White Noise ** (2005, Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice, Chandra West) – Classic Movie Review 10,752

Director Geoffrey Sax’s 2005 supernatural horror thriller White Noise stars Michael Keaton as successful architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) who lives happily with his wife Anna (Chandra West) until her tragic unexpected death by drowning, believed to have fallen into the river while trying to change a flat tyre.

Ian McNeice plays Raymond Price, whose son has also died, and tells him he has recorded messages from Anna through electronic voice phenomena (EVP), where voices, believed to be from the ‘other side’, can be heard on audio recordings. Jonathan becomes obsessed with trying to contact Anna himself.

White Noise is a good example of an only moderate, low-budget chiller (with a budget of $10 million) defying poor reviews and turning itself into a hit movie (taking $91.2 million at the box office). To be fair, it has something going for it – a few things actually, the premise, unusually cast Keaton’s dedicated performance, the committed cast, and Sax’s handling. And, though this is an intriguing idea, it was always going to be tricky to make it work, as Sax finds out.

Also in the cast are Deborah Kara Unger as Sarah Tate, Mike Dopud as Detective Smits, Ian McNeice as Raymond Price, Chandra West as Anna Rivers, Nicholas Elia as Mike Rivers, Keegan Connor Tracy as Mirabelle Keegan, Sarah Strange as Jane, Amber Rothwell as Susie Tomlinson, Suzanne Ristic as Mary Freeman, and Mitchell Kosterman as Work Man.

White Noise is directed by Geoffrey Sax, runs 101 minutes, is made by White Noise UK, Brightlight and Gold Circle, is released by Universal (US) and Entertainment (UK), is written by Niall Johnson, shot by Chris Seager, produced by Paul Brooks and Shawn Williamson, scored by Claude Foisy and designed by Michael S Bolton.

It was released in January, regarded as the winter dump month of the film calendar, but still did very well at the box office, leading film studios to realise that there was an untapped audience for horror films released in January and prompting them to release quality horror films in the month.

But of course this idea doesn’t always work. A sequel titled White Noise: The Light, directed by Patrick Lussier and starring Nathan Fillion and Katee Sackhoff, was released in January 2007. It flopped, failing to recoup its similar $10 million budget. White Noise or not, The Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,752

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