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Overall Rating : 6.5/10
Directed By : James Wan
Ryan Kwanten (Flicka)
Amber Valletta (Premonition)
Donnie Wahlberg (SAW II)
Michael Fairman (Mulholland Dr.)
Supplied By : Universal Studios
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jun. 14, 2007
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| PLOT Ever since Mary Shaw was hunted down and killed, the small town of Ravens Fair has been haunted by horrific death. When a local's wife is brutally murdered, he returns home to unravel the terrifying legend of Mary Shaw and the reason why when you see her, you should never, ever scream. |
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| THE REVIEW In DEAD SILENCE a young man by the name of Jamie's life suddenly changes when he receives a mysterious doll at his door step, that was not accompanied with any markings or address to indicate where it had come from. From the start Jamie is rather taken back with the strange and eerie doll, his suspicion would grow greater when he returns home from getting take out to find his wife dead. and what's even stranger is that she has been posed like some kind of mannequin. Looking for answers in his wife's murder he heads back to his home town of Raven Fair, because he believes the doll to be connected to an old town legend involving an old lady named Mary Shaw who was a Ventriloquist. With a detective on his trial convinced that it is Jamie himself who is responsible for the murder, Jamie continues to find himself in many weird happenings all surrounding the doll. Later in the film it is revealed that Mary, suspected in the disappearance of some of the town's children was brutally murdered and killed by a few unhappy parents. In her will, she had a few very "different" requests. Mary Shaw wished to be buried alongside her huge collection of 101 dolls, and that's not all, she wanted to be made into a doll herself! With all of this uncovered, it seems that Mary Shaw is back for one reason, revenge, and she's brought her dolls along for the terror. Jamie is left wondering what all this has to do with him, but soon he finds out that he has to look no further than his family history. From the creators of the hugely popular SAW series, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, they are back again(with Whannell writing the screenplay and Wan Directing), with a different kind of story. For the most part, I thought this film was very original and fresh, sure the basic set up of an accused child murderer being murdered by vigilante parents may be borrowing a little from the "Elim street" playbook, but the rest is highly thoughtful. For years the kids that grew up in the town of Ravens Fair has learned a creepy little poem from their parents, often as they go to bed at night. The subject, a woman named Mary Shaw, whom had no children, but considered her dolls as equal, And in the conclusion they were warned not to scream if they ever caught a glace of her, which left the kids frightened and also wondering if it were true, not knowing that Mary was murdered years before. It seems that the legend is back in the ghostly flesh, ripping out the tongues of those whom scream in her presence(when Mary was murdered her tongue was also ripped out, so payback is fair). From the very beginning of DEAD SILENCE, a slightly higher budget is apparent, as opposed to what it was for the first SAW film. When I saw the first SAW film, although it wasn't necessarily my favorite, I was still very impressed with what they were able to accomplish on their budget, and in turn wondered what they could do with a little more funding. Well this seems to be the answer and I truly liked what I saw in this film. The overall feeling has some sort of old fashion genre feeling to it that kept me watching, although the plot was a little less than explorative(we are given very little reasoning as to why mary was killed - aside from on boy missing), I was still hooked. Maybe my love for all things that have to do with killer clowns, dolls and evil children had something to do with how much I enjoyed DEAD SILENCE. As soon as the first preview aired months ago, I was riddled with excitement to see this, due to the fact that it had killer puppets - and even then I had no idea how much of a role they would play! Much like the puppet in SAW(who also makes a slight cameo in this film- and is ALSO happens to be named Billy as well), the dolls play a big part in the film's overall creepiness, most importantly the main doll Billy. Wan does a great job in the execution of the story, because we do have 101 dolls at on point on screen, and any other unaware directory may have had all of them frolicking around on screen, making DEAD SILENCE nothing more than another over the top film from the catalogs of Full Moon Entertainment. In DEAD SILENCE there are no gimmicky death traps this time around, but instead we are treated to some natural scares, seemingly taken from various films in Asian and Italian cinema. The atmosphere was darkly lit, creating the perfect platform for these scares and I enjoyed them a great deal, but perhaps there was no better shock than the film's ending for me.In every SAW entry there has always been that shocking ending, after the first SAW's ending fans expected to see an ending just as equal, and here in this film it proves to be no different. The co-creators must've thought long and hard on this one, as I thought DEAD SILENCE had an ending that was just as cleverly brilliant as it was twisted -it is surely one of the high points of the film! I believe both James Wan and Leigh Whannell happened to be two of the best when it comes to formulating a great ending. DEAD SILENCE isn't and won't be for everyone, in fact most SAW fans probably won't like this as much as their gritty SAW. But for fans of campy ghost stories, and those who just can't get enough of the puppet in SAW, are likely to find something they like about this film. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 Not as gory as you may think, Jaws are ripped open and tongues detached, but it is all not ass graphic as it seems, but really, it's not needed. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 7/10 Loved the score! The score adds a great amount of suspense to the film, not to mention the great opening theme. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM With a lot of people complaining that DEAD SILENCE isn't as good as SAW, i'd have to disagree, as I believe I kind of liked it better. For once i'm glad it wasn't anything like SAW, and really glad it wasn't a remake. The DVD also contains an alternate opening and ending, that to be honest i'm glad that they did away with. also included; deleted scenes, a making-of featurette and a music video from the band AIDEN. I really enjoyed this film and highly recommend it! This DVD will be released on June 26, 2007 |
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