Posted on March 19, 2006
“Dead Silence” plays on what several scary movies have done before it: the fear of real-life dolls. The “Chucky” movies have done this before, but this classic killer doll steps aside to let another batch of evil plastic people do what they do best.
Director James Wan, with screenwriter Leigh Whannell, the minds behind the “Saw” series, have taken a break from Jigsaw’s dangerous traps to play with their new dolls.
When Jamie Ashen (played by Ryan Kwanten) and his wife Lisa (played by Laura Regan) receive a ventriloquist doll named Billy, things start to turn ugly. Jamie leaves the night they receive the doll to get dinner and returns to find Lisa dead on the bed with her tongue ripped out at the seam, with Billy sitting on the floor. Now being the only suspect of his wife’s murder, Jamie must find the true killer. However, what he finds is something only movies can make up.
The gruesome details of his wife’s death remind Jamie of a poem he once heard as a child. The poem reads,”Beware the stare of Mary Shaw, she had no children, only dolls, and if you see her, do not scream, or she’ll rip your tongue out at the seam.”
After following this clue, Jamie takes the doll back to his hometown in search of the ghost of Mary Shaw, whom he believes killed his wife. Following close behind him is Detective Jim Lipton (played by Donnie Wahlberg), who is also attempting to solve this bizarre murder case.
Once arriving in town, Jamie searches for Mary Shaw and her dummies, but while doing so, the movie follows every formula of scary movies. He goes to cemeteries at night, walks into creepy old theaters that haven’t been used in more than 50 years and carries a doll Billy with him everywhere, just so he can come alive at the most opportune time.
Not much of anything in this movie is fresh. The movie itself is filmed with an eerie blue filter, so that everything and everyone looks creepy and sinister.
However, there are a few good parts of this scary tale of killer dolls. Wahlberg is by far the best actor in this movie, which should tell audiences something right there. The dolls themselves make up the other decent part of this flick.
Wan and Whannell may not have made a classic movie like “Saw” this time around, but they did stick to their game plan of throwing twists in at the end.
