Available at Amazon.com
Director:
Patrick Lussier
Starring:
Nathan Fillion….Abe Dale
Katee Sackhoff….Sherry Clarke
Craig Fairbrass….Henry Caine
Adrian Holmes….Marty Bloom
Kendall Cross….Rebecca Dale
Teryl Rothery….Julia Caine
Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Rogue Pictures presents White Noise 2. Screenplay by Matt Venne. Running time: 99 minutes. Rated PG-13. Release date: January 8, 2008.
The Movie
The original White Noise was a flawed but interesting movie that would have done better if it had a better ending. It explored the much-debated topic of Electronic Voice Phenomenon and used it to tell the story of a man who couldn’t let go of his grief over his dead wife. While it wasn’t necessarily a scary movie, it did have its share of creepy moments and the general concept paired with the acting of the main cast made up for the majority of the flaws. White Noise 2 takes many of the same themes of the first–mainly EVP and an extreme sense of grief–but leads them in a different direction; changing the main character’s grief to survivor’s guilt and switching the medium for EVP–a detuned receiver–from electronic equipment to the character himself. Also like the original the strength of the lead actors and the story idea carry it through a few minor flaws in plot, but, unfortunately, the sequel also suffers from an ending that many may find disappointing.
Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Waitress) stars as Abe Dale, a man who witnesses the brutal, senseless murder of his wife and child in a diner by a crazed gunman. After shooting Fillion’s family, the gunman apologizes and turns the gun on himself. Bizarrely, the wife and child were his only victims. Unable to cope with his loss and the cruel randomness of the incident, Fillion decides to take his own life by overdosing on pills and liquor. Thankfully his best friend is able to call for an ambulance, but while the emergency room doctors struggle to save him, Fillion has a Near Death Experience, or NDE. Once he recovers he discovers he is now a detuned receiver and can see and hear EVPs without the need for recording tools. He also begins to see auras around people when they are about to die putting him in a position to save lives, unlike when he was in the diner. Unfortunately, there are unforeseen consequences to the lives he saves, and Fillion must learn to deal with the results of his actions.
The horror of this movie is watching a good man witness what he thought were good acts turn into something twisted and evil. This makes for a compelling story, but not necessarily a scary one–at least not by today’s standards. But that’s all right, because you quickly come to care about Fillion’s character and root for him to find a way out of this mess.
Another endearing character is Katee Sackhoff’s Sherry Clarke, the nurse who attended to Fillion after his suicide attempt. In many ways Sherry Clarke is similar to Sackhoff’s most famous character, Starbuck. Both are brash, unashamed, and full of life. What makes the Clarke character different is that she doesn’t carry the same emotional baggage that weighs down Starbuck. She’s fun to watch on screen and you end up hoping for her and Fillion to get together by the end.
Unfortunately White Noise 2 suffers from the same problem as the original–the ending. I can see many different reasons for people to dislike the ending, but for me, I felt it to be too far over the top. That may seem silly considering that this is a ghost story, but up until the final ten minutes it was a rather subtle ghost story; the effects were kept to a minimum and took a second place to the story. The ending was simply too much.
Despite the finale, there is a lot to enjoy with this movie. It certainly isn’t perfect, but it is imaginative and entertaining, which is more than most can say for the majority of movies out there.
The DVD
Video
The movie was presented in anamorphic widescreen in 2.35:1 ratio.
Audio
The audio was presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 with English and Spanish language tracks.
Extra Features
Deleted Scenes (cumulative running time: 33:08)
Most of these didn’t qualify as deleted scenes. They were pretty much extended scenes from what you already saw and they really didn’t add anything to the story. There are a couple of times when it felt like I was watching the movie all over again.
Exploring the Near-Death Experience (running time: 14:57)
Survivors of Near-Death Experiences talk about what they went through and how it changed their lives. This featurette also included interviews with medical researchers who are studying NDE.
The Making of White Noise 2 (running time 8:38)
This is worth watching just for the shots of Nathan Fillion behind the scenes.
Journey Into Madness (running time: 6:02)
Barbara Copp (who is listed as a location scout in the featurette, but is labeled as a paranormal specialist on the DVD case) and Nathan Fillion lead a tour through Crease Clinic, a haunted psychiatric hospital in Vancouver where many of the film’s scenes were shot. Nathan Fillion should host everything. There, I said it and I’m proud.
