Noise is a Belgian-language thriller that follows the story of Matthias and Liv who move into Matthias father’s old house, only to find themselves in the midst of a mystery that pushed the town into darkness many years ago.
Directed by Steffen Geypens, Noise on Netflix stars Ward Kerremans, Sallie Harmsen, Johan Leysen, Jesse Mensah, and Mieke De Groote, among others. The story picks up from when Matthias decides to move into an old house down the road from a mysterious factory.
As Matthias comes closer to finding the truth about the mystery enveloping the factory, he starts moving away from his sense of reality, drifting further into the darkness that surrounds him.
Noise Story Summary
Matthias and his wife, Liv, move into Matthias’s childhood home along with their baby boy, after his father, Pol, enters an old age home due to his dementia. Matthias is a social media influencer and Liv bakes for a living. They moved into Matthias’ childhood house to take better care of Pol.
One day, Pol wanders into the house to meet Matthias. While spending father-son time together, Pol mentions something about the factory he worked at. He slips out that he had to clean up the mess and that a lot no one knows about had occurred in the factory. Matthias takes his father’s ramblings as a hint asking him to unravel the secret of the factory.
Matthias posts a story on his Instagram about the factory, sparking interest amongst his followers. Thus, his search for the truth about the factory begins. He, along with Liv’s brother Timme, goes to search for evidence inside the factory. They spot a decaying animal that was stinking up the whole place. The duo also come across several files with records of the workings.
Matthias gets further into the background of the factory through the internet. He gets to know that the factory had released wastewater into the drains, causing several homes to be flooded with chemicals and untreated water and leading to many health issues. Later when the factory flooded, five workers, who were stuck inside, lost their lives. All the blame was pointed at Pol who worked at the factory, and he was fired.
After his visit to the factory, Matthias comes to the conclusion that more people had lost their lives than what was actually reported as a result of the incident. No solid evidence of this foul play was found though.
Liv, on the other hand, goes out and meets people around town while also trying to establish her business. She comes across a lady, who was Matthias’s late mother’s best friend. As a result, the baby was left with Mathias on most days.
As the days go by, so does Matthias’s obsession with the factory’s mystery. He keeps on thinking of the case. He becomes extremely sensitive to sounds around him, from the baby’s crying to his chewing. He gets so involved in his controversial theory that one day while he was streaming live, he ends up ignoring his crying baby beside him and receiving hate from his followers as a result.
As he starts losing his sanity, Matthias soon begins to hallucinate. He sees the floorboard of the basement move up and down like it is breathing. He touches it and it suddenly stops. On top of that, his sense of smell also starts getting worse. This leads to an argument between Liv and him one day when he complains about the smell of fish around him. The incident spirals into several fights among the couple as Liv notices that Matthias has been aloof and obsessed with the factory.
During one such fight, Liv storms out, only to find Matthias crying on the stairs late at night as his hallucinations have been getting worse.
Noise Ending Explained
Matthias goes to the factory again. Timme spots him going inside and decides to follow him for his safety as he had been made aware of Matthias’s condition by Liv. A paranoid Matthias feels that his tracks are being followed so that people can harm him. He knocks down Timme with full force, leaving the poor fellow bleeding on the floor. As he is not in his senses, Matthias, instead of providing help, runs away in panic.
Liv goes to meet Pol who mistakes her for his dead wife. He recounts the incident when his wife had just given birth and was having a hard time with the baby. So, it happened one day that she took baby Matthias in her arms and walked straight into the pond in the backyard to drown herself and the baby.
When Pol reached for the rescue, both were already underwater. He got out the baby first and then dove back in to save his wife, but it was too late. In the spur of the moment, Pol mentions to Liv that he regrets not saving his wife first.
Soon after, Liv gets her hands on Matthias’ mother’s diagnosis which read “postpartum depression, hallucination, and paranoia”. She realizes that Pol and Matthias had a very lonely life in the town. This upsets her so much that she pays a visit to the woman who was Matthias’ mother’s best friend and confronts her for not being there for the lonely father and son.
Did Matthias Find Success in Noise?
Liv returns to find Matthias digging a hole in their basement as he believes that it is linked to the basement of the factory. He is convinced that more dead bodies of the factory workers can be found under the basement. He digs up a hole deep enough that one can drown in the water.
He dives into the water again and again trying to find the dead bodies which in reality do not exist. Liv herself jumps into the water in an effort to get Matthias out.
Just as it gets hard for Liv to get Matthias out of the water by herself, Pol arrives and provides a steady stick for her to climb out. The two together pull Matthias out. This time around, Pol does not regret saving his son.
In the end, Timme is discovered by teenagers who frequent the abandoned factory, hinting that he is saved. Matthias starts taking medication and some normalcy returns to the family in the end. However, with the mystery behind the events in the factory still persisting, it’s doubtful whether Matthias had finally decided to live the past in its rightful place – the past.
Noise is available to stream on Netflix.
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