La Voix des morts : La Lumière

Do you even remember White Noise? It was a January 2005 release that grossed a very surprising $24 million in its opening weekend ranking it second only to the mega-hit Meet the Fockers. Starring Michael Keaton (who had not had a hit since he hung up his bat cape some 12 years earlier), the movie was about a grieving husband whose wife is trying to contact him through EVP's – Electronic Voice Phenomena.

Sure the movie grosses petered out in the weeks that lay ahead, but there was no escaping the EVP craze as everything from CNN to TLC had shows dedicated to the existence of the deceased communicating through television and radio frequencies.

Have memories of it or nay, there was no doubt that its $91 million worldwide take would generate an eventual sequel. Enter White Noise 2: The Light which went straight to DVD but deserves better in that it is a much spookier film than its predecessor.

White Noise 2 starts off by revealing that 'Nearly ten thousand people die every day in the United States, the majority of deaths occurring in urban environments. As such, a resident of a metropolis might encounter up to 1.7 people per day who will be deceased by the day's end. – North American Statistics Institute – 2002.' Barely do you have time to ingest these interesting words of ponder when we are introduced to the Dale Family – Father Abe (Nathan Fillion of Serenity fame), Mother Rebecca (Kendall Cross) and their son Danny who are in the wrong diner at the wrong time when a shooter walks in and opens fire killing both Rebecca and Danny before turning the weapon on himself.

Abe takes the deaths hard (go figure!) and tries to take his own life with an overdose of pills that produces a NDE (Near Death Experience). After his release from hospital, Abe starts to hear and see "all sorts of electrical stuff" that has his attending doctor interested in investigating. Lucky for Abe, the good ole doctor just happens to have an EVP room that looks like a command center for NATO. In a matter of mere seconds, the doctor is able to determine that due to Abe's NDE that he is now an EVP receiver (keep up with the acronyms will ya'!).

It takes a great leap of faith to believe that Abe can now see people illuminated before they die or that television sets are sending him messages, but if you ignore the illogic behind the expressed phenomena, you might just be able to get through the film with more enjoyment than a straight to DVD release usually allows.

Seeing the original White Noise is not a pre-requisite to enjoying the sequel. There is no tie in to the first film and where the original story was a man's quest simply to understand EVP's and then his obsession exploit it to find his wife's killer, the White Noise 2: The Light spends more time with Abe running around acting as a superhero in the city – saving people from impending death thanks to his visions of disastrous futures.

Although there are many reasons not to like White Noise 2, Nathan Fillion gives us a character so rich in turmoil and humor that his performance alone is worth spending a couple of bucks at the local rental shop. Even as the film takes a turn at about the 45 minute mark with a reveal that leads Abe to revisit the circumstances of his family's tragedy and his similarities with the killer, the film still maintains its eeriness.

White Noise 2 is directed by Patrick Lussier who directed three Dracula films and is in pre-production of the My Bloody Valentine remake (happy happy joy joy). Although no Carpenter – hell he ain't no Joe Dante – he does show promise in this production and is able to spook his audience without the use of gore. It will be interesting when he gets a script that holds better material than anything presently in his biography.

The ending of the film is something that might turn some from the recommending to the soon forgetting, but this is exactly the kind of film that they have been making in Japan for years that the western world keeps remaking.

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Well I'll be honest. The only reason I took interest in this one was because of Nathan Fillion. He's great in everything that he is in. Here, he's playing a different kind of role, but you never get to see that side of him come through. This movie has its moments, and the premise had a lot of potential. However, the actual film didn't measure up. About 1% of this movie is character development, and that sucks because I actually wanted to get to know these characters before the weird events of the movie took place. The other 99% is the director trying to cram this story into an hour and a half long movie. Also, seeing as how this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the original, I really don't see why it's called White Noise 2. I guess they just wanted to get the whole transmission after death thing off the ground quick and weren't interested in a new franchise. At any rate the pacing seems rushed which is a bummer because it could have been cool. I am a big fan of religious fiction movies, and that's what this movie is. Also, it's not really a horror movie. It has scary "jump" scenes, but it's more of a thriller, and it tries too hard at times to scare you when the story line isn't really supposed to be that kind of scary. If they had called the movie something else and if the director had had free reign over the production, I think it could have been good, but we don't really get to see Fillion or any of the actors become their characters. If you get into the story even a little bit, it works just not for very long.

Let me start this off by saying that White Noise 2 is amazing! Far better than its predecessor which, suffered more at its conclusion for having a lazy finale. Nathan Fillion is brilliant as Abe, a man who is revived from death after attempt at suicide over the murder of his family. He now can see a light on people who may die within the minute or the next day. He sets out to be the hero, only to find out that meddling with deaths plan will result in disastrous consequences. This film is visual impressive, well paced for its 97 minutes and is very strong in the drama department, the acting is great and there are no cheesy moments within range. I loved every minute of it and I recommend you see this psychological/thriller/drama.

There are a lot of great things to be said about this movie, but that it deserves a 10 is definitely not one of them. Although the movie was paced well there are many holes in the storyline and in the plot also.

Nathan Fillion and Katie Sackhoff do very good jobs with their characters. As for caring about the characters you really don't get to know them that well aside from Abe.

The end of this movie well lets just say it borders on the cheesy and it left me thinking "what the".

There are many places that you will think "why did you do that" and "that was just mental" because it is in these areas that common sense should prevail, however that is not the case, and can be very frustrating. The movie at times is a little cliché, using cheap tricks to get cheap chills.

I felt i had to comment on this movie because of its 10 star rating when it is far from.

Watch this movie for sure however don't go into it as did expecting the best horror flick of the year and only getting an above average movie.

This movie has the potential to be a good horror. However, the typical flashing, grey type ghosts and predictable scares are disappointing. Why Hollywood continues to make high-budget horrors with these effects baffles me? They aim at viewers with weak dispositions rather than real horror fans. Hollywood needs to have a good look at foreign horror films and learn a lesson.

Nathan gives a good performance and in my opinion is the back bone to the entire movie. If they expanded on the dogmatic storyline a little more, it could have been more interesting.

I recommend this movie as a 'no-brainer' horror flick that will leave you fairly satisfied.