Dead Silence - A Draft of a Better Movie?

When I found out that the director of Dead Silence (James Wan, 2007) was the same director behind the Saw films I thought ‘that explains the ending.’ Which was, probably, the most interesting part of the film – a film that I would be interested in seeing.

The premise of the film I saw – Dead Silence – is: Jamie (Ryan Kwanten) receives a ventriloquist dummy in the post and it leads to him uncovering the secret of the town he was raised in.

Ventriloquist Dummies are creepy in themselves, and Dead Silence does make good use of that premise. It pushes the concept into the gory, combining the supernatural elements with something a little more real. The gore is the disturbing but also cool kind. Mary Shaw (Judith Roberts) is our supernatural element and the folklore surrounding her is reminiscent of classic urban legends that keep you up at night with clear rules. Like a well-written creepypasta.

Unfortunately, the ending of the movie is an abrupt twist. I recommend stopping it just before the end and watching the alternate, cut version of the ending instead. It’s more disturbing, explains more and provides a much more satisfying reason of breaking the “no screaming” rule. This twist, however, falls into something of the ‘why Disney twist villains aren’t as satisfying.’ In that, this movie would be much more interesting if we saw the villain working in tandem alongside Jamie’s investigation. That’s the story with more interest and it would increase the tension as we see both the paranormal and the real working alongside each other.

Speaking of Jamie – he’s a surprisingly likeable protagonist. We feel for his situation and he makes a good lens to learn about the past through. It’s interesting he has been referred to as a ‘final boy,’ (instead of final girl) and it’s a concept that could be explored in the horror genre, since everyone's main focus is Kwanten's lack of topless scenes. For me, I don’t think this movie fits into that stereotype – this isn’t a group of people being picked off one by one by a slasher and Jamie seems to have even less agency than most final girls.

Instead, if we want to talk about queer themes in this movie, we should talk about the weird chemistry between Jamie and the obligatory detective (Donnie Wahlburg). In fact, the scene of them working together is the most enjoyable part of the film for me – with the quippy banter juxtaposed against a creepy warehouse full of dolls. This could have been a black comedy cop buddy horror – and that would have improved the movie. That’s the problem at the core of Dead Silence – there’s so many snatches of over movies that you’re distracted by what could have been.

Such as actually seeing Mary Shaw’s original plan come to fruition. Maybe that was a planned prequel, but it seems the goriest part of this story is skipped over. That could be another queer theme – the ostracization of older, unmarried women by society. Granted, this woman has a weird obsession with dummies, which may not be the best representation, but it could still be discussed. Again, aren’t explored just enough in the running time to be anything more than a tired (and harmful) cliche.

Overall, this movie should probably get more attention. There’s more to talk about with it and more to explore in this world. The imagery does a great job of being creepy and the threat of what happens when you scream is enough to remind you of the urban legends that floated around your school. The plot is strong and the characters have a tongue-in-cheek likeability, but this movie feels an early draft for the real Dead Silence.