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White Noise Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for violence, disturbing images and language) Theater release: January 07, 2005 by Universal Pictures Directed by: Geoffrey Sax Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes Cast: Michael Keaton (Jonathan Rivers), Deborah Kara Unger (Sarah Tate), Chandra West (Anna Rivers), Nicholas Elia (Mike Rivers), Ian McNeice (Raymond Price), Amber Rothwell (Susie Tomlinson) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Most ghost stories play on our belief, however subconscious, that the spirit world really does exist, and some films in this genre are more determined to prove the existence of ghosts than others. For some Christians, this is reason enough to avoid such films altogether, but others, like myself, would argue that it is still possible to find something of value in supernatural thrillers, even when they don't conform to a specifically biblical view of the afterlife. The Sixth Sense, for example, works perfectly well as a parable about the power of trust and love to overcome fear and shame, and if writer-director M. Night Shyamalan really does believe that it is possible for little boys to communicate with the dead, he thankfully does not stress this point too strongly within the film itself. Other films, however, seem to have more explicit agendas in mind, and White Noise fits squarely within this category.

The film—which has been promoted among fans of the paranormal with the same kind of enthusiasm that some Christians have for end-times movies—begins and ends with title cards that tell us some of the alleged facts regarding Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP. Apparently Thomas Edison thought it should be possible to construct a device delicate enough to detect the personalities of those souls that have passed on to the other side; however, according to those who believe in EVP, it may be that our radios and TV sets are already picking up signals from the dead without being specially designed to do so.

That's the premise, and if White Noise were just another earnest independent film pushing bad science and bad spirituality on its audience—like What the Bleep Do We Know?—it would be a numbing bore. But the film has its surprises. For one thing, it is genuinely scary, and one of the most chilling, frightening flicks I've seen in years. For another, it ends on a note that is not as rah-rah for the supernatural as you might expect.

But first, the story. Michael Keaton (who, between Beetlejuice and Jack Frost, knows a thing or two about ghosts) plays Jonathan Rivers, a happily-married architect whose wife, Anna (Chandra West), leaves the house one day and never comes back. But then funny things begin to happen, and always at 2:30 in the morning. On that first night, his clock stops and the radio starts blasting. On another night, he is woken by a knock on the door from the police. And on another night, a message arrives on his phone.

It turns out Anna is dead, and soon Jonathan finds he is being followed by a man, Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), who asks if Jonathan would like to hear a message from Anna's spirit. Jonathan rejects the offer at first, but eventually decides to visit Raymond's home, which is full of videotapes, audiotapes, and journals in which he has indexed the various messages he has received from the dead, all of which are hidden in the otherwise random static picked up by his antennae. Jonathan is also introduced to Sarah Tate (Deborah Kara Unger), a woman who has already made contact with her own loved one through Raymond's help, and who now says she comes to Raymond's place all the time because "it's addictive."

That's the first sign right there, that obsession with EVP might not be an entirely healthy thing. Jonathan soon becomes an "addict" of sorts himself, surrounding himself with video screens and digital editing equipment so that he can bank messages from the dead and replay them when necessary—and while he apparently receives signals that enable him to see accidents before they happen, and thus to rescue innocent people, he also attracts the attention of much more shadowy forces, who threaten to wreak some havoc.

White Noise thus includes an element of extreme caution that is missing from a number of recent ghost movies. The Sixth Sense, for example, suggests that ghosts are only scary until you give them a chance to explain themselves; but White Noise acknowledges that there are some spirits that have no ambition beyond causing as much damage as they can. The film never uses the word "demon," but it does suggest that those who open themselves up to this sort of phenomenon are exposing themselves to as much harm as good.

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