Dead Silence

This article is about the 2007 horror film. For the Billy Talent album, see Dead Silence (album). For the 1997 film of the same name starring James Garner, see Dead Silence (1997 film).
Dead Silence

Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Wan
Produced by Mark Burg
Oren Koules
Gregg Hoffman
Screenplay by Leigh Whannell
Story by James Wan
Leigh Whannell
Starring Ryan Kwanten
Amber Valletta
Donnie Wahlberg
Michael Fairman
Joan Heney
Bob Gunton
Judith Roberts
Laura Regan
Music by Charlie Clouser
Cinematography John R. Leonetti
Edited by Michael Knue
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • March 16, 2007 (2007-03-16)
Running time
89 minutes
92 minutes (Unrated cut)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million[1]
Box office $22 million[1]

Dead Silence is a 2007 supernatural psychological horror film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell, the creators of Saw. The film stars Ryan Kwanten, Judith Roberts, Donnie Wahlberg, and Amber Valletta.[2]

Plot

Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten) and his wife, Lisa (Laura Regan), receive an anonymous ventriloquist doll called "Billy". While Lisa is playing with Billy, a figure approaches her, causing her to scream. Jamie finds her dead with her tongue cut out. After Jamie is released from custody by Detective Jim Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) due to lack of evidence, he spots inside Billy's box a mysterious message about "Mary Shaw", a ventriloquist from his hometown, Raven's Fair.

At Raven's Fair, Jamie visits his estranged, wealthy and wheelchair-bound father, Edward (Bob Gunton), and his much-younger wife, Ella (Amber Valletta), for information regarding Mary Shaw. Dismissing them as superstitions, Jamie arranges for Lisa's funeral with the help of a local mortician, Henry Walker (Michael Fairman). Jamie meets Henry's senile wife, Marion, who tells him of the danger of Mary and her puppet, Billy. After burying Billy, Jamie is confronted by Detective Lipton, the latter still doubting Jamie, and forces him to dig up Billy.

Henry tells Jamie about Shaw. Shaw (Judith Roberts) was a famous ventriloquist who was publicly humiliated when a boy, Michael, pointed to her moving mouth. Michael disappeared some weeks later, and his family blamed it on Shaw, whose last wish was to have her body turned into a dummy and buried with her 101 dolls. Henry, then the young son of the local mortician, saw Shaw (having been executed by Michael's family) rise up, but Henry was spared thanks to his having kept his mouth shut. This is because Shaw only takes her revenge by killing those who scream. Jamie finds out that Michael, the first victim, was his great uncle; the Ashen family were the ones who killed Shaw by cutting out her tongue, and she has been seeking revenge against their entire bloodline by killing them the same way.

Henry is killed by Shaw. Detective Lipton discovers that all of Shaw's dolls have been dug up. He informs Jamie, who receives a call from "Henry," asking him to go to Shaw's theatre. There, the duo discovers 100 of the dolls lined up with Michael's body, which has been turned into a marionette. Through a doll, Shaw reveals to Jamie that she killed his wife because she was pregnant with his son, thus killing any potential newborn of the Ashen family. Jamie and Lipton burn the theatre and all of Shaw's dolls, though in the process, Shaw successfully makes Detective Lipton scream and kills him.

Back at his father's residence, Jamie is confronted by Mary Shaw but he repels her by throwing Billy (the 101st and last of the remaining dummies) into the fireplace. He is horrified to learn that his father had already died a long time ago; the current "Edward" is the corpse converted into a doll controlled by Ella, who is the "perfect doll" for Shaw, created just before her death. He screams as Ella, possessed by Mary Shaw, goes after him to take his tongue.

The film ends with Jamie reciting a nursery rhyme about Shaw and a photo album with human puppets is shown: Lisa, Henry, Detective Lipton, Edward, Ella, and Jamie himself.

Cast

Release

Dead Silence was released in the United States on March 16, 2007,[3] with an "R" rating.

Box office

In the United States, as of April 16, 2007, the film's total gross has been worth US$16.5 million (according to Box Office Mojo), and screenings of Dead Silence were ceased in most theatres sixteen days following its release; the film's estimated production budget was US$20 million. As of April 1, 2009, US$5,408,331 has been generated globally.[4] Tentative plans for a sequel were abandoned.

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews; Rotten Tomatoes rated the film with a 21% "Rotten" based on 76 reviews with a consensus of "More tasteful than recent slasher flicks, but Dead Silence is undone by boring characters, bland dialogue, and an unnecessary and obvious twist ending."[5] The film also received generally unfavourable reviews from Metacritic, receiving 34 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews. However, user reviews were more favourable. [6] IMDb, however, gave the film more favourable reviews. The film received a 6.2 out of 10 rating from 66,741 users. [7]

Home media

The film was released on DVD on June 26, 2007 with an "unrated" version was released, and the same occurred for the HD DVD product. The film has since grossed US$17,304,718 in overall DVD sales.[8]

Dead Silence was released on Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2010.[9] In May 2015, it was announced that Universal Studios would be releasing the film to Blu-ray Disc in the U.S., set for release on August 11, 2015.[10]

Soundtrack

Dead Silence Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Charlie Clouser, Aiden
Released March 16, 2007
Genre Score, horror punk, gothic rock
Length 51:19
Label Lakeshore Records
Producer Charlie Clouser, Aiden
Charlie Clouser, Aiden chronology
Saw III
(2006)
Dead Silence
(2007)
Saw IV
(2007)
Singles from Rain in Hell, Dead Silence
  1. "We Sleep Forever"
    Released: March 2007

Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack of Dead Silence on March 20, 2007. The CD contains 31 tracks, the first track being the song "We Sleep Forever" performed by American rock band Aiden (despite not actually being featured within the film itself). The rest of the CD is taken up by Charlie Clouser's film's score. Clouser has worked on many film scores such as the Saw series and Resident Evil: Extinction.

Track listing
  1. "We Sleep Forever" – Aiden
  2. "Main Titles" [2:56]
  3. "Sheet" [1:08]
  4. "Blood" [1:41]
  5. "Apartment" [1:28]
  6. "Raven's Fair" [0:59]
  7. "Dad's House" [0:47]
  8. "Ella" [1:29]
  9. "My Son" [1:03]
  10. "What Poem?" [1:31]
  11. "Caskets" [1:57]
  12. "Motel Hearse" [1:22]
  13. "It Can't Be" [1:40]
  14. "Funeral" [0:49]
  15. "Billy" [2:42]
  16. "Perplexed" [1:25]
  17. "Steal Billy" [0:50]
  18. "Lips Moving" [1:57]
  19. "Coffin" [2:16]
  20. "Photos" [1:36]
  21. "Map Drive" [0:49]
  22. "Guignol" [1:57]
  23. "He Talked" [3:06]
  24. "It's Soup" [2:09]
  25. "Full Tank" [1:49]
  26. "Doll Wall" [1:37]
  27. "All the Dolls" [1:07]
  28. "One Left" [0:27]
  29. "Mary Shaw" [0:31]
  30. "Dummy" [1:05]
  31. "Family Album" [0:37]

Alternate footage

Many alternate scenes were released on the unrated DVD and HD DVD and are listed below:

Post-release commentary

In his personal blog, screenwriter Whannell reveals the origins of the film within the context of the "Hollywood" film industry. In a candid post entitled "Dud Silence: The Hellish Experience of Making a Bad Horror Film", Whannell explains that the film was conceived following the advice of his agent at the time and that a "script doctor" was eventually employed by the production studio. Whannell concludes the post with a description of the key lessons that were learned following the Dead Silence experience:

After everything is said and done, I'm almost glad Dead Silence happened, because it gave me an extreme, coal-face lesson in what not to do. It was like learning to swim by leaping off Niagara Falls. I only write scripts on spec now, which means that I write them in my own time without getting paid and then take them out into the world to see if anyone's interested. Never again will I enter the arranged marriage of selling a pitch. I have also become very gun-shy about working with studios. In the world of independent film, what you write ends up on screen. Plus, they don't have the money to bring in script doctors! Works fine for me. Who knows, maybe one day I will work with a studio again...[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dead Silence at Box Office Mojo
  2. Chris Eggertsen (23 December 2009). "The Top 10 Killer Toy Movies for the Holidays!". Bloody Disgusting. BLOODY DISGUSTING LLC. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  3. IMDb (1990–2012). "Release dates for Dead Silence (2007)". IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  4. Box Office Mojo. "Dead Silence". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  5. "Dead Silence (2007)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  6. "Dead Silence (2007)". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  7. "Dead Silence (2007)". IMDb. Amazon. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  8. The Numbers (1997–2012). "Dead Silence – DVD Sales". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  9. "Dead Silence Blu-ray UK". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  10. "Dead Silence Unrated Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  11. Leigh Whannell (31 August 2011). "Dud Silence: The Hellish Experience Of Making A Bad Horror Film". Word In The Stone. Leigh Whannell. Retrieved 1 August 2012.

External links

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