WHITE NOISE

Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Written by Niall Johnson
Cinematography by Chris Seager
Music by Claude Fooisy
Cast: Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West & Ian McNeice

2004/96 mins/Color/5.1 Dolby Digital
2.35:1 anamorphic/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from Universal DVD

For architect Jonathan Winters (Michael Keaton), life looked perfect... until that tragic day. His wife Anna, played by the dropdead gorgeous Chandra West, disappears without at first any traces. A few days later, the renowned writer is found dead in what looks like an accident. From there Jonathan's life goes down and needs sometimes for himself.

Soon enough, he meets a strange man who has been following him in the past few days. That man, Raymond, tell Jonathan that his wife Anna contacted him through E.V.P. (Electric Voice Phenomenon). At first Jonathan is reluctant and doesn't believe Raymond but when strange things are happening to him he thinks that there might be some truth to this. Unfortunately, he will open a door with the other side much more dangerous then he bargained for.

Make no mistake about it, WHITE NOISE is not a classic and will never be. It doesn't really get more mainstream horror, or thriller as Hollywood like to say, then this. Yet I was surprised by how nicely written and solid the story slowly unfold itself. Unfortunately the movie relies too much on simple jump scares and has an atrocious "twist" ending that I saw coming the moment we see the person for the first time.

Universal went all out on this edition which don't surprise me since the movie made a load of money at the box office. The movie is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and it is of course anamorphic thus enhanced for 16x9 television. The transfer is bright, sharp and features no defect whatsoever. We get the choice of either the original English track or a Spanish one. Both are in 5.1 Dolby Digital. I only listened to the English one and it sounded great even though its not really the type of movie to use heavily the 5.1 directional capabilities of your home theater system. English captions and Spanish subs are also available. There's also a rather uninteresting commentary track with director Geoffrey Sax and actor Michael Keaton who sounds asleep through most of it.

Now on to the extras, "Making Contact: E.V.P. Experts" is a nine minutes featurette on the "real" world of E.V.P.. "Recording the Afterlife at Home" show us how to, well, record E.V.P. at the comfort of your home... very useful I guess. In "Hearing is Believing: Actual E.V.P. Sessions" we follow two E.V.P. specialist in strange locations taking E.V.P. on the spot and explaining them to us. And finally there's five deleted scenes which according to the package are "Terrifying" but actually nothing and I mean nothing happen in them! Each scenes are pretty much useless and features optional commentary by the director. There's also the usual Universal promo trailers before the movie, this time we get one for the ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 remake, CASINO and NORTHERN EXPOSURE. The menus are nice and animated, there's an inlay card with other Universal movies promoted. The movie is separated in 20 chapters, comes in a keep case which itself comes in a specialy embossed paperboard package.

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2005. ©