Caine and Abe Dale - it's Biblical
"White Noise 2: The Light" is a sequel but only in the loosest sense in the same way that "Tokyo Drift" was a sequel to "The Fast and the Furious". That means that whilst we have a new story which mentions EVP and also briefly features a name which appeared in "White Noise" there is no real connection. In fact the whole EVP thing takes a back seat as we now have a storyline about someone seeing haloes of light around people who are about to die giving them the opportunity to prevent death from occurring. Not a bad idea to be honest but it does get far fetched, biblically far fetched which spoils the initial fun of this curse/gift. And that is not the only issue because unlike "White Noise" "White Noise 2: The Light" is certainly not a lesson in horror tension and frights.
Life was great for Abe Dale (Nathan Fillion - Slither) and his family, that is until they went to a diner for meal one day and Henry Caine (Craig Fairbrass - Cliffhanger) walks in gunning down Abe's wife and son before turning the gun on himself. 3 months later and Abe is still struggling, feeling guilty wondering why he wasn't gunned down as well and it all becomes too much as he tries to take his own life by swallowing a bottle of pills. But being revived in the ER Abe experiences an out of body experience and now has this strange ability to not only pick up EVP activity but also see haloes of white light around people. Confused he discovers that these haloes signify the person is going to die offering him the chance to be a hero and save them but there are consequences to his actions, consequences which explain why Caine didn't kill Abe Dale.
"White Noise 2: The Light" starts off in a very familiar manner, happy family meets trauma when we witness Abe Dale's wife and son murdered in front of him before the gunman turns the gun on himself. Why is it that happy families can't stay happy, why do they always have to have misery enter their lives. Anyway we get a less than surprising build on this as Abe struggles with life, blaming himself for not preventing their deaths leading to him over dosing and ending up in ER where he has an out of body experience travelling though a tunnel of light. Talking of which as tunnel of lights go this is not good; it looks fake and almost becomes comical as back in the real world the doctors use a defibrillator to bring him back.
The good news is that this build up is done quickly and efficiently so we get to what we want which is the main part of the story and Abe having some seriously strange experiences from seeing haloes of light around some people through to picking up strange static from electrical equipment. So this gives us one of two links to the previous movie, the fact that Abe is his own EVP machine hearing stuff that most EVP crank's need to record and decipher first. But the whole EVP thing is not that important because this isn't about Abe deciphering fuzzy images or working out what the voices are saying but what the halo of light means. And thankfully he works it out that these halo of lights are a signal that the poor soul surrounded by them is going to die soon giving him the chance to play super hero and save lives.
Where does this all go you maybe wondering? Well Abe discovers that the man who killed his wife and son also happened to be cursed by this gift of seeing dead people walking but he found out something else. Now that something else is a far fetched but also amusingly clever twist which basically explains why he killed Abe's family and puts Abe in the shit. I won't say much else except if you think this set up is already far fetched well it becomes biblically far fetched as Abe tries to make sense of everything and the consequences of his actions. And it is whilst he is doing this we get the only other link to "White Noise" and that is a press cutting which mentions Mary Freeman, although maybe there are more links but if there are they are easy to miss.
Now the thing is that whilst the storyline to "White Noise" wasn't great director Geoffrey Sax created a great atmosphere and some classic frights, where as not only is the storyline to "White Noise 2: The Light" a bit poor but director Patrick Lussier struggles to create that same electrifying atmosphere. Instead Lussier has gone down the more visual route with Abe being plagued by visions of dead people, grey bodies with various images which lurk in the shadows which are not really that scary. It makes it a bit boring because those moments which should scare are too obvious and there are very few moments which make you jump because the atmosphere isn't there.
And sadly whilst Nathan Fillion isn't a bad actor he doesn't deliver the same level of intrigue and panic which Michael Keaton gave us first time around. Maybe if the tension had been there then Fillion would have come across better but instead it all seems one level and almost comical at times. It says a lot about a movie when the best part is the fact it stars Katee Sackhoff as a nurse and waking up to Sackhoff's smile and chipper nature would be enough to make any man feel better.
What this all boils down to is that "White Noise 2: The Light" isn't terrible but neither is it that good with a reasonable idea which becomes so far fetched it borders on the comical.
