Dead Silence (2007)
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| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Gregg Hoffman, the Saw franchise producer (June 11, 1963 – December 4, 2005) |
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Dead Silence is a 2007 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. The film stars Ryan Kwanten as Jamie Ashen, a young widower returning to his hometown to search for answers to his wife's death. It also stars Amber Valletta, Donnie Wahlberg, and Bob Gunton.
Dead Silence was theatrically released in the United States on March 16, 2007, by Universal Pictures. The film was dedicated to Gregg Hoffman, who died in 2005.
Dummy Qualities
- None of these characters look interesting.
- Jamie Ashen, while likable he's kinda naive.
- Detective Jim Lipton is annoying, won't stop stalk and interrupt Jamie, having obsession with electric razor.
- Henry Walker warned Jamie not saying the name Mary Shaw but without any reason why.
- Weak and wooden acting.
- Billy the doll and the clown doll are the rip-off of Billy from Saw franchise and Chucky the killer doll respectively.
- Horrendously disgusting CGI.
- So many plot-holes.
- Dull cinematography.
- Bad Twist Ending: After Jamie throws Billy in the fireplace, he learns, much to his horror, that his father is already dead; the current "Edward" he has been interacting with all this time is a doll converted from his corpse; his voice was provided by Ella, the "perfect doll" that Mary Shaw created before her death. Jamie screams as Ella becomes possessed by Mary; he suffers the same fate as everyone else. Jamie, now a puppet, recites a nursery rhyme about Shaw while a photo album with other human puppets is shown: Lisa, Henry, Lipton, Edward, Ella, and Jamie himself. Mary closes the book, finally completing her revenge and ending the Ashen bloodline.
Redeeming Qualities
- The soundtrack is phenomenal, especially the main theme (Which is included in Mr. Incredible Becomes Uncanny Phase 82).
- Creepy and scary moments here and there.
- Fitting atmosphere.
- The alternative ending twist made much more sense.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 21%, based on 82 reviews, with an average rating of 3.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "More tasteful than recent slasher flicks, but Dead Silence is undone by boring characters, bland dialogue, and an unnecessary and obvious twist ending." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 34 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Videos
Post-release commentary
In his personal blog, screenwriter Whannell reveals the origins of the film within the context of the Hollywood film industry. In a candid post entitled "Dud Silence: The Hellish Experience of Making a Bad Horror Film", Whannell explains that the film was conceived following the advice of his agent at the time and that a "script doctor" was eventually employed by the production studio. Whannell concludes the post with a description of the key lessons that were learned following the Dead Silence experience:
"After everything is said and done, I'm almost glad Dead Silence happened, because it gave me an extreme, coal-face lesson in what not to do. It was like learning to swim by leaping off Niagara Falls. I only write scripts on spec now, which means that I write them in my own time without getting paid and then take them out into the world to see if anyone's interested. Never again will I enter the arranged marriage of selling a pitch. I have also become very gun-shy about working with studios. In the world of independent film, what you write ends up on screen. Plus, they don't have the money to bring in script doctors! Works fine for me. Who knows, maybe one day I will work with a studio again...[1]"
— Leigh Whannell
In retrospect, Director James Wan said: “Dead Silence, my second movie and first studio film, was really me responding to the reaction that Saw was getting, meaning that people were harping on the torture aspect of Saw. So I made a very conscious decision to move away from that style of film and into something that was more of a haunted house, ghost story, which is a genre I love. But, of course, Saw made such a strong impression that it carried into Dead Silence. A lot of people were expecting something similar to Saw, but it wasn’t. Ultimately, it didn’t do that well, financially, and at the time, people didn’t really like it. But now, strangely, so many fans reach out to tell me how much they love Dead Silence.[2]