White Noise 2: The Light (2007) is the sequel to the widely-panned 2005 movie White Noise.  How it actually got made, with the terrible reception the first movie recieved, I don’t know, but I have to say I’m glad it was.

White Noise 2 stars Nathan Fillion (of Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog fame) as Abraham Dale, a husband and father who goes through a terrible loss and has a near-death experience that is cut short by doctors’ attempts to resuscitate him.  He returns extraordinarily sensitized to the other side: seeing auras around certain people, seeing electronic images in video screens, and hearing electronic-voice-phenomena.  Soon he discovers that the white auras around people herald their impending death, and the EVP instances seem to be leading him toward those people…and the mystery of his loss.

Also featured in the movie is Katee Sackhoff (last seen as Starbuck in the new Battlestar Galactica), who plays a nurse (Sherry) whom the protagonist saves after spotting her white aura.

The computer graphics are pretty good and well-integrated visually.  The mood is low-key creepy, and while there are plenty of jump-scares (mostly in the form of spectres from video monitors), the movie does not rely on them–it just has them there for fun.  Instead it relies on the main character’s obvious confusion and unease, and his struggles with both his trauma and perceived obligation to do something about what he sees.

This was a good supernatural movie–I wouldn’t call it a horror movie except in a few short scenes.  It has realistic violence but nothing too graphic and not much blood.  The best part of it is definitely Fillion, who plays a rueful, pained but ultimately purposeful protagonist who tries to become a hero without really understanding what that will cause.  The plot is solid, the mystery is creepy and it all wraps tightly around the protagonist until he finds the villain staring back at him in the mirror.

…Though not literally.

There is a romance subplot between the two main characters, and they do seem to have some chemistry, but considering the story, it is not resolved in the usual way of romance.

The plot does take a somewhat pointless detour into document-decoding and Satanic influence, but not enough to bog down the movie or turn it into a possession-film.  Mostly it showcases the thought-processes of the ‘villain’, which–though not necessary to the extent that they used–does not really detract from the movie.

All in all, White Noise 2 is a lot more action-based than its predecessor, which is a good thing.  The original movie suffered not only from its acting but from having little for the protagonist to do beside listen to EVP tapes and bear witness.  It also puts most of its weight on the moral dilemmas suffered by the main character instead of just having him obsess about his loss.  What I especially liked was the second climax, which is entirely based on the protagonist’s strength of will. It’s not a particularly deep movie (despite what I’ve said) and easily forgettable, but good entertainment.

White Noise 2: The Light is currently out on video.

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