Dead Silence (2007)

At the end of a dreadful week (about which I'm really not in the mood to give details), I noticed that I didn't have time to write the usual blog entry. Since "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was too depressing, "47 Ronin" too cliche (although relatively catchy, as revenge stories usually are), and "12 Years a Slave" or "Philomena" I prefer to postpone for the incoming Oscar season, I'll enjoy a guilty pleasure today: "Dead Silence".

James Wan is probably more known for the first "Saw", "Insidious" and the highly praised "The Conjuring" (which I still didn't see yet). In between, the guy made also some other movies, more obscure as box-office success, one of them being the subject of today's entry. As the above list suggests, and probably the poster too, we're talking about a horror. However a pretty light one both as blood & gore, and as scary effect. And that's good, but I'll get back to it later. Let me dig into the story a bit first ;): Jamie Ashen receives by its door an unsigned package containing a ventriloquist puppet. Since I've mentioned the poster earlier, what follows is far from "Child's Play" remake, as it might be thought (= no Chucky rampage here). Getting over the details, several hours later to the delivery, Jamie finds his wife murdered in the apparently locked apartment, without any signs of breaking and entering. Following the event, he starts "suspecting" an urban legend from his hometown. A story used to scare children, having as main character a ventriloquist woman, and which in summary sounds like that: "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw. She had no children, only dolls. If you see her in your dreams, be sure you never, ever scream or she'll rip your tongue out at the seam." Obviously, the detective assigned with the murder case doesn't buy such stories, but apparently he also doesn't have enough evidence to detain the main suspect either. So, mister Ashen decides, despite his traveling restrictions, to take the puppet and leave to his hometown in search for the mysterious sender.

I avoided giving too many details because the movie is quite predictable. Except the ending. Which manages to add enough to the balance on the good side. For the bad parts I can mention the script, that varies in many places between hilarious and imbecile, or the casting, that with some exceptions is eloquent for the tight budget. All these result in an action development that gets far from credible, which has though a good side. As I was saying, it makes the movie less scary. If we also add the (fortunate) budget restrictions on overusing red paint, what results is more like a campy fun ghost story than a rated R horror. Stuff that makes it more watchable. Not to mention that it's a pleasure to count all the present "classic bits" .. not to call them cliche :) both on the story side and at the production level. We already have the urban legend which gets into flashbacks that detail it piece by piece, we have the short poem above that reminded me the counting from "Nightmare on Elm's Street", we have an isolated town with a dark past and the perfect name: Ravens Fair, we have a stepmother and an old father hiding secrets, we have a graveyard, fog in the graveyard, deserted graves in the graveyard :), we have a swampy pond and a derelict theater on the other shore, we have the old undertaker who knows the history of the place since Adam and Eve (or well, since he was a kid), etc. What we have on top of all these is a cinematography which adds max to the "the eerie feeling". At least for me was enough the contrast between the red convertible that the main character uses to drive around and the "Silent Hill"-like grey and dark small town. And the color filters are not everything. Not the least, we also have a superb score, which convinced me that Charlie Clouser is the best composer at the time for horrors. Although different, the soundtrack has something from Carpenter's "Halloween" score, and I guess that's enough to describe it. As an extra, a song played at the end of the credits reminded me about the existence of "Concrete Blonde" (or well, that they "re-activated") or more precisely about the lead vocal, Johnette Napolitano, and that I should check them out from time to time.

As a final thought the movie is far from a masterpiece. But it's a title worthy to be watched on its genre, especially if you have a soft spot for '80s-'90s scary movies, a la Wes Craven. Which usually are more fun than scary ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5 (with a big plus for production design, but not enough to get to 4)