice touches, and chills. Admittedly the story wouldn't look out of place on X-Files, but unlike the recent The Forgotten, it manages to feel complete, and doesn't seem to take the easy option at the end.

The direction by Sax (best know for his TV work such as Tipping the Velvet, Dr Who, Clocking Off, and Spitting Image to name a few) is more than sufficient, and he uses the white-noise to great effect. A little buzz here, and flicker there all serve to unnerve, and you could be forgiven for thinking you are watching another Japanese adaptation. There are a lot of similarities to eastern horror throughout, the use of silence the unnerve, the distorted images in the TV sets, and so on. Only the occasion "music to let you know you should jump" lets down the tone.

Nevertheless, with a well woven script which doesn't pander to the lowest denominator, and a sterling performance from Michael Keaton, who hasn't really had a presence on the screen since 1998s Jack Frost, make this an enjoyable little movie which deserves a viewing or two.

Legitimately creepy and unsettling without trying to hard or relying on female nudity to try and sell a lame story like most horror movies! I was on a marathon of horror movies and watched final destination, the gift, it lurks below, and this and this movie was the best by far. It made sense, it was logical, it was creepy, decent acting and based on reality but with amped up supernatural stuff and no nudity! Recommended :)

What a shame it is when a potentially captivating and refreshingly low-key story manages to latch onto your interest at the start and then gradually lets you down further and further until you're left scratching your mystified head by the time it reaches its overdone conclusion. Unfortunately, this is what happened to me by the end of WHITE NOISE.

It wasn't Michael Keaton's fault; it was a pleasure to see him return as the star of a brand new movie once again, looking a bit wrinkled perhaps, but still managing to give a strong and sincere performance. As a man whose wife has recently died, he becomes obsessed with her wandering spirit in the afterlife (not a new idea), apparently getting contacted by her through that funky electrical fuzz business you see on your television screen when there's nothing being broadcast.

The idea of spirits communicating via the airwaves is called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and there are a lot of people who actually believe in it for real, so I'm not going to make any comments about what I think of that, or them. Let me just say that I'm all for suspension of disbelief when it comes to buying into fantastic films like this, but what I can't tolerate is not understanding what the hell was supposed to be taking place, which is about where I was left stranded when the credits finally began to roll. Much static indeed.

There are occasionally movies like this that have me completely baffled, but if a film fails to make itself clear for me, I tend to consider that to be the fault of the filmmaker, not my own (unless I watched it while I was too tired to focus or something). Well, for WHITE NOISE I was wide awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed -- so guess who's to blame?

White Noise comes across as a horror movie that tries to do something original before they are forced into doing a remake of an Asian film. It will still draw comparison with Hideo Nakata's Ring trilogy because of the static TV's but that is unfair due to the subject. The subject being Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), which is a paranormal occurrence where the dead contact the living through static, recorded on the TV or a sound recording device. Original enough to make a movie about plus scary things jumping out of a static TV is relevant to the subject. Yay Hollywood. The apparent decent plot and the not-too-shabby cast headed by Michael Keaton actually had me very eager to see this, such a shame then that the movie actually doesn't do what it says on the tin.

The first half of the movie is a decent drama about the loss of a mans wife and his obsession with contacting her from beyond the grave whilst his work and the relationship with his son suffers. The second half however seems to just draw from the basic scary movie template and disappointingly swerves away from the dead contacting the living and into Keaton running around like a psychic detective in a race against time trying to save people from dark forces.

The movie opens in generic perfect home situation. Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers the successful architect who is married to his wife Anna the successful author, even his sons mother (the divorcée) has a good relationship with Mr. & Mrs. Rivers. Apart from the radio skipping to static a few times (an unused plot device?) things seem pretty rosy. Until "I love you" gets mouthed from the wife leaving the driveway taking the kid to school. Automatic dead meat. When will they learn? The police assume she slipped from the motorway, bashed her head on a rock then got taken away by the tide but Jonathan doesn't accept her death and doesn't give up hope. However, on his first day back from work since his wife went missing he is followed by a stranger whom he confronts. The stranger turns out to be some sort of expert in a phenomenon known as EVP and he says not only is Anna dead but she has been contacting him from the other side. Jonathan dismisses it until she leaves a message on his answering machine. Yeah, it is that simple. Cue Jonathan getting obsessed about finding out what her message is, mishaps happening and Jonathan getting even more obsessed over something completely different. Drawing in another believer in EVP they investigate into messages the recording equipment seems to be getting from the future.

The ending leaves the movie ridden with plot holes, which has frankly become expected of movies like this from the past few years. It could have been so much more. Perhaps the director was wary of making this film 'The Sixth Sense from the other point of view' but then again the CGI scary ghosts wouldn't work in a more subtle setting like that. The plot turns into some non-sensical slush whilst the score let's the film down. The acting wasn't the strongest either but if you want to be scared every 20 minutes by the volume being cheaply cranked up and CGI ghouls flying out of static then go spend your hard earned cash on this.

6/10 Robb Idle