1/4  Dummies for dummies
Sadly, the creative team from the original Saw movie are behind this languid, feeble horror movie about a killer force behind a bunch of ventriloquist dummies; the acting is limp, the dialogue is atrocious and the whole farrago is about a... (read full)

1.5/4  Dead Silence Quick Review
This is straight out of the jump-out-and-scare-you school of horror. It has a creep factor, what with the dummy and all, but overall, it can't save this run-of-the-mill horror movie.

1/5 lackluster and shallow
  by Jackson Hill
As a horror movie featuring a menacing ventriloquist dummy, I thought this one might be interesting in a campy, 80s kind of way. There was, as I recall, an early Tales from the Crypt episode that used a similar theme successfully. Not so here. As it turned out, it was ninety minutes of relatively bland, predictable horror fare. Very few--if any--scenes were actually frightening at all. It was more of a funhouse with pale, ghostly, mutilated specters popping up and going boo and wooden ventriloquist dolls turning their eyes and heads of their own volition. Unfortunately, more than once they crossed the line where attempted horror becomes silly, even comedic. Not good, and yet that's the risk inherent to employing dolls or puppets as creatures of supposed evil incarnate. More effective were the usages of other means of unsettling the viewer, such as the images of humans carved into puppets. Anyway, there were a few interesting audio and visual effects here and there, albeit nothing you haven't seen a hundred times before. The atmospherics and background story of Ravens Fair was kind of cool, although the story of Mary Shaw and the revelation about what is truly happening there is kind of lackluster and shallow. This movie got so tedious after about an hour that I had trouble sitting through the last thirty minutes or so. Alas, it was worth the effort as this entirely ordinary, forgettable film is saddled with a killer twist at the end. It almost doesn't seem deserving of it.


4/5 A Creepy Ghost Story
  by www.TheHorrorMovieCritic.com
I'm just going to come out and say it... I like Dead Silence. Do yourself a favor and forget the fact that it was directed by James Wan of the Saw franchise. This movie is NOTHING like Saw. So when they marketed it towards the gore-hound, torture violence crowd they set themselves up for a backlash. Dead Silence is a good ol' fashion ghost story. It hardly has any gore, but it has plenty of creepy atmosphere to amp up the scare factor.

Dead Silence has a simple storyline and I really dug it. Jamie Ashen's (Ryan Kwanten) wife is murdered a few minutes into the film. The distraught Jamie heads home to find out more about the creepy ventriloquist dummy that showed up at his doorstep...minutes before his wife died. What follows is a tense journey into a small hick town with a bumbling detective (a scene stealing Donnie Wahlberg) hot on Ashen's trail. This ghost tale focuses on dead Ventriloquist Mary Shaw. Shaw had no children so she treated her dolls like her family. Oh, and apparently after she croaked she decided to haunt the lives/dreams of people from her hometown. According to a children's poem if you ever see her in your dreams, you shouldn't ever scream...or she'll kill you. There is a great sound effect of everything going eerily silent just before she shows up (hence the title). Dead Silence is a throw-back to the 70s where what you didn't see, was sometimes scarier than what you did. It's an effective tactic for scaring the bejeezus out of people and I wish more film-makers would employ it today.

Dead Silence isn't the greatest horror movie and at times it tries very hard to be clever (the ending in particular). However, it's different enough that I found it very enjoyable to watch. Its moody atmosphere was much more terrifying than your run of the mill gore-fests that hit theatres these days. The movie does an excellent job of making you feel tense and uneasy until the final credits roll. Turn off the lights, crank up the volume and watch this one alone or with your significant other.

Final Grade: B

1/5 waste of time...
  by anniewilkes (northeast)
Thought for SURE I'd like this one-----NOT!!!!! Kinda seemed like a Saw rip-off in a way. Cept SAW movies are 110% Better!!!!! Dont waste ur time like I unfortunately did..

3/5 OK..But not that great
  by Larry M. Smith (USA)
I have to admit, it is a jump out of your seat movie at times when it has its moments, but, the movie with lack of acting and poor "in and out" plots and a stupid ending makes this movie a rental at best..go find a better horror movie than this one, only watch this movie if you have nothing better to do.

3/5 An interesting take on the horror genre.
  by Robert Thompson (Under Your Bed!!!)
An evil old woman's ghost is haunting a nice little town, except she's making her puppets do her sinister bidding. The puppets do a good job of appearing to be creepy, having said that they are far from intimidating. I don't understand why the human race is scared of things like puppets and porcelain china dolls but we are. The movie isn't all that bloody or gory, but it dos have some being a horror movie and all. Interestingly enough the goriest moments in the movie are the pictures they show depicting what happened to the old lady and her victims in the past. The acting isn't bad, just don't expect anything oscar worthy. Overall the movie isn't very scary, but it might get some cheap jumps out of you.