Every town has it's own ghost story, and a local folktale around Ravens Fair is about a ventriloquist named Mary Shaw. After she went mad in the 1940s, she was accused of kidnapping a young boy who yelled out in one of her performances that she was a fraud. Because of this she was hunted down by townspeople who in the ultimate act of revenge, cut out her tongue and then killed her. They buried her along with her “children,” a handmade collection of vaudeville dolls, and assumed they had silenced her forever. However, Ravens Fair has been plagued by mysterious deaths around them after Mary Shaws collection has returned from their graves and have come to seek revenge on people that killed her and their families. Far from the pall of their cursed hometown, newlyweds Jamie and Lisa Ashen thought they had established a fresh start, until Jamie's wife is grotesquely killed in their apartment. Jamie returns to Ravens Fair for the funeral, intent on unraveling the mystery of Lisa's death. Once reunited with his ill father, Edward, and his father's new young bride, Ella, Jamie must dig into the town's bloody past to find out who killed his wife and why. All the while, he is doggedly pursued by a detective who doesn't believe a word he says. As he uncovers the legend of Mary Shaw, he will unlock the story of her curse and the truth behind the threat from a rhyme in his childhood: if you see Mary Shaw and scream, she'll take your tongue. And the last thing you will hear before you die…is your own voice speaking back to you.
Genre(s): Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Runtime: 89 minutes
Rating: 6.0/10 (16,773 votes)
Release Date: 16 March 2007
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Universal Pictures
Sound: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS
MPAA: Rated R for horror violence and images.
Director(s): James Wan
Producer(s):
Mark Burg – producer
Gregg Hoffman – producer
Oren Koules – producer
Peter Oillataguerre – executive producer
Writer(s):
Leigh Whannell – (screenplay)
James Wan – (story) &
Leigh Whannell – (story)
Cast:
Ryan Kwanten – Jamie Ashen
Amber Valletta – Ella Ashen
Donnie Wahlberg – Det. Lipton
Michael Fairman – Henry Walker
Joan Heney – Marion Walker
Bob Gunton – Edward Ashen
Laura Regan – Lisa Ashen
Dmitry Chepovetsky – Richard Walker
Judith Roberts – Mary Shaw
Keir Gilchrist – Young Henry
Music: Charlie Clouser
Tagline: You scream. You die.
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this was a pretty decent little horror flick,, i was pleasantlysurprised by this one.. the dolls in this movie are so lifelike,, sortalike Chucky but even better, and there's 101 of them,, better than theDalmations,, Donnie Wahlberg in this movie i thought was a very goodchoice to play the cop. I just loved the character of Mary Shaw the oldlady ventriloquist, who is suspected of killing the little naysayingboy in the audience so many years ago , but of course never proved, thetownspeople take matters Shaw,, now she has a chance to exact herrevenge on the townfolks,, one by one,, this one is very stylish, andno i did not see the twist coming,, which in essence to me, means thatthere were good writers doing the writing,, which brings me to my nextpoint,, it was the SAW writers that wrote this movie,, all in all ireally did enjoy this little horror flick.
This is a very creepy movie. It has a wonderful back story that thewriters let slowly unfold, rather than give away in the first fiveminutes. The actress that plays Mary Shaw is absolutely brilliant andterrifying at the same time. This isn't just a mindless slasher film,it is a wonderful ghost story in the tradition of The Changeling, TheSentinel, The Ring, etc. I was a little concerned when I found out itwas from the producers of Saw, but I was pleasantly surprised. Makemore movies like this for those of us who crave more mystery and lessidiotic gore. Try making an original movie instead of something withPart V attached to it.
I'm an old fashioned horror fan (mainly into zombie stuff). True I likethe blood and guts but horror films these days seem to just concentrateon trying to make you feel ill rather than scare you. That's why I waspleasantly surprised when I caught the last hour of this on a moviechannel. So much so that I bought it to catch the beginning.
To sum it up, a young man's wife is brutally murdered shortly after astrange ventriloquist's dummy arrives at their home and he has afeeling the old stories about a woman named Mary Shaw and the curse shehas put on the relatives of people who killed her may be more true thanhe first suspected. He heads back to his home town and from there on itjust gets incredibly creepy. Almost 'Silent Hill' style.
There is very little gore, just suspense and things that will make youjump out of your seat and as suspected when you see it's been made bythe Saw creators; a killer twist at the end. I never saw it coming andfor a recent horror that is unusual. I can normally guess who willsurvive in a film/what will happen in the first 10 minutes or so.
This gets a solid 9 out of ten for being one of the best horrors ofrecent years for me. Donnie Wahlberg played an especially good part asa cop determined to find the young man guilty of murdering his wife.
If you like a horror that doesn't just have brains and blood flying atthe camera for 90 minutes, this is for you.
The guys behind the SAW series took a break in 2007 to lens thisinexpensive vengeful spirit flick with both Gothic overtones andtongue-in-cheek humor. A young widower is searching for clues to hiswife's ghastly murder, and returns to his hometown (Raven Falls, mindyou) for answers. An antique ventriloquist dummy may hold the key. Thefilm gets sillier as it goes along, but manages to remain spooky andatmospheric, thanks to some amazing set designs, including the rottinginterior of an old vaudeville theater situated on Lost Lake (how's thatfor a name?). The ending is a direct swipe of STAY ALIVE and THE TOOTHFAIRY. Don Wahlberg from the SAW movies plays a doubting detective. Acouple of old hands (Bob Gunton and Michael Fairman) have pivotalroles, as the young widower's estranged dad and the town mortician.
I found "Dead Silence" fairly routine for the most part. But coming asit does from the guys who gave us the "Saw" movies, there is an elementof the grotesque meeting the Gothic. When a young man's fiancée isbrutally murdered after they receive a dummy in the mail, he returns tohis home town to investigate. His home town has the look of urbandecay. But if the town looks unpleasant, it's only because of theevents that transpired there in previous years, and how they relate tothis young man.
It's true, dummies often figure in horror movies (or sometimes seriousmovies, as "Cradle Will Rock" showed). But the role that the dummiesplay here truly is enough to chill just about anyone. What'sparticularly fascinating – to me, at least – is the root of the word"ventriloquist", and the story of the ventriloquist character in thismovie. True, there are some clichés: old, nervous people have secretsthat they don't want to tell; a cop doesn't believe the main character;and black, colonial dresses. But what the movie reveals as itprogresses holds some real surprises. Therefore, I recommend it. Butnot if you get scared too easily.
Starring Amber Valletta (the young woman in "What Lies Beneath"), BobGunton (the warden in "The Shawshank Redemption") and Donnie Wahlberg.
Ventriloquist dummies and horror movies were made for each other. Thinkabout it. Rare is the dummy that doesn't have a malevolent air aboutit. In fact, the cuter they try to be, the more wantonly homicidal theyseem. Mortimer Snerd resembles Ted Bundy's inner child and WaylonFlower's Madam is a visitation from your darkest nightmare. You wouldhave to be the reincarnation of Ed Wood to make a killer dummy moviethat wasn't at least a little creepy. While the makers of Dead Silencearen't that incompetent, they did succeed in making a movie so blandand formulaic you'd get more chills by watching an old Smurfs episode.
Young Jamie Ashen and his family are terrorized by the evil shade ofventriloquist Mary Shaw. Ashen and Mary share only the most tenuous ofplot convenient connections but it's enough for the ghoul to unleashher wrath on the poor guy. To make matters worse the police suspectAshen for Mary's bloody crimes. Ashen returns to his decaying home townto lay Mary's troublesome spirit to rest and, needless to say, shedoesn't go quietly. Here you see Dead Silence's problem. The emphasisis not placed on the dummies but on the undead ventriloquist and MaryShaw is simply not that scary. She's just a moldy old lady in a blackdress. The dummies themselves spend most of the movie staring atpeople, which they do very well as you might expect. Every now andagain one might turn its head. This action generates more creaking andgroaning than a dozen clipper ships at full sail. Thus theventriloquist dummy's potential for terror is squandered in a moviethat seems hell bent on being as close a clone of Nightmare On ElmStreet as possible without violating copy write laws.
Dead Silence's cast does nothing to relieve the movie's staleatmosphere. As Ashen, Ryan Kwanten is competent without being in anyway interesting. He is a wispy chinned adolescent who hardly looks oldenough to date let alone marry. None the less Laura Regan plays hiswife. Regan is spunky and extremely likable and one wishes the moviefollowed her exploits rather than Kwanten's. Michael Fairman gives aneffective and moving portrayal of an old undertaker traumatized by thesupernatural weirdness surrounding him. As a result he seems to havewalked in from another, better movie. The same can be said of BobGunton as Ashen's wheel chair bound father. The only actor to find theright tone is Donnie Wahlberg. He doesn't so much act the cop assignedto Ashen's case as embody all the quirks we've come to expect fromcinematic law enforcement. I don't think we are supposed to believethis guy for a second. Instead we are supposed to be amused and that weare. The movie goes dead when Wahlberg isn't around.
Like most movies these days Dead Silence looks beautiful. In set designand cinematography it is everything anyone could want in a killer dummymovie. Weirdly, the only place where the design falters is in the lookof Mary's dummies. Billy, the main dummy, looks almost charming.Considering the inherent creepiness of ventriloquist dummies, this tooksome work. Where was the fellow who carved Mortimer Snerd when theyneeded him? Dead Silence can't be completely disliked. It does try toinject some good old fashioned atmosphere into a modern horror flickand still keep up the gore factor. Unfortunately it misses both itsmarks by a wide margin. As it stands Dead Silence is a movie made to beignored.
This film is a real nice surprise from "Saw" director James Wan. Hissensational debut feature filled with eerie mood and gruesome goreshowed great promise for a new horror director. In this follow-up heshows he truly has some impressive chops to be considered a gooddirector of the genre in that he almost totally avoids gore and createsone of the most enjoyably creepy horror films to come in a while. Verylittle use of jump scares and much stronger than usual focus on storyand back-story.
However, the real star of the film is imagery. Resorting a slower moregraceful and composed imagery (not the "in your face" quick cutting)"Dead Silence" delivers some genuinely creepy images. In one earlyscene a character it at home with the kettle on the stove and themysterious doll of the film cover art in her bedroom. The kettle beginsto whistle and… then quiets down with steam still shooting out of thespout and the confused woman soon realizes that she can't hearanything… and the doll isn't in the place where she left it. It isgood slow yet intriguing beginning that almost totally goes against thekilling off of a nameless victim to kick of the movie. Then by the timethe film reaches the end it picks up pace for an exciting conclusionand a knockout twist at the end.
Today with so many films with lightning editing and loud music it isquite refreshing to see a movie that makes clever use of image andsound to hold it viewer rather than pump up their adrenaline. However,seeing that the former idea is so popular these days, then maybe itisn't also that hard to see why this film flopped at the box office. Itcertainly didn't deserve to. — 8/10
BsCDb Classification: 13+ — violence/terror
nice movie