I watched Dead Silence last night, the horror movie from the writer and director of Saw . Trying to branch out from
the tired franchise they started, Dead Silence takes on the rather creepy subject of old-school ventriloquist dummies who seem to possess the soul of their evil creator, Mary Shaw.
Dead Silence stars unknown Ryan Kwanten as Jamie Ashen, a man who comes home to find his wife brutally murdered, her tongue ripped out. As the police, led by Detective Jim Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg), grow to suspect that he is responsible, Jamie is convinced that his wife''s death revolves around the mysterious ventriloquist dummy that appeared at their doorstep only minutes before his wife found the cat that caught her tongue. The mystery leads him back to his hometown, where he slowly begins to piece together what truly happened to Mary Shaw, and why her ghost is killing people left and right.
I went into this movie expecting the very worst, and Dead Silence wasn''t nearly as bad as I expected. Of all the movies I''ve seen written by Leigh Whannel (the first three Saw movies), I have never been terribly impressed with his dialogue, and Dead Silence doesn''t change my impression of him. While not terrible, the dialogue is rather shaky here, and Wahlberg gets several absolutely horrific lines. Director James Wan, following up his mainstream debut of Saw , also does not strike me as overly gifted. Saw was a directorial mess, and while Dead Silence maintains a much calmer and intriguing approach, it still isn''t great.