With a tagline that reads "The dead are trying to get a hold of you," White Noise promises to be an engaging and suspenseful supernatural thriller; probably a must-see for all those scary-movie buffs out there. In actual fact, it is not. During the first hour, we are led to believe that this is a ghost-movie, but in the last fifteen minutes or so, the film suddenly does an about turn and reveals itself to be a psychological-thriller-wannabe instead. GO Figure~The film attempts to create a story out of electronic voice phenomenon (a.k.a EVP), which allows the dead to communicate with their loved ones through images and voices recordable on electronic media such as VCRs, computers, etc. Michael Keaton (yes, he of Batman fame..) plays a husband distraught by the sudden death of his wife in a freak accident, who later on, is told by an EVP enthusiast that the latter is trying to contact him from the dead. Keaton puts on quite a fine and intense performance, but the film is so riddled with holes and cliched "scary" moments that all his efforts are in vain.
The inclusion of EVP into the plot might make this film seem more intelligent than the convoluted senselessness of recent hits like The Grudge or The Ring, but at least these two movies had plenty of style; White Noise has neither that nor substance -- I think it's just plain static...
my ratings ---- 2/5 stars~!!!
