SummaryFrom the writers and director of "Saw," comes this ghost story set in the sleepy town of Ravens Fair about Mary Shaw, a ventriloquist who went mad. (Universal Pictures)
SummaryFrom the writers and director of "Saw," comes this ghost story set in the sleepy town of Ravens Fair about Mary Shaw, a ventriloquist who went mad. (Universal Pictures)
The dialogue isn't ridiculous, and sometimes it's witty: A cynical cop (Donnie Wahlberg) doesn't buy Jamie's theory that the doll had something to do with the murder: "The mystery toy department is down the hall. This is the homicide department."
Again coaxing the worst imaginable performances out of his actors (see also: Cary Elwes and Danny Glover in "Saw"), Wan casts charisma-free unknown Ryan Kwanten as a young married man whose small-town past catches up to him.
I do not remember liking this film the first few times I watched it but now that I've paid a little more attention to it I've thoroughly enjoyed it! Anyone who has a fear of creepy dolls will be in a living hell that's for sure as Jamie investigates his girlfriend's death and the suspicious doll that turned up when it happened. It goes at a good pace but really picks up towards the end for one hell of an ending that I can't believe I forgot :P Overall a solid Horror film worth a look!
I'm absolutely captivated. I don't like horror movies, but The Ominous Silence grabbed me immediately, mainly because of the perfect intro and the excellent music that accompanies the film. Add to that the idea of the doll, the cool locations with impeccable atmosphere and especially the incredible reveal at the end. For me, a great horror film that I recommend.
Wan does manage to infuse his film with some of the subtle unsubtleties of classic Euro-horror outings, chief among them the palpable, dreamlike sense of dislocation and the abiding severance from reality that tends to make nongenre fans wonder if someone spiked their popcorn with LSD.
The movie's uninteresting characters, boneheaded dialogue and flagrantly nonsensical narrative detract considerably from the virtues of the visual design.
There are no two ways about it: A chubby-cheeked dummy doing stuff it shouldn't be doing is spooky stuff. But Wan isn't on such sure footing with his actors -- Wahlberg is stilted as the tough-guy cop, and Kwanten is blandly uninteresting.
I remember watching some scenes of this movie when I was a child. I got scared that time. Today, I watched the full movie and I think the movie was scary and dramatic but the story had more potential.
It had good story and genuine horrifying and remarkably different scenes. However, I was little bit disappointed with the movie. The story had a lot of potential and I expected too much after knowing that it was directed by James Wan. The execution was also not thay good, it was very simple. The acting was normal, nothing great about it. Some good things about this movie were the setting of spooky environment and some good scary scenes.
Overall, the movie was good. You will get entertained but it feels like movie is missing some kick.
This film feels like a precursor to Malignant in that it focuses on a familiar premise (creepy dolls/a cool looking slasher) and goes through with taking itself seriously. Throw in a stupid but fun twist that makes no sense at all and you've got Dead Silence, a feature film version of that one episode of Goosebumps with that ventriloquist dummy (+ ghosts!). Maybe it helps that I'm deadly afraid of anything that comes close to a doll but I found this to be a creepy/fun and entertaining time (with a few beers of course).
Terrible movie. Oddly coming from the guys behind Saw, Insidious and the Conjuring, this film is more unintentionally goofy than scary and offers more laughs than scares.
I was the type of horror movie done over and over. Where the viewer should be surprised, there is often disappointment. The main character was dull, and the plot line even more so. The ending was supposed to shock, but I just looked down and thought, "I wasted a thing of Popcorn on this?"