White Noise: Widescreen DVD Review

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Title: White Noise: Widescreen

Region: One

Genre: Thriller

Stars: Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West, and Ian McNeice

Writer: Wall Johnson

Director: Geoffrey Sax

Feature length: 98 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentary Director Geoffrey Sax and Michael Keaton, Deleted Scenes With Optional Director’s Commentary, Featurettes, Previews

Languages: English and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 20

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2005/DVD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

“White Noise” stars Michael Keaton as a successful architect married to a best selling author and he is even on good terms with his ex-wife with whom he shares a son. Tragedy strikes his life when his wife is reported missing and later declared dead. During this time, a good-natured and eccentric gentleman (Ian McNeice) approaches Keaton’s character with a message from his deceased wife. Though he is somewhat skeptical of the claim, Keaton’s character eventually hears the recorded message from his wife and becomes a believer, purchasing equipment that could enable him to make contact through Electronic Voice Phenomenon or E.V.P. What he does not count on is that there are malevolent spirits at work in both worlds and they resent the living interfering in their affairs.

“White Noise” starts of interesting enough, but it quickly disintegrates into a b-level movie that doesn’t seem to be clear as to what it is supposed to be. The film mixes in elements of clairvoyance; poltergeists and even a serial killer influenced by the entities, but it never holds together cohesively. The film is also quite predictable and offers little payoff for the viewer. What could have been a suspenseful examination of a haunting subject manner falls away into melodrama and is ultimately a depressing and unsatisfying thriller that doesn’t even offer the viewer something profound to ponder. The best part of the film has Keaton consulting a psychic who warns him about low-level spirits being attracted to forms of communication like E.V.P. The possibilities of consciousness surviving through to the next life are handled with greater intrigue in the extra value featurettes than in the feature film itself. There are also too many little descriptions written in text onscreen before the film begins that do little to add depth from the film and actually hinder it since the same information is repeated in the movie.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s DVD edition of “White Noise” presents the film with a beautiful and clear anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of (2.35:1) that preserves the manner in which the film was exhibited theatrically as close as possible for home video users. The film starts of colorfully and gradually grows more monochromatic as the darker subject matter is explored. Overall the picture quality on the DVD looks very film like and has no imperfections to note. A well-rounded English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is also encoded onto the dual layered DVD along with a Spanish Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack and English Captions for the hearing impaired as well as Spanish Language Subtitles as options. Teleconferencing their audio commentary together, Michael Keaton in LA and Director Geoffrey Sax in London provide a discussion of the film from the location shooting, budget concerns, to the visual tricks and edits made onto the final cut of the film to keep a PG-13 rating.

There are also five deleted scenes with optional commentary by Director Geoffrey Sax that can be watched individually or via the “Play All” feature. These deleted scenes are all presented in a letterboxed (2.35:1) aspect ratio with English Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound. Outside of the feature film dramatization of E.V.P., I honestly find it difficult to say with any certainty that I believe or do not believe in the possibility. I feel it is a scary subject sort of like asking someone if they believe in God. If you don’t believe in E.V.P. life circumstances can have you becoming a convert pretty easily and yet if you believe in E.V.P. I have to wonder how much speculation is healthy both emotionally and mentally because if you lose someone you love, it could drag out the pain of dealing with the loss and perhaps create false hope or something. Yet I think there are certainly things that exist beyond our normal spectrum of understanding that science, which in itself can be categorized as a religion, has yet to uncover. So perhaps the safest thing is try not to judge the people in these featurettes and accept their sincerity at face value. “Making Contact: E.V.P. Experts” (8:43) can be a bit disturbing, but as noted above I endeavor not to have a moral judgment one way or the other on this subject, but the implications to the nature of consciousness are quite profound if you think of certain scenarios such as people who preserve themselves on ice in hopes that a cure found in the future can give them a new lease on life. While there may be no measurable brain activity, is the unconscious working on person frozen? Could it be like living within a prison inside one’s body like the film “Johnny Got His Gun”?

“Recording The Afterlife At Home” (14:34) gives clear an concise instructions on how to make an E.V.P. recording complete with information on a website one can visit at www.aaevp.com. Finally “Hearing Is Believing: Actual EVP Sessions” (14:34) is somewhat reminiscent of the syndicated paranormal magazine series “Sightings” that I remember watching late at night when I was still in college. It is quite interesting and collectively I think the featurettes for this DVD are the highpoint of the entire product as a whole if only because we actually get a chance to see some people involved in this field and possibly gain a better understanding than we might get otherwise if all we had to go on was the film alone.

Before the main menu there is a reel of DVD previews (3:47) that include the remake of “Assault On Precinct 13”, “Casino: Tenth Anniversary Edition,” and “Northern Exposure: Seasons 1, 2, and 3.” The main menu on the DVD is animated with motion transitions to standard interactive still frame menus and all are easy to navigate.

“White Noise: Widescreen” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

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