 Movie
Reviews
with Evelyn Gough
White Noise (M)
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
 Michael Keaton can't pick up anything but white noise on EVP FM...
E.V.P? Ever heard of it? Don't worry, I hadn't either until this movie and no, it's not a new disease. It's Electronic Voice Phenomena. Yep, forget ouija boards and mediums. This is the 21st century and if you want to contact the dead it's time to tune in and get technical. In other words, you need a lot of electronic gadgetry and a seven-year-old to show you how to operate it all. Then prepare yourself either for messages from beyond the grave or a thumper of a headache from staring at a buzzing white screen for hours on end...
Jonathan Rivers (Micheal Keaton) is very happily married to the beautiful and talented Anna (Chandra West). They've just found out Anna's pregnant and life's good. Too good. Cue foreboding music. Before you can say electronic voice phenomena, Anna's gone missing and Jonathan's being harassed by some loony called Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) telling him Anna's dead and she's contacted him through his fancy-shmancy electronic equipment. It takes the discovery of Anna's body before Jonathan will give E.V.P a try, but very soon he too is staring at buzzing white screens, listening and hoping to receive a message from the love of his life. What he isn't prepared for are all the additional warnings he receives about the imminent demise of locals in the area. Can he decipher the messages in time to prevent their untimely deaths?
The ghost story may have gone high-tech in White Noise but it still provides the obligatory chills, thrills and thumps in the night. Enough to keep me jumping anyway. One thing most Canadian productions can guarantee is atmosphere by the truckload and White Noise is no exception. It's sombre, bleak and creepy, and will have you twitching till the very end. The underrated Micheal Keaton may not have leading man charisma but he is a great character actor and this is the perfect role for him. A spooky supernatural tale with a killer of a twist.
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