White Noise (2005 film) - Misplaced Pages

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White Noise
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Geoffrey Sax
Written by	Niall Johnson
Produced by	Paul Brooks
Starring	Michael Keaton Deborah Kara Unger Chandra West Ian McNeice
Cinematography	Chris Seager
Edited by	Nick Arthurs
Music by	Claude Foisy
Production companies	Gold Circle Films White Noise UK Limited Brightlight Pictures Endgame Entertainment The Movie Network
Distributed by	TVA Films (Canada) Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom) Universal Pictures (United States)
Release date	January 7, 2005 (2005-01-07)
Running time	101 minutes
Countries	Canada United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$91.2 million

White Noise is a 2005 supernatural horror thriller film directed by Geoffrey Sax and starring Michael Keaton. The title refers to electronic voice phenomena (EVP), where voices, which some believe to be from the "other side", can be heard on audio recordings.

The film did very well at the box office despite generally poor reviews from both critics and audiences. The commercial success of White Noise led Universal and other studios to realize that there was an untapped audience for horror films released in January, and began releasing higher-quality horror films during that period, usually dismissed as the winter dump months of the film calendar.

Plot

Jonathan Rivers is an architect and lives with his wife Anna until her unexpected death. Eventually, he is contacted by Raymond Price, whose son has also died. He says he has recorded messages from Anna through electronic voice phenomena (EVP). While Jonathan is initially dismissive and angered, he later learns about his wife's tragic drowning. Desperate, he begins to believe that the recorded voice is indeed that of his wife, and becomes obsessed with trying to contact her himself. He is warned by a psychic that, while she takes measures to avoid hostile entities, EVP is an indiscriminate process that offers no such safeguards. A woman named Sarah Tate, who also came to Raymond for his EVP work because she lost her fiancé, befriends Jonathan.

Raymond is found dead. Jonathan begins to be followed by three demons attracted by his obsession with EVP, and finds that some of the messages he receives are from people who are not yet dead, but may soon be. Jonathan hears cries from a woman whom he finds in a car with a child. He is able to save the child, but not the woman. At that woman's funeral, which Jonathan and Sarah both attend, Jonathan approaches the husband and tells him about what happened. The latter thanks Jonathan for saving his son but then demands to be left alone. Afterwards, Jonathan sees images of another person, a missing woman named Mary Freeman, while working with his EVP devices. Sarah is later seriously injured by a fall from a balcony while possessed by the demons, an incident which was foreshadowed by Sarah's image being among those on the EVP devices.

Jonathan locates the site of his wife's death by following signs on recordings and he also finds his wife's abandoned car. Jonathan finds a set of computers and electronic equipment on site. A construction worker from his company, who has been doing his own EVP work, is holding Mary captive. He has been under the control of the demons to kill all these people, including Anna. The three demons torture Jonathan by breaking his arms and legs and cause him to fall to his death, but a SWAT team arrives and are able to save Mary by shooting the construction worker dead. After his funeral, Jonathan's voice can be heard on the car radio through static interference saying "I'm sorry" to his son, who recognizes the voice and smiles. Sarah, at the graveside in a wheelchair, is menaced by odd noises. Right before the credits, the camera flashes to a TV where Jonathan and his wife are visible. A closing intertitle states that one of twelve out of thousands of EVP messages is threatening.

Cast

Michael Keaton as Jonathan Rivers
Deborah Kara Unger as Sarah Tate, bookstore owner
Chandra West as Anna Rivers, a writer
Ian McNeice as Raymond Price

Production

In May 2003, it was announced Michael Keaton was attached to star the film with principal photography slated to begin in August of that year.

Reception

White Noise was generally negatively received by critics, with a 7% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's consensus being "While there are some built-in scares, the movie is muddled and unsatisfying".

Sequel

A sequel titled White Noise: The Light was released in January 2007.

Legacy

White Noise's surprising box-office success for a movie released on the first weekend after New Year's Day, the start of the winter dump months and usually one of the worst weekends for new releases, led studios to reassess their releasing strategies for horror films. In 2013, Universal chairman Adam Fogelson said, "The first weekend in January used to be a non-starter for people; we had this little horror movie White Noise that did business, and that has become a place where movies that tend to operate."

If a horror film as poorly received as White Noise could nevertheless make a significant amount of money in January, studios realized, a quality film in that genre could do even better. The following year, an elaborate viral marketing campaign gave Paramount's found footage horror film Cloverfield a $40 million opening weekend, which remained the record for January until Ride Along in 2014. In 2012 Paramount beat White Noise's first-weekend success with The Devil Inside, which took in $35 million despite a strongly negative reaction from critics and audiences. "Ever since White Noise was a hit in 2005, that's what started it. If you look back at every first weekend, besides expanding titles, the only new release is usually one crappy horror movie," C. Robert Cargill of Ain't It Cool News told Hollywood.com in 2013.

References

"White Noise". Canadian Feature Film Database. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ "White Noise (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
"White Noise (2005) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
"Senator, Gold ink on pix". Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
Thompson, Anne (April 26, 2013). "CinemaCon Heavyweight Panel Debates Windows, Social Media, State of Industry". indieWIRE. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
Salisbury, Brian (February 23, 2013). "Why Oscar Season is Hollywood's Bad Movie Dumping Ground". Hollywood.com. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

External links

v t e Films directed by Geoffrey Sax
Circles of Deceit: The Wolves are Coming (1993) Doctor Who (1996) Killer Net (1998) Othello (2001) Tipping the Velvet (2002) Margery & Gladys (2003) White Noise (2005) Stormbreaker (2006) Frankie & Alice (2010) Christopher and His Kind (2011) Murder on the Home Front (2013)

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