Kelsey's Review

Summary - Pretty Awful 0.5

Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten) and his wife, Lisa, receive a mysterious ventriloquist doll in the mail and the package is without a return address. Soon after, Jamie’s wife is found dead. Detective Jim Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) is suspecting Jamie, since he is an easy target. He wants answers and Jamie goes looking for them through the ventriloquist doll. In Jamie’s hometown a ventriloquist doll is considered a bad omen, so he believes the doll holds the answer to his wife‘s murder. Back in his murky hometown he re-learns the legend of Mary Shaw. Here, we also learn his dad had a stroke, he has a new Step mom and we meet a creepy mortician who seems to know more about Mary Shaw than he lets on. As Jamie is getting closer and closer to finding out the reason for his wife’s death, it is up to him to make sure he doesn’t become close enough to be a victim himself.

Acting - Bad 1.0

The acting wasn’t impressive. Ryan Kwanten has the ability as an actor. His performance was lacking compassion though. This can largely be attributed to the stale script though, as it is clear none of the actors had much to work with. Donnie Whalberg is merely okay as the cop. However, he is predictible and doesn’t help the movie out much.

Film - Bad 1.0

The director and writer of Dead Silence (James Wan, Leigh Whannell) are responsible for the start of the Saw series and the trailers for this film promoted it heavily. Saw was an innovative movie that brought horror fans exactly what they desired. Saw was gutsy, gory, and popular among horror fans. The central themes stayed with the sequels, but the execution just wasn’t the same. I anticipated that Dead Silence would have similar traits to the element of downfall that is present in the later Saw movies. The thing with most horror movies that play off another’s popularity is that they seem to be heavy on visuals but lack substance. Dead Silence seems to lack both (especially the substance).
It is really shocking that the story of this came from the same guy that wrote Saw. Saw was refreshingly complex while Dead Silence is far too simplistic for its’ own good. Dead Silence shares many elements found in the recent trend of “PG-13 horror“. The killings aren’t shown, only the results. It features quick cuts where the audience sees Mary Shaw, we hear a scream, and the character is dead just like that. The film is high on visuals but short on plot.

Edge - Risqué 2.3

There isn’t much violence despite all of the people who die. The viewer barely even sees the body let alone the process of what happened to it. This doesn’t make it scary, it is just frustrating to the viewer. The film has no other strong point so you would think it would at least try to scare the you through shock value, but since that is lacking as well, it just becomes boring.

Reality - Supernatural 3.4

Dead Silence is a poor ventriloquist version of a mix of a variety of other horror film. The film has a Nightmare on Elm Street-ish back story involving Mary Shaw, who seemed more like the countess in Stay Alive. When Mary Shaw is actually seen, she has no presence, creates no sense of danger, and ultimately has no personality. It is hard to be scared when one of the rules to the legend is all you have to do is not scream and Mary Shaw is powerless. This makes it very hard to take her seriously. The Child’s Play theme involves the dolls of Mary Shaw and it is confusing as the movie doesn’t really make it clear until the third act what the dolls role exactly is, they don’t have fun with it a la Child’ Play nor does the film use it to it’s advantage to build suspense and in the end it’s just poor storytelling. This just shows weakness of the writers. They could have been creative and actually shown us something with imagination. Dead Silence lacks any originality and the movie’s lazy execution ruins any hope it might have had to paint a prettier picture than we are left bored with.

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