Beware the stare of Mary Shaw
She had no children, only dolls
and if you see her in your dreams
make sure you never, ever scream
Dead Silence is the story of Jamie Ashen who is happily married. One day after receiving a mysterious ventriloquist doll dropped off at his door, he steps out to grab some takeout and returns to find his wife brutally murdered. With a nosy detective hot on his trail, Jamie hi-tails it back to his hometown of Ravens Fair to bury his wife. Shortly there after he begins his own investigation into his wife's murder, and into an age old mystery that surrounds the town that may hold the explanation to everything.
Dead Silence is yet another film that's main appeal to me is it's outstandingly creepy, tense atmosphere. The town of Raven's Fair seems to be in an eternal state of night and is filled with fog. Ravens Fair is just about deserted when Jamie finally arrives there, shops are boarded up and there is barely anybody in the streets. This gives the whole area an almost sleepy ghost town sort of vibe that I really dug, not to mention there is also a creepy cemetery and an old abandoned theater that play pretty big roles in the film. Ravens Fair is a perfect setting for the film, serving to keep the audience on edge throughout the film.
As with any sleepy old town, Ravens Fair has its own mystery/ghost story surrounding it, that of Mary Shaw. The legend of Mary Shaw resembles that of your "classic" ghost story that you could probably hear around a campfire late at night. The story goes that Mary Shaw was an aging ventriloquist who was murdered after a young heckler at one of her shows mysteriously disappeared a few days later. Now, according to legend, she lives on in her dolls and if she should pay you a visit and you scream she'll rip your tongue out. This is where the horror aspect of the film comes in. I love that the main storyline centers around this old ghost story, this makes Dead Silence almost a throwback in a weird way.
Another great thing about Dead Silence is that at first glance it would appear to be about killer dolls. In a way this assumption would be correct, and in a way it wouldn't. The dolls don't have a mind of their own, each is controlled by the spirit of Mary Shaw so in reality Dead Silence is really an old fashioned ghost story of sorts. The dolls do quite a bit of killing, and for most of the film they serve as the scary antagonists. The audience is made well aware of the fact that Mary Shaw's spirit is probably behind the whole thing, but we don't see her until the end of the film.
Another neat, original aspect of the film is the killing scenes. Most of the scenes take place with absolutely zero background noise, creating a great deal of suspense and tension as we wait for the inevitable scare and kill. Once a person's tongue is ripped out, Mary Shaw steals away their voice and tends to use it to trick people. This adds a whole other scary dimension to the film, it's extremely unsettling to hear the person's voice and know that it's not them speaking. This alone will probably give me enough nightmare fodder for several years.
I guess it's time to talk about the actors for a bit. Ryan Kwanten plays Jamie Ashen, the protagonist of Dead Silence. He has a good deal of intelligence to him even though he does make a few dumb mistakes (like in one part where he attacks a cop for taunting him, and another where he follows a disembodied voice even though he already knows not to do this after the first scene in the film). Donnie Whalberg plays Detective Lipton and is completely unlikeable. The character is a complete dick that taunts Jamie about his loss and is just an all-around jerk. I couldn't wait for this character to die (and interestingly enough Jamie does more detective work in the film than Lipton does, what up with that). Judith Roberts plays the ghostly Mary Shaw and nails it, probably being the only truly memorable actor in the film. She doesn't say much, but she succeeds in creating plenty of tension and scares. She is perfect at embodying the ghostly central figure to this ghost story, and is sure to stick with most after the credits run.
Dead Silence is one of the few really good modern day horror films. It succeeds at creating a great atmosphere, great tension, a fantastic score (Mary Shaw's theme is definitely one of the more memorable modern score pieces I've heard), and some pretty good scares. I think it was an ingenious idea to have the central focus of Dead Silence be a "classic" ghost story, an original idea in an era full of rip offs. Probably my only complaint with Dead Silence is nothing really happens until the end of the film, luckily the atmosphere here is strong enough to keep most happily distracted until the final 20 mins or so. With a cool gimmick in the form of a bunch of killer dolls (although we have seen this one before, it still works here and surprisingly doesn't grow old after the first few kills), a great ghost story, superb creepy atmosphere, and a killer stomach turning twist Dead Silence has all you could want in a good horror film and it makes for highly recommended viewing during the Halloween season.
4/5 STARS
No comments:
Post a Comment