White Noise (2005)

The title 'White Noise' refers to the phenomenon known as Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). People believe that you can hear voices of the dead in the white noise of a detuned radio and even see faces from the white noise on the television set. Michael Keaton stars in this thriller as Jonathan Rivers, a man who had just lost his wife in a freak accident. Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) meets with Jonathan and tells him that his wife Anna has contacted him from the other side. Jonathan doesn't believe him until he hears Anna's voice on his radio. Jonathan wants to talk to his wife, and he gets all the equipment. There is only one thing that Jonathan doesn't know, there are also bad people on the other side. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)

KrystelClaire's outline

Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton), a highly-stressed professional notices that a strange man is watching him from outside his home and his office. That man tells him that his wife, renown writer Anna Rivers (Chandra West) is dead and at peace, because she has talked to him from the other side. Jonathan Rivers dismisses him violently, but that night two police officers arrive: Anna has been found dead, the cause was not a robbery gone awry because she had her mobile phone and personal items on her.

Some time later, Jonathan has not adjusted himself to be a widower, although he takes shelter in his job. One day, Jonathan is with one of the investors (L. Harvey Gold) who has contracted him. They are both going down in a lift when they get stuck and the lights are out. At that moment, Jonathan's mobile phone rings, and it says "Anna's phone". Jonathan gets so surprised that he doesn't pick it up. The lift soon starts working again and he goes on business as usual. However, back home, he checks Anna's mobile phone, still in the plastic bag the police had given it to him in. It has run out of battery. At that very same moment, Jonathan's phone rings again, and again it's from Anna's mobile phone. He picks it up: white noise is heard. Suddenly, somebody hangs up at the other side of the line. That night, female whispers are heard. Also, a message gets recorded in Jonathan's line phone, but he was able to hear it once, as the answering machine will say that there are no messages left after he has heard it once.

Jonathan decides to visit Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) at his home. Sarah Tate (Deborah Kara Unger) is there, still with tears on her cheeks. Sarah leaves them alone. Ray tells Jonathan that he is not a medium or a magician. He just records images amidst the white noise and shows him the message of a female voice calling out "Jonathan, Jonathan" over and over again amidst white noise. Sarah offers a cup of coffee to Jonathan and she tells him that she has become addicted to the recordings. Sarah is satisfied, because they have just interpreted that her ex-fiancé is happy in the other realm.

Jonathan starts tuning in the car radio, at home, always looking for the white noise. One day, while driving, he hears a female voice saying whispering something. Because of that distraction, he almost has an accident while driving. Back at Raymond's home, Jon is left alone hearing Anna and some more voices. Suddenly, angry sounds and images seem to invade the room, but Raymond deletes those in front of Jonathan. Raymond says that not all the voices are nice, that Jonathan shouldn't get nervous and that they are closer to getting an image of Anna. Jonathan goes back home, but Raymonds tells him to see him again fast. When Jonathan arrives, Raymond's home door is open, so he enters. Everything is dark, some figures appear on the tv's white noise, and Raymond is dead - maybe because of fright?. Jonathan calls the police.

After the funeral, Sarah helps Jonathan to find Anna's original recordings. Alongside some fun messages, they found insults like "pig... rot". Mike (Nicholas Elia) is Jonathan's only son. He wonders why his father has bought so many tv's all of a sudden, and Jonathan tells him that it's better so that each one can see each fovourite tv programme. Jonathan doesn't pay much attention to Mike, as he's always too busy with the recordings. Jonathan visits a blind psychic, who says that Jonathan's doing a very dangerous thing because some of them don't like how he interferes with everything, and that she keeps on hearing "Willow Avenue". Even though the psychic tells tells him that Anna was pregnant, he doesn't believe her. The psychic tells Jonathan that he's misinterpreting everything. Next time in front of the tv, he watches many different faces, some of them menacing.

Jonathan visits Susie Tomlinson (Amber Rothwell), whose mother died when she was born. Apparently, her grandmother has tried to contact her mother, and the former promised to tell her whether she has been able to talk to Susie's mother after her death. Susie says that her grandmother died two days ago, but Jonathan has been receiving messages from her for a week. Mike wonders what his father is doing, but he never gives a clear answer or pays much attention to him. Mike tells his father to be careful.

Next time, Jonathan watches Anna tell him to come look for her. When he gets near to the screen, Anna is terrified and screaming. The shadows of three men (Bill Tarling, Chuck Walkinshaw and Colin Chapin) seem to have terrified Anna. A male voice also whispers "Willow Avenue". Jonathan goes there in a wet dark night. Once there, there is a short circuit in a high-voltage cables and pole. When approaching the site of a car accident, Jonathan notices three black shadoes flyting away. Closer, he notices a bloodied woman (Miranda Frigon) trapped within the car, shouting for him to save her baby. The mother dies but the baby is rescued by Jonathan. Carol Black's husband Frank (Aaron Douglas) refuses to listen to Jonathan, who realises that Anna is showing him the future of people who are going to die. Jonathan is sure that he's shown only the cases which he can help in.

The shadows appear again amidst white noise. They realise that they have Mary Freeman (Suzanne Ristic), a kidnapped woman on Raymond's tapes. Anna tries to tell them where Mary is, but they can't understand her well. Sarah also appears on the images. That night, Jonathan can't sleep well, and he leaves the door open as he hears Sarah mutter in her sleep. When Jonathan goes to watch, he watches Sarah jumping backwards from the balcony of her home with dazed open eyes. Sarah is still alive, at hospital, although she's in a critical state. Detective Smits (Mike Dopud) wants to question Jonathan later on. Sarah wakes up to say that "it hurts, it hurts".

When Jonathan returns home, everything is a mess, but his equipment is still working. He is shown a place before the three strange presences appear. Smits appears after Jonathan has left and gets puzzled over the mess. He distinguishes the terrified face of Mary in Jonathan's monitor. Meanwhile, Jonathan drives like a maniac to reach pier 16, following the images seen. He phones Smits to tell him of the place, but he doesn't seem to understand. At the derelict place, Jon arrives to see many screens and monitors on. A man is lurking in the shadows behind him. Anna's image advises him to leave now. Immediately, the shadows of the three men appear on the turned-on screens.

Jonathan sees what looks like the torture tools of a psychopath, who's waiting for him while Mary is tied down. The three presences are present. The psycho is the worker who got Jonathan and the contractor from the lift. He says that the three presences had asked him to bring Anna to them as well. Sarah is turning and tossing at hospital feeling Jonathan's angst. When Smits and other police officers arrive, Jonathan has fallen down three or four storeys and is dead. Mike and Sarah go to the funeral.

The radio of the car starts going to the white noise, and we can hear Jonathan's voice saying "I'm sorry", but Jane (Sarah Strange) - who is going to take care of Mike from then on- turns it off. Mike smiles.

Sarah, in a wheelchair, if left alone at the cemetery. The breeze blows, it's a sunny day... but then the shadows seem to threaten her.

Jonathan appears with Anne amidst white noise. They are both smiling.