For the love of Chucky, avoid this insipid attempt at reviving the killer doll horror.
Comment
07/27/07
Dead Silence (2007)
18 %
Reviews Counted: 68 Fresh: 12 Rotten:56 Average Rating: 3.8/10
Consensus:
More tasteful than recent slasher flicks, but Dead Silence is undone by boring characters, bland dialogue, and an unnecessary and obvious twist ending.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 90 mins
Theatrical Release: 06-07-2007
Synopsis: Old ladies, ventriloquist dummies, decrepit small-towns, and dolls are all exploited for their full creepy potential in DEAD SILENCE, a relatively innocent but thoroughly scary horror feature from the makers of SAW. After a heavily stylized black-and-white opening credit sequence that... [More]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: Ryan Kwanten, Amber Valletta, Donnie Wahlberg, Bob Gunton, Laura Regan
Director: James Wan
Screenwriter: Leigh Whannell, James Wan
Producer: Gregg Hoffman, Mark Burg, Oren Koules
Composer: Charlie Clouser
Screenwriter: Leigh Whannell, James Wan
Producer: Gregg Hoffman, Mark Burg, Oren Koules
Composer: Charlie Clouser
Reviews
Top Critic
There's something quaintly charming about the filmmakers' unabashed affection for their inspirational source material, although the sense of over-familiarity means that none of it is in the least bit scary.
07/14/07
Poorly written, badly directed and ultimately scare-free horror flick that's further hindered by dismal performances and unintentionally laughable dialogue.
07/07/07
It's woefully flat and not nearly as scary as it thinks it is. It almost makes one yearn for Saw. But not quite.
07/06/07
I admit that I didn't see the daft last-minute twist coming, and sort of admired it, but for the rest you'd need an extravagant love of hokum not to feel mildly bored.
07/06/07
It’s also a bit shocking that a movie this mediocre is getting a cinema release at all. Dead Silence more resembles one of those five-quid DVDs you find in petrol stations.
07/06/07
This is Days Of Our Lives for the living dead - possibly the only film in history to prompt the reaction, 'That would have been worse, if not for Donnie Wahlberg's acting talent!' and far more predictable than you'd expect from the director of Saw.
07/06/07
“Who’s the dummy now?” she rasps. Well, you are if you waste your hard-earned on this tepid retread of Dickie Attenborough's 1978 Magic, a curious stumble from Leigh Whannell and James Wan after the success of their Saw gore-fests.
07/06/07
there's something about its overblown stormy-night atmospherics and reliably dismal dialogue that's bad in almost a fun way. I'd rather laugh through this kind of harmless, rickety schlock, any day, than grimace through Saw III.
07/06/07
Top Critic Top Critic
The sensual pleasure in watching this kind of horror movie depends entirely on your tolerance for ear-splitting jolts of shock. In the end, though, the film sags like a David Lynch pudding.
07/06/07
Top Critic
It's hard to imagine anybody's spine being chilled by a relentlessly average spooker as empty-headed as its wooden villain.
07/06/07
Top Critic
The muddled plot and stilted dialogue irritate to the point where you're tempted to side with the villain.
07/06/07
Top Critic Top Critic
"Dead Silence" is not going to reinvent the genre. It's actually a big pile of nonsense, but that doesn't stop it from being fun nonetheless.
04/18/08
Wan and Whannell have a carnivalesque sense of fun and a sure instinct for recycling classic horror tropes, but their characters are so flat and their plotting so listless that this low-budget feature fails to generate much suspense.
12/03/07
All Wan and Whannell know is shock-and-awe tactics. They may shock, but there's no awe.
07/29/07
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