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"It's impossible to follow any reasonable trail to the big revelation," writes Bob Smithouser (Plugged In), "which is an incoherent marriage of supernatural shenanigans and serial-killer shtick. Some of the violence is disturbing. But perhaps the bigger issue for Christian families is Hollywood's ongoing fascination with Sixth Sense-style chat sessions … that seek answers from the dearly departed."

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) says it's "disappointing simply because it doesn't generate the anxiety or scares that one expects from the genre. [Director Geoffrey] Sax seems to think that showing the snowy, electrically charged static screens of a TV or computer monitor provides us with the expectation that something is about to happen. He must have forgotten that one's first response to static is pretty much universal—annoyance. Although White Noise isn't much of a film it does provide us with an opportunity to consider what the Scriptures tell us about communicating with the dead."

Mainstream critics are writing it off as just a bunch of genre-thriller noise.

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says, "The story is as insubstantial as its spectral spooks. Director Geoffrey Sax tries to distract viewers with hokey horror sequences that are more silly than scary and migraine-inducing sound effects of static interference from snowy TV screens (thus, the title). It is a shame that Sax didn't time the static blasts to cover up the corny dialogue. The unwieldy script makes almost no sense at all."

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