Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
An architect's desire to speak with his wife from beyond the grave using EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), becomes an obsession with supernatural repercussions.
White Noise (2005) takes an intriguing premise in EVP and paranormal communication but squanders it with a muddled, increasingly incoherent plot that fails to build meaningful tension or payoff. Michael Keaton delivers a committed performance that elevates the material somewhat, but supporting players are largely underdeveloped. Visually the film is competent but unremarkable, relying on dim lighting and static-filled screens as its primary aesthetic toolkit without distinctive cinematographic flair. The EVP concept and its exploration of grief through supernatural obsession offered genuine novelty at the time of release, making it somewhat distinctive in the mid-2000s horror landscape. The ending collapses under the weight of its own ambitions, delivering an unsatisfying resolution that raises more questions than it answers in frustrating rather than intriguing ways.