You’ll have to excuse me if this isn’t the longest review, or perhaps the most focused. You see, after I write this, I will be scouring the house and burning all my wive’s old Barbie dolls, Cabbage Patch Kids, and probably even her My Little Ponys. Hell, I may even set all my GI Joe’s on fire. Dead Silence will just do that to you. It will make you hate any inanimate object anywhere near you for fear that any moment, it will come to life and cut your face off. I refuse to turn my back on that painting in my living room. I’m watching you, Norman Rockwell.
The latest installment from the writers and directors of Saw, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, Dead Silence tells the story of revenge gone wrong. It involves the story of turn-of-the-century ventriloquist Mary Shaw and her efforts to rid the foggy town of Raven’s Fair of its tongues.
Many years back, a boy named Michael Ashen turned up missing in Raven’s Fair. When the town mob decided that Mary Shaw was the culprit, they stormed her home gangster-style and murdered her, cutting out her tongue. Before she is laid to rest in the cemetery, however, she is transformed into a doll herself in accordance to her final wishes. She is then committed to the ground alongside her precious wooden freaks.
Unbeknownst to Raven’s Fair, this wasn’t the last of Mary Shaw or her sickeningly eerie playthings. Since the vigilante attack of the Raven’s Fair populace, Mary Shaw swore a posthumous vendetta. We are brought into the tale of her vengeance as we are introduced to Jamie and Lisa Ashen, played by Ryan Kwanten and Laura Regan. As Jamie toils with the kitchen plumbing, an ultra-creepy ventriloquist doll named Billy mysteriously turns up on the Ashen doorstep. Oddly, Lisa brings in the dummy and playfully teases Jamie with it, who is apparently bothered and frankly, a little creeped out that his wife isn’t questioning the arrival of a random dummy on her doorstep. I know I found myself thinking, ‘Why wouldn’t they just throw that scary bastard in the dumpster?’ There is no way in hell I’d bring that thing into my house, but strangely enough, Lisa sets up the dummy in bed in an effort to scare her husband returning home from a food run. It is a move that she learns to regret as ol’ Billy cuts up Lisa’s face but good and relieves her of her tongue. Jamie returns home to find the gruesome scene and from there, the drama unfolds.
We are then caught up in Jamie’s quest to solve the mystery of the murderous dummy and to discover why his wife was chosen. After escaping the police, he returns back to Raven’s Fair where he begins his relentless investigation. I found myself getting a little hung up on the plot points involving the police as well as the ridiculous stereotype Donny Wahlberg portrayed. He was the typical gruff, disheveled homicide detective, complete with donut in hand, undone necktie, and witty quips. He even carried an electric razor around to apparently add credence to his Marlboro Man-turned-cop caricature. Plus, after Lisa’s murder, Jamie simply returns to the crime scene, takes evidence, and drives off to Raven’s Fair. It was all a bit too much, but taken in the context of the movie, it is easy to look past. This is Dead Silence, not Citizen Kane.
Jamie quickly realizes the story of Mary Shaw and how he became involved in this bloodlust, thanks to some quick back story from his father. Edward Ashen, played creepily by Bob Gunton late of Warden Norton fame in Shawshank Redemption, informs Jamie that the missing boy those many years ago was a distant uncle in the Ashen clan. It seems its now Mary’s sole desire to rid the world of Ashen genes. From there, it’s a suspenseful ride as Jamie learns the truth of his family and their connection to Raven’s Fair’s murderous past.
In addition, true to the clever and inventive writing style of Wan and Whannell, the ending provides a nice twist to the entire movie. As Jamie Ashen recounts the story he’s learned, he comes to realize his father was nothing more than the corpse of Edward Ashen turned into a ventriloquist dummy, his hollowed-out back showing his wooden spine. His master being Ella, his latest wife, and as we quickly learn, the ‘perfect doll’ built by Mary Shaw. Jamie learns this too late as the movie ends with his imminent death at Ella’s hands.
