~ 'Tria Mera' ~

I am a huge horror fan and love something abit different to the rest. The White Noise-The Light came out last year and after watching a few previews and trailers online I decided to rent it out through Love film. One main reason I wanted to see it was that the first film, White Noise was really good so I thought it would be interesting to see what else they did with it. Looking at the info of the film I didn’t really recognise any main actors but sometimes its better to have a unknown cast. The director was vaguely familiar and I later found he has done many other horror films before this. Anyway last night while everyone was out I decided to give it a go.

~ INFO ~

Director- Patrick Lussier

Patrick is a well known director for many horror films in the last ten years.
Some of his movies include- Red Eye (2005), Cursed (2005 ) and Scream 3 (2000). This gave me the impression that this film should be of the same high standard as some of this.

Writer- Matt Venne
Produced- Shawn Williamson
Release Date- 7 Jan 2007 (UK)
Runtime- 99 Mins
Certificate- 15

~ PLOT ~

Abe Dale is a loving family man which suffers the loss of his wife and child when a man coldly shoots them in front of him. After suffering depression Abe tries to commit suicide but is revived experiencing a near death experience. After this experience things change for Abe he starts to hear voices and sees a glowing white light around certain people. Learning this means the person will die soon, Abe saves three people from dying. Even though he feels good about what he is doing the haunting from ghosts grow worse and images come for him everywhere. He is then faced with a huge problem when he discovers the murderer of his family saved them three days before he killed them and that if you save people use must balance the scale by killing.

~ CAST and CHARACTERS ~

Abe Dale- Nathan Fillion
Abe is the main protagonist in the film and is always included at some point in ever scene. He is a very unstable person after his traumatic losses and he seems very keen to end his life. After this near death experience Abe seems determined and has a creative mind in finding out what these voices and lights want him to do.
Nathan is a quite well known actor despite me not recognising his name. He has worked in both TV and film and has worked in some successful programmes such as- Lost (T.V- 2006- Kevin), Serenity (Film- 2005) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV- 2003).

Sherry Clarke- Katee Sackhoff

Sherry is brought into the film when Abe saves her from a mugger on a dark, eerie night. She was also his nurse when Abe tried to commit suicide. She is an independent woman who has a strong head and a successful career path. There is a growing attraction between them when they find they have a lot in common.
Katee has done a lot of roles mainly in TV and has starred in programmes such as- Bionic Woman (2007) and ER (2002), she has also done a few films including- Halloween Resurrection (2002) and Resistance 2 (2008).

Henry Caine- Craig Fairbrass

I did recognise Craig but since I’m terrible with names didn’t know his name. Henry Caine is the killer of Abe’s wife and son and battles to show the truth to Abe. He is totally messed up and is in a mental home because of his visions of ghosts and lights. He seems to think negatively about everything and tries to get Abe to understand why he shouldn’t save people.
Craig is very well known and has starred in all sorts of programmes and great films mainly gangster and thriller’s. His films include- The Bank Job (2008), Rise of The Foot Soldier (2007) and he starred in TV Soap Eastenders for 125 episodes as Dan.

Other Characters

Marty Bloom- Adrian Holmes
Rebecca Dale- Kendall Cross
Julia Caine- Teryl Rothery
Dr Karras – William MacDonald
Danny Dale- Joshua Ballard

~ OPINIONS ~

The film was an ok horror film and included all the elements to be a success.
Overall, I wasn’t overly impressed with it. I didn’t really find it that scary and it was disappointing as the first film was pretty sketchy. It was a good length and the events happened quite nicely and it didn’t seem to over done with the horror.

Narrative

One thing I did like about the film was the narrative. It had a good story and plenty of sub plots to keep it interesting although it didn’t have anything to do with the first film which threw me a little. It also included a few twists and surprises which was interesting and I liked the way it didn’t include too many characters. The plot with the killing right at the start was pretty shocking. You don’t expect it and it gives the audience questions straight away. I like films that get you involved right away and having something in the plot as important as this happen was great. The story was quite easy to follow and I thought it could have been abit predictable but for some they may be happy with this. The film was mainly evolved around Abe and with the other characters involved the plot still doesn’t not stray from the protagonist for very long. It builds a great character development of him and I enjoyed just following his story and not concentrating too much on any other.

Visual and Effects

The visual of the film was impressive. The special effects were done well and it was pretty creative having the images and ghosts walking around in every day life. I didn’t think it was as good as the images in the first but it was believable enough. I also liked the way they kept the strange fuzzing and voices on the TV. I won’t be leaving my TV on that anymore. The image of the ghosts, jumping out of them was pretty good but they do use it way too much which ruins it abit.
The film had an eerie fell to it and there was use of dark lighting and tints of colour to create a grimy feel to it. I did like the different scenes used and thought they did create the right atmosphere for each. They had typical horror sets of dark allies and enclosed rooms. It wasn’t overly great though.

The Rest

The acting was done well and the character developments were good. The changes in Abe made it interesting and all of the actors were well casted. Craig Fairbrass always plays his parts well and being the bad guy at the start didn’t surprise me as a lot of his performances include him being a nasty piece of work. He has the right look for the part and has a significant part to play. As I said before there aren’t many main characters which in this film was a good call. It was good to concentrate on Abe and not have to keep a track on many others.
Even though I said there was plenty of action some of the scenes did feel abit rushed. It doesn’t seem to flow easily and I think some parts could have been cut and others made longer.
Overall I’d say it’s an ok horror film. I wouldn’t recommend you buy the DVD if you haven’t seen it and would tell you to rent it first. It is not anything special though so I wouldn’t pick it up if there is something better to get.

An interesting fact which shocked me is that the film when released got a better reception than the first and got a Rotten Tomato rating of 86%.

DVD

In case you want to get the DVD you can buy a copy from play.com at £3.99 which properly tells you it’s not that great. It includes the film and deleted scenes.

Website- whitenoisethelight.net/