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Dead Silence - Movie Review Hot

Movie Reviews

Release Date: March 16, 2007
Studio: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Genre: Horror • Thriller
Director: James Wan
Writers: James Wan, Leigh Whannell,
Cast: Donnie Wahlberg, Amber Valletta, Ryan Kwanten, Michael Fairman, Joan Heney, Bob Gunton, Laura ReganSteven Taylor, Keir Gilchrist
Synopsis: A widower returns to his hometown to search for answers to his wife's murder, which may be linked to the ghost of a murdered ventriloquist.
The Review: You're Critic for the Evening: Michael Dayspring

Let me be your crash test dummy
Or
There sure are a lot of dummies in this movie.

Brought to you by the writers, director, and producers of SAW to serve us up the next possible horror franchise..wait a minute..SAW?..wooden dummies? Sounds like a Jigsaw puzzle to me..anyway moving on.

Instead of fetish torture horror this one is more like a campfire ghost story at heart, with tongue and cheek humor (pun intended).

The film gets started pretty fast; it's creepy and has some great devices to build tension. Using a void of sound to let you know something really evil is about to go down; simple trick and they work it well. But soon after the plot just slows down to a pace that makes you pray Jigsaw shows up somewhere to liven things up a bit, hell I was even praying for Leprechaun to show up around the forty five minute mark.

Jamie (Ryan Kwanten) spends a large portion of this film running in circles trying to find a way to solve the murder of his wife (Amber Valletta). Not much happens during the process. A few cheap scares with no real punch to them, and zero body count. The plot just has trouble moving forward and sticking together. You can feel early on that they are trying to set things up for a big M. Night Shyamalan style reveal at the end, so you pick up your visual scanning and hope for the best...Stay on target.

The savior of this film is none other than Donnie Walberg, no I don't mean he's the star of the film or the guy who saves the day. I mean he is the savior of the film for the audience. When you first meet him he seems to be a poor man's carbon copy of Dignam (The Departed), but he quickly grows on you and becomes the guy you most want to see more of in the film.

The plot and body count does pick up again and the movie seems to finally begin to deliver. When everything finally builds to a nice boil we've got enough pieces of the puzzle to reinvest interest in the plot. The scares start packing a punch and the heroes are off to cut the strings on this puppet show come hell or high water. Without spoiling the end for anyone I have to admit it I wasn't expecting it, but it was pretty silly and quite unnecessary. It does leave it open for a sequel, which, any ending in a horror movie can still lead to a sequel so that's not saying much. Though a sequel wouldn't be totally unwelcome; I've seen far worse premises end up with seven or eight of them, and there is always room for improvement on a good set up. This one could qualify in that category.

What's impressive is how much James Wan has picked up as a director and he really does stretch his legs out for this one, and no matter how the film performs he's proven that he's got some skill behind the lens. If he can get some better performances out of his cast and a more solid script he could see his stock rise quite a bit. He makes incredible use of that soundless void technique to put you on the edge of your seat before assaulting you with a scare that will slam you into the head rest.

Overall: If you need to see a Dummy movie..see DUMMY, but for horror films this weekend go check out Dead Silence, take a date and do some bonding over a decent horror flick.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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