In 2005, Michael Keaton starred in the unexpectedly successful supernatural horror thriller White Noise.
Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers, a man who is haunted by the death of his wife, Anna (Chandra West).
That grief leads Jonathan to investigate electronic voice phenomena (EVP), which he believes contains Anna’s messages from the afterlife.
Now that White Noise is streaming on Netflix, Watch With Us is sharing three reasons why you have to watch the film this month.
Michael Keaton Gives a Committed Performance
Have you ever seen Michael Keaton give a bad performance? Well, you definitely won’t see that here. Keaton is the glue that holds White Noise together, and by far the most prominent member for the cast. Through his ability to emote, Keaton makes Jonathan’s mourning for his wife feel believable and heartfelt.
The script also calls upon Keaton to convincingly portray Jonathan’s descent into obsession with making contact with his wife from beyond the grave. It’s not a natural impulse, but Keaton has a way of making it seem real enough for someone as desperate as Jonathan.
The EVP Transforms Jonathan
The “science” behind EVP as a spiritual medium is questionable at best, and the film introduces Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) as the kook/expert in the field. What’s interesting about Raymond is that he’s not a charlatan, and he doesn’t directly benefit from attempting to reconnect the living with their late loved ones.
One of the unexpected turns in the film is that Jonathan slowly morphs into Raymond by transitioning from skeptic to believer. He essentially takes over Raymond’s cause and makes it his own. Jonathan actually does some heroic things this way, but he also badly neglects his son, Mike (Nicholas Elia). Jonathan’s a tragic figure in this story, and he never fully realizes the full extent of the danger he’s placed himself in by blindly reaching out to the spirit world.
There Are Some Genuinely Creepy Moments
This is a ghost story, but most of the supernatural events are either on the recordings made by Jonathan and Raymond or conveyed through the shadowy demons that recur throughout the movie. Some of White Noise‘s best moments are when the demons’ influence is directly felt, including the very vulgar messages they leave Jonathan.
However, it’s understandable why some viewers may have felt let down by the demons’ final scene in the movie. It comes off as a poorly edited and ill-conceived sequence. Regardless, the ending of the movie comes full circle for Jonathan. And there’s enough to enjoy in White Noise that we can forgive some of its late missteps.
White Noise is streaming on Netflix.
