White Noise II: The Light

The biggest mystery about White Noise II is why it doesn't suck. It's got all of the elements of a terrible movie: a little known director, spiritual sequel to a nearly universally hated movie, supernatural suspense/B-movie cliches like the skeptical best friend and the token black best friend (same guy), partly Canadian, and only released in theatres internationally. For all intents and purposes, White Noise II should have been a godawful direct-to-DVD failure, doomed to live life, ignored, at the bottom of the discount bin at Blockbuster. Instead, we get an okay-to-decent movie, with flashes of real substance.

The story begins with Abe Dale (Fillion), watching as his family is gunned down in front of him at a diner by Henry Caine (Craig Fairbrass). Caine is visibly struggling with his actions; he apologizes to Abe, and shoots himself in the head, leaving us, and Abe, to wonder what the hell is going on. Months later, after their funeral, Abe, still unable to cope with the loss, downs a bottle of pills and some booze, resulting in him having an NDE (near-death experience) before doctors at a hospital bring him back. During the experience, Abe sees his family and is nearly reunited with him. Why he doesn't just try again, in a more effective way, is never explained, but it's probably because it would ruin the story. Regardless, after being brought back, Abe has developped the ability to identify people who are soon going to die, based on a glowing aura that surrounds them.

The next section of the movie is a series of scenes wherein Abe does a lot of running trying to save people. Often, he will see someone glowing on a bridge, or some half-mile away, forcing him to run determinedly (this honestly happens about four or five times) toward them. At first, he, and we, are pleased to see that he really can make a difference with this new power and that it doesn't take on some lame Final Destination crap. Then, it does take on some lame Final Destination crap, except in White Noise II, it's not "Death" that's wreaking havoc because it's feeling gyped, it's actually Satan, who, somehow relating to Christ's resurrection, is able to possess them on the third day after their haing been saved. I've probably already divulged too much, but needless to say, once we hit this part of the plot, things start heading down something of a downward slant. Until this point, we have been able to accept the existence of an afterlife/ghosts/precognition, but to tack on the loosely-related devil in the third act puts the scope of the film a little too far beyond itself.

Nathan Fillion does well with a role that deviates from the usual dry wit he does so well. Instead, he has the chance to be vulnerable, scared, and damaged. Still, Fillion does have an ineffacable charm that is allowed to creep out, as he begins his quest for redemption and his bizarre flirtation with his suicide nurse, whose life he also saves, but may have to shoot to stop her from becoming the devil... yeah. There's even a Firefly reference thrown in, where his buddy calls Abe's new superpower "some Captain tightpants shit."

Katee Sackhoff, playing the aforementioned nurse, also does an admirable job, carrying her character through a kind of tragically bubbly grief.

White Noise II is by no means an incredible film. It's servicable, occasionally affective, but is mostly notable because it isn't as terrible as it has every right to be.

Rating: 3.0 stars