White Noise 2: The Light (2007)

It would be fair to say that I wasn't expecting much from this Canadian straight-to-video follow-up to the 2005 Michael Keaton film. PG-13 horror fare isn't really my cup of tea, and I reasoned that the first film covered the subject in sufficient depth to negate the need for a sequel. I was wrong, and how so! Despite a few missteps, WHITE NOISE 2 is actually a wonderful little film that manages to better the one that came before.This time around, TV actor Nathan Fillion is the guy who undergoes a near-death experience and comes out with the ability to see, not just ghosts, but electrical surges on TV sets as well – the so-called 'EVP' or 'white noise' phenomenon. This doesn't actually have a great deal to do with the actual plot, which is all about the protagonist's abilities to see eerie auras on those about to die. Of course, he sets about becoming a hero to save those apparently doomed, until a big twist throws the plot on its head.The film this is most like is UNBREAKABLE. It's cheesier than the Bruce Willis film, with lots of unnecessary grey ghosts and unwanted CGI effects, including the nadir where we see Fillion floating up a CGI tunnel towards, presumably, heaven. A fumbled, unsatisfying ending doesn't really work either. But until then we have a surprisingly taut and suspenseful thriller with lots of unusual and unexpected stuff going on. The direction is strong, with director Patrick Lussier providing atmosphere along with compelling story, and the cast isn't too shabby either. After five minutes, I was expecting Fillion to be a bland, everyman type and indeed he is, but with this type of role he provides a strong focus for the rest of the supernatural antics. Katee Sackhoff is the strong-willed heroine, and good old Craig Fairbrass is the villain of the piece, replete with some quite ghastly prosthetics. There are many decent set-pieces on offer here, from the bridge fight to the car park showdown and the bit in the hotel, and even with a few plot holes and loose ends here and there, I was never not enjoying it. One of those little films that's far better than you could ever expect it to be.

It's very easy to see why this was a box office failure as this barely made any sense. Nathan Fillion is the lead as a man who has just witnessed his wife and son gunned down in front of him and in his grief, tries to take his own life by overdosing on medication. While at the hospital he has a near death experience where he sees his wife and child on the other side just prior to being resuscitated. After that he starts to see people with strange looking auras and hears otherworldly voices etc coming from electronic devices. From there this takes a very fast downward spiral into stupidity as any sense of story flies right out the window. For some reason the aura or lights that he sees around people are an indication that they are about to die. After seeing this on a number of people he manages to save 3 people and believes he's done a good thing. However for some reason in this movie, saving the life of someone who is marked for death is a bad thing and in 3 days these recently saved people all turn homicidal and go on killing rampages. As usual this movie and others like it love to bastardise the bible in terms of the resurrection and seeing as these people have cheated death, they are now a vessel for death. So basically what this is trying to say is never ever save a life and every person who's ever been saved by a firefighter or paramedic etc is due to turn into a maniac. Towards the end Fillion tries to murder the last of the people he saved by trying to kill then in order to stop them from killing others. He fails and is instead gunned down by 2 cops. The woman he was about to kill collapses and is rushed from the scene by paramedics. Fillion's spirit then chases after the ambulance using overhead power cables and manages to stop the evil that's inside the woman from crashing the ambulance into a bus load of people. Not only was this boring, it simply didn't make any sense. It's not scary in any way and the usual scenes of random dead people, who love to all turn into screaming banshees for no reason, gets tiresome real fast. The ghostly faces and distorted voices on TV channels that aren't receiving a broadcast has been done to death and serve no real purpose in this. Apart from trying to cash in on the commercial success of the first movie, there's no other reason why this garbage ever got made in the first place. Thank God I never bothered to pay an cash to see this, either at the cinema or hired on disc as I managed to catch this on TV one night, and that's the only time anyone, anywhere needs to see this drivel.

I only created this account to review this movie. My boyfriend really liked White Noise, the original, and he doesn't give many movies a chance. He is not easily scared, whereas I get scared if someone comes up behind me and surprises me! I got nightmares from Gremlins and The Ghost in the Darkness for christs sake! I'll admit, most scary movies these days scare me more when I allow myself to be frightened as opposed to expecting the movie to do all the work (most people who go into a movie expecting it to be lame are rewarded with a lame movie), but this movie was so predictable I could actually count down to the "scary" parts! Really!? DEAD PEOPLE?? Wow. And the scene where the girl gets groped by some perv cuz she spills her drink on him?? Show me in what business district in the middle of the day does some well-dressed group of guys beat up and shove some guy off of a bridge and threaten to rape a woman because of a spilled drink? Bad s**t happens in this world, every day, but that was not believable AT ALL. And using a bunch of actors from SciFi didn't help, lol. At least in the original they explored the whole EVP aspect and showed how communication with the dead may not be a good thing. This was lame effects mixed with some of the worst dialogue ever written! The fact that the main chick had hair that looked like she ripped it off of Brittany Murphy's head from 8 Mile and couldn't get that d**n smile off her face didn't help the case that the love of her life was dead and she sympathised with the guy's situation. "You saved my life...I'd love to return the favor" what? by going to a bar and throwing yourself at the guy? Wow...thank you everyone who said to see this. Honestly, if you liked this at all, go waste your money on the movie "The Damned Thing." Saw that last week thanks to reviews like this movie got. Very, VERY disappointed and will have trouble trusting this site for reviews. Hope I stopped a few people from wasting money on this!!

This came on TV last night and had a lower expectation of this movieFrom first scene from the movie I don't think i turn my head once away from TV, i don't remember the last time i did I did not read plot before I saw this movie, It could be man just seating down hearing voice in the TV BOY was I wrong The family man Abe Dale is having lunch with his wife and son in a restaurant, when a man kills them in front of Abe and shots himself in the mouth. A couple of days later, the grieving Abe misses his family and commits suicide ingesting many pills at home, but is rescued by his friend Marty Bloom and saved by the doctors. His Near Death Experience makes him see white light in some people and to hear Electronic Voice Phenomena.The ghost did scare the hell out ME, I had no idea there were going be ghost in this movie, ( I was thinking there going face in TV that it ) I did not see that coming, The Atmosphere in that scene made even better.)The acting was outstanding from Nathan Fillion I was shocked to See Craig Fairbrass (I can't believe he was in this movie, not that long ago about 13 years ago he was in ( UK soap,)I didn't think the movie would be any good at all, it turned out to great 8/10