White Noise (film)

White Noise is a 2005 supernatural thriller film, directed by Geoffrey Sax. 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 is not related to the postmodern novel White Noise by Don DeLillo.

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

Plot

Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) is a successful architect and lives a peaceful life with his wife Anna (Chandra West) until her unexpected disappearance. Eventually, he is contacted by Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), who claims that his own son had 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. Jonathan becomes obsessed with trying to contact her himself, despite warnings from a psychic, Mirabelle Keegan (Keegan Connor Tracy), who tries to tell him how the recording can attract other, unwanted entities. A woman named Sarah Tate (Deborah Kara Unger), who also came to Raymond for his EVP work because she lost her fiancé, befriends Jonathan.