Dead Silence

OK, ladies and gentleman, today I've got a review for Dead Silence, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Wipes and Blue Filters. First, a bit of the plot. Evil ventriloquist (yeah, I know) Mary Shaw was killed by her neighbors (reminiscent of Freddy Krueger) in retribution for the disappearance of some kid who heckled her at a show. Now her ghost is back for revenge with a little help from her dummies. Jamie happens to get a dummy in the mail one day and then the people around him start dying, having their tongues ripped out by the ghost of Mary Shaw.

This movie is blue. The entire movie looks to be shot through a blue filter in what I can only guess is the filmmakers' failed attempt at creating tension in the setting. I suppose the filter is supposed to make the setting seem bleak, but all it did was draw attention to the fact that I was watching a movie. I honestly don't think it's even possible for a place to be as blue as the setting the film. Another piece of overused cinematography in this film are wipes. At one point, the film wiped from one scene into Jamie's eye (as the observer of the scene) and then immediately wiped again into his eye in a different scene. Absolutely ridiculous. The shots of the dead clearly take "inspiration" from The Ring. Corpses are shown with disfigured, twisted faces (due to having their tongues ripped out). They are also apparently posed in photographs by Shaw, which brings to mind the twisted photographs of the deceased in The Ring. Acting-wise, no one does a very good job. Donnie Wahlberg seems to be either medicated or just really, really bored. Ryan Kwanten is a generic pretty boy who apparently can only act broodingly.

To put it bluntly, this isn't a very good movie. It's derivative, boring, and most of all, blue. Sure, it's creepy at times (and only once is a quality scare), but creepiness does not a good horror movie make.

One and a half stars out of five.