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Contains strong horrorSaw director James Wan abandons the torture porn genre for Dead Silence, a flimsy, clich茅-ridden horror about a menacing ventriloquist's dummy. As Jamie (Ryan Kwanten) travels home to solve the mystery of his wife's murder, he unwisely packs the chief suspect, Billy, a doll who's linked to a local curse. Mild hell breaks loose, along with corny dialogue aplenty. Donnie Wahlberg plays a suspicious cop, but he's chosen better movies - hey, even spooky stepmom Amber Valletta has.
There's plenty of suspense at the start of Dead Silence. This is from the Saw guys, after all, so you get the feeling it could get pretty nasty. In fact, it's a throwback to a more innocent age, when the mere flicker of a doll's eye could fill teens with terror. All well and good, but it becomes so derivative that it borders on dull. The plot takes in lots of waffle about a vengeful dead ventriloquist, Mary Shaw, who uses her dummies as a means of murder. But she's an uninteresting baddie, with equally humdrum victims. Supposedly, she only kills you and snatches your tongue if you scream, but the potential suspense in this idea is exploited in only one scene.
"TEMPTED TO SIDE WITH THE VILLAIN"
There are jumps and bumps here and there, and a nifty device in which the soundtrack slows down to eerie, claustrophobic silence before the killer is about to strike. It looks good, too, but the muddled plot and stilted dialogue irritate to the point where you're tempted to side with the villain.
Dead Silence is out in the in UK cinemas on 4th July 2007.
