Despite its deeply unsettling properties, few horror films
have dared to venture into the difficult reanimation of ventriloquist dummies
on screen. Until James Wan the director of the increasingly depressing 'saw'
films took it upon himself to create such that. Starring a string of relatively
unknown actors, from Ryan Kwanten to Donnie Wahlberg, Dead silence stylises
itself within an ancient myth surrounding the murder of a persistent
ventriloquist.
The dead-pan faces,
the piercing eyes, the dislocated jaw, dummies are certainly a horrific piece
of 'entertainment' which are all too easy to insert into a horror film. The
trick is to be subtle. Which this film seems incapable of doing. Following our
less than enthusiastic protagonist as he retraces the origins of the dummy, we
are immediately introduced to this films sadistic, wooden anti-hero 'billy'.
Attempting to spark fear in the hearts of the audience, the dummy soon starts
to possess 'terrifying' human qualities, like the turning or his eyes, the
turning of his eyes and.... the turning of his eyes. Knowing that they were
limited to how realistic a dummy can be, they have ultimately restricted
themselves to simple, tame eye and head movements, which soon become laughable
as piercing violins accompany the action every time he appears. This continues
for the majority of the film as Wan concocts a new method in scaring the audience.
Soon the ghost of the bewitched ventriloquist appears, adding another horror
element to the films slowly building horror dictionary, a step in the right
direction as this debilitated ghost truly supplies some unsettling scenes of
personal intimidation. Perhaps the only real, legitimate scare within this
film, with the others lacking behind being mostly cheap and formulaic.
Following the poignant fright dispenser of the dummy is a hugely embarrassing
plot point used to convey their 'terrifying' myth. Whenever the demented dummy
is near, the characters surroundings fills with 'dead silence' (hence the
fitting title) a pathetic attempt to provide an excuse for their repetitive use
of the constantly effective jump-scare. As the increasingly ridiculous plot
procrastinates forwards, and half-heartedly throws expanding plot points in the
air, a large sense of imminent disappointment could be conjured, and much to my
expectation such disappointment was delivered in the less than satisfactory
climax.
Diagnosed with a
short-term case of severe memory loss, the previous hour and a half of
pointless story telling goes to waste, as the film produces a whole new plot
point during the climactic 5 minutes, then curls it back to link in with a
boring unexplored aspect of the previous hour. The 'twist' itself was
surprisingly clever, despite its exceptional predictability, even if it made no
coherent sense which proved to be a familiar theme throughout the film. With
all these plot points bound together on a flimsy stick, it was almost
inevitable that the stick would snap and the film would fall to pieces leaving
untied plot points for your frustrated mind to decipher. Contrived occurrences
go unexplained and forgotten plot points are left to rot, as this film trundles
on, ecstatic at its partially effective chilling narrative, oblivious to the
mess it leaves behind.
Focussing too much on
the deprived horror techniques, the basic screenplay and character development
has been totally neglected. Producing an array of insignificant characters
destined for the death reel, that contribute nothing to the developing plot,
adding only embarrassing comedy value.
These useless and obviously stereotypical characters aren’t helped by
the lackadaisical actors that voices embody them. Our seemingly schizophrenic
protagonist nonsensically frequently switches between terrified widower, heroic
action man and professional detective, providing for a truly unrealistic
performance. Played by the depressingly terrible Ryan Kwanten, this performance
was the bane of the film dragging each scene down to an unbearable pace,
treating the scenes of horror as scenes of comedy; however this performance is
by no means the worst. Following him on his journey (for no reason whatsoever)
is the amateurish policeman Donnie Wahlberg, the man incapable of making an
arrest despite his regular ‘run-ins’ with his suspect. At no point was any connection felt with the
characters, learning to loath them rather than love them, hoping they would
meet their impending doom, just so no more worthless script work could drain
out their mouths.
From the oddly
creative yet undeniably revolting mind of ‘saw’ comes an awful depiction of one
of the most universally unattractive forms of entertainment. What should’ve been deeply unsettling became
predictably boring. Horror elements recycled characters as deep as the ‘shallow
end’, and actors worthy of the prestigious ‘razzie’. A missed opportunity on
what could’ve been gold.
20%- Should come with a free pillow.
Calum Russell
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