Review of Dead Silence (2007) by Filipeneto — 02 Apr 2021

This film takes advantage of the world of ventriloquism to make horror. It is not a totally new idea, but it worked quite well, if we want to believe that a famous ventriloquist was in fact the reason why a city lived its golden era, as the film ends up suggesting.

The script begins with the mysterious death of a woman shortly after receiving a box at her home, without address, containing an old ventriloquist doll. While the police regards him as a suspect, her husband returns to his father's house, in a city where there is an old legend about ventriloquist dolls, in which they are truly evil. It's not a complicated story, and it has a lot of logic flaws and unbelievable situations, but it works decently if we don't start thinking too much about it.

The cast is led by Ryan Kwanten, and he is good enough for the job. Donnie Wahlberg also makes a very good contribution, although his character looks really stupid. Bob Gunton and Laura Regan helped a lot in what was possible, but there was little for them to do here. Judith Roberts was quite good in her role, but it was not the right movie for her to shine.

Directed by James Wan, director with very solid predicates in the horror genre, the film does not fail to build a pleasant tension and plays quite well with the mystery. Despite this, it is not scary enough and many of the scares are predictable or rudimentary. Elegant cinematography, somber at the right times, and good visual and sound effects were important elements in the construction of dramatic tension.