Horror movies involving spirits, spooks, and spectres are working overtime these days, and White Noise is the latest one to punch in. After the vengeful ghosts of The Grudge and the evil forces inhabiting an already-brooding house in Darkness, Hollywood has now delivered a film, the first of 2005 in fact, that focuses upon the idea of EVP, or "electronic voice phenomenon."

For those who believe in the idea, EVP involves leaving a recording device on in an empty room or taping static-laden TV channels, looking back at such recordings, and witnessing the spirits of the dead trying to communicate with us; in other words, any recording device could serve as an otherworldly answering machine. Although the idea sounds bogus to some, there are quite a few followers of EVP. Besides, whether it's real or not, the concept sounds like a fantastic idea for a creepy, atmospheric horror movie. Unfortunately, all White Noise really has is a good idea, but one played out without its full potential being realized. 

Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) is a middle-aged architect, happily married to a gorgeous young wife (Chandra West) and proud parent to a son (Nicholas Elia). Jonathan's life is happy and peaceful -- until the day his wife goes missing and eventually turns up dead. Jonathan lives the next six months in a grief-stricken haze, retreating from his work and sending his boy off to visit his ex-wife most of the time. But then his interest is piqued when a man named Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) approaches him with the claim that he has recordings of Jonathan's wife trying to contact him from beyond the grave. Though understandably skeptical at first, Jonathan becomes a full-fledged member of the EVP circle when he hears his beloved's voice again. Because of his obsession to hear his dead wife as much as possible, he fills his house with all sorts of electronics. 

Unfortunately, Jonathan learns there's a downside to meddling with EVP. He soon starts hearing angry voices, messages warning him to stop what he's doing and turn back while he can. But Jonathan's too far in to go back, especially when his wife starts to send him images of tragic events yet to occur, deaths Jonathan feels he needs to prevent despite the presence of three shadowy ghosts closing in on him.

White Noise takes its intriguing premise and turns it into the umpteenth photocopy of The Ring. Maybe it would've worked better as a Blair Witch-style documentary (only real this time), focusing upon those who are committed to investigating EVP and what made them true believers in the concept. I think a real-life investigation of EVP could prove to be fascinating as well as frightening, especially if it offered evidence of messages from the afterlife. However, the atmospheric but often silly White Noise just doesn't do the trick. 

Granted, the film has its moments. Those early instances of EVP are rather chilling (especially the enraged messages Jonathan starts receiving), and Michael Keaton does a good job of conveying first his character's grief and then his obsession when he hears his wife calling out to him. But these quiet, introspective scenes soon give way to a second half that seems ripped from every other similar horror movie out there, switching the focus from the emotions Jonathan experiences after discovering EVP to a frenzied mess of  psychic visions, murder investigations, and a trio of deadly spirits (looking like black smudges) who, for some reason or other, don't like them EVP folks messin' around with them.

I give director Geoffrey Sax credit for providing White Noise with an admirable and very atmospheric build-up, but a  goofiness starts seeping into the film just after it hits the 30-minute mark, and the ending is gloriously, unabashedly cliched. That's a shame, because the actors try so hard, only to end up at the service of a story that undermines their emotional depths. Keaton delivers a decent turn in his lead role and McNeice has a small impact as an EVP veteran whose very life was saved by hearing his dead son. But Deborah Kara Unger's talents are misused in a flimsy role as a fellow EVP believer; Keegan Connor Tracy's bit part as a fortune teller turns out to be downright laughable; and everyone else seems to be around because, hey, other horror movies have similar parts filled by faceless actors, so why not this one?

Promising more than it delivers, White Noise will probably be seen as a disappointment by viewers (like me) who were  psyched-up by its creepy and disturbing ad campaign. Still, in about five months or so, anyone looking for a simple horror video or DVD to kill some time on a Friday night would be better off watching this movie than the senseless Darkness.

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by Universal and rated "PG-13" for violence, disturbing images and language.)

Review also posted on www.ajhakari.com.