Dead Silence (C-)

"You scream, you die."

A movie with ghosts and ventriloquist dummies? How can such a thing be bad? Dead Silence, a film by James Wan, has been soundly panned by reviewers and currently holds a 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All in all, it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. I don't think everyone is going to like this movie, but as long as you know what you're getting into, you may walk away pleased.

The first thing that bugged me was the film's presentation. It's a bit in your face and campy, seemingly on purpose. While this was an initial stumbling block for my enjoyment of Dead Silence, the longer I watched it the more it reminded me of an episode of Tales from the Crypt. It's that kind of campy, that kind of cheesy, that kind of over-the-top. And if you enjoyed Tales from the Crypt and accept that Dead Silence is like a very long episode from that beloved show, the more you'll enjoy it.

Dead Silence follows the story of Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten), a rich kid with daddy issues. Jamie and his wife, Lisa (Laura Regan), receive a mysterious package one evening. Opening the package, they find a ventriloquist dummy inside. Lisa recalls a famous ventriloquist, and comments on an old nursery rhyme that she remembers from her youth: "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw, She had no children, only dolls. If you see her in your dreams, make sure you never ever scream."

Lisa has some fun with Billy at Jamie's expense.

After puzzling over the dummy, Jamie leaves to buy some take-out Chinese food while Lisa plays around with the dummy. Things get strangely silent in the apartment, and Lisa suffers at the hands of some malignant, unseen force. When Jamie returns home with dinner, he discovers that Lisa has been killed, her tongue torn from her mouth. The dummy, who we come to know as Billy, is laying on the floor in their bedroom.

The cops come and take Lisa's body away, and Jamie ends up in the office of homicide cop Detective Lipton (genre veteran Donnie Wahlberg). Though Lipton has no evidence proving Jamie's complicity in the crime, he seems self-assured that it's only a matter of time until he digs it up. Jamie spouts some nonsense about the dummy, which only makes Lipton think Jamie's crazy.

Detective Lipton's interrogation techniques are revolutionary.

Jamie leaves for his home town of Raven's Fair, a curiously dead little burg in the middle of nowhere. As it happens, Raven's Fair is where the late Mary Shaw--the famous ventriloquist--lived. He intends to bury his wife there, and drops by his father's house to ask a few questions. In the process, Jamie meets his father's latest wife, Ella (Amber Valletta), and has a heated discussion with his father, Edward (Bob Gunton), who's recently suffered from a stroke.

Learning nothing of interest from his father and step-mother concerning Mary Shaw, Jamie goes about the business of arranging for his late wife's funeral. Things get creepy with the dummy, and Detective Lipton shows up to throw a monkey wrench into Jamie's plans. As time goes on, more is revealed about Mary Shaw, her ventriloquist dummies, and the horrible secret that Edward Ashen has kept from his son all these years.

What a bunch of dummies!

As I said, the film is somewhat campy, but if viewed in a particular light, it lives up to the campiness quite well. The actors' performances are hit and miss, but no one is particularly terrible in their role. If anything, the hammy acting (in some cases) befits the whole Tales from the Crypt vibe the movie gives off. The best performance in Dead Silence is given by Donnie Wahlberg, who becomes Jamie's unwitting ally towards the movie's end.

The cinematography is somewhat overdone, with transitions occasionally involving images of maps which zoom in to the action from above. Likewise, the music can get pretty bombastic. The special effects, outside of the use of fog machines, are competent, and the ventriloquist dummies are actually pretty darn creepy. The storyline itself is somewhat cliched, as is the twist at the end, but I thought it was fun nonetheless.

As far as scares, the campy nature of the movie makes it hard to take it too seriously. That said, there are some suspenseful moments, and the sound and visual effects that take place at these times lend themselves well to the content. It's a movie made in the style of a bygone era, and it's not particularly ashamed of it, either.

Billy's antics sure do turn a lot of heads. His included.

Should you queue up Dead Silence? If you're not expecting a serious or particularly deep horror experience, and especially if you remember Tales from the Crypt with any amount of fondness, you should give Dead Silence a chance. If you're not interested in camp, cheese, and corn, you may as well avoid it altogether. I leave the decision up to you.