By Steve Biodrowski

This ultra-spooky horror film (about a dead ventriloquist's dummies) represents a complete turnaround for the SAW team of writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan. DEAD SILENCE eschews the modern tone of visceral horror and moral degradation Whannell and Wan used to such grueling effect in the past, in favor of a more old-fashioned approach that emphasizes moody atmosphere and nail-biting apprehension. In opting for retro-horror, they create something much less original and ground-breaking than SAW - the ventriloquist dummy/killer doll sub-genre is so overworked that DEAD SILENCE begins with two strikes against it - but the execution is so effective that the film emerges as a solid hit, if not a home run.

Jamie Ashen (Kwanten)'s wife Lisa is killed shortly after the couple receives a mysterious package containing a ventriloquist dummy. Suspected of murder by Detective Jim Lipton (Wahlberg), Ashen heads back home to look for answers. It seems Raven's Fair (now practically a ghost town) has a legend about a ventriloquist who appears to her unfortunate victims and kills them if they scream. Ashen is surprised to find his ailing father, now in a wheel-chair, has a new, young third wife named Ella (Valletta); despite Dad's supposedly more positive attitude, he doesn't want to talk about the town's old legends, but Jamie Ashen eventually learns that Mary Shaw (Roberts) was a ventriloquist suspected of murdering a missing boy, who would have been Jamie's great uncle (had he lived). The Ashen family killed Mary, who was buried with her dolls. Jamie Ashen thinks he can end the curse by reburying the doll delivered to his home (which is named Billy), but Detective Lipton digs it up because it's evidence. Eventually, a phone call lures Jamie Ashen and Detective Lipton to the old run-down theatre where Mary Shaw used to perform. There they see that all her dolls have been dug up (sharp-eyed viewers will catch a brief glimpse of the creepy doll from SAW, hiding in the shadows of one long shot). The ghost of Mary Shaw reveals that she killed Jamie's wife - even though she was not herself an Ashen by blood - because she was carrying Jamie's child, the last of the Ashen line. Jamie sets fire to the theatre to burn the dolls, which he realizes are Mary Shaw's "medium" for carrying out her evil deeds. He heads back to his father's house to take care of the last doll, Billy, but there's a "surprise" waiting for him there...

Well, truth be told, it's not much of a surprise; at least, it shouldn't be. The twist is pretty blatantly obvious almost from the first moment the film shows the character involved (it's almost as if Hitchcock gave you a good glimpse of Mrs. Bates so that you could see she was only a corpse in PSYCHO). The idea that Jamie could miss it - well, it's one of those movie things you're not supposed to think about, rather like the ridiculous twist ending of SAW (the total absurdity of which completely undercut the credibility of the story up to that point).

Which is too bad, because up to that moment, DEAD SILENCE works very well. Wan and Whannell are clearly covering ground that has been well explored before, yet they make it feel like an exploration into uncharted terrain fraught with unknown perils. The story, which is structured like a murder-mystery, movies along efficiently as Jamie seeks the truth that he hopes will put an end to the curse; the scares pop up at regular intervals without feeling gratuitous; and the back story about Mary Shaw is smoothly integrated.

For a film like this to work, perhaps the most important thing is to create an on-screen world where the supernatural seems right at home. DEAD SILENCE achieves this with fashionably de-saturated colors to suggest old-style black-and-white photography, reminiscent of classic horror films (the movie even begins with the old, old, old Universal Pictures logo seen on their classic films like DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN - a trick George Romero previously played with LAND OF THE DEAD). This perfectly captures the beautifully rendered production design for the decaying Raven's Fair, which is further lathered in layers of computer-generated fog, creating a vision of a literal "ghost town" nearly worth of Tim Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW. Amazingly, the presence of Detective Lipton anchors the film to the "real" world, lending a sense of realism without undermining the supernatural dread lurking in the film's dilapidated Raven's Fair.

The horror sequences are very carefully thought out. Mary Shaw's dummy Billy takes his place among the best of his breed, with a brilliantly sculpted facial design that somehow looks ominous to movie-goers while simultaneously looking innocuous enough to believe that the on-screen audiences would laugh at Mary Shaw's routine and see nothing amiss. Wan's work is best early on, when he keeps Billy in shadows and his movements to a minimum, usually off-screen (e.g., a character looks away, then looks back, to see Billy in a different position).

As predictable as the technique is, it sends chills down the spine perfectly on cue. These shivers are augmented by clever sound design that takes its cue from the title: all ambient background noise drops out every time the supernatural becomes active. This creates a wonderful counterpoint to the visual horror, creating an almost Pavlovian effect on audiences as the film goes on. (It's also a nice switch from the heavy-handed layering of sound effects and music used so often to jack up otherwise routine horror outings.)

On the negative side, although the supporting cast is strong, Kwanten is a bit bland in the lead, and the script never does much to make him more than the archetypal cliché of the man trying to clear his name; he does what the plot needs him to do to keep the movie going, and that's about it.

Also, the movie occasionally seems like the work of precocious film school students. For example, Detective Lipton's slim characterization is "tagged" with one obvious prop: he always carries his portable shaver apparently because he suffers a permanent five o'clock shadow. When things go bad for him, you just know the movie's going to serve a close-up of the shaver lying on the ground. Unfortunately, it's not done to create any emotional resonance; it's more like a cheap joke that doesn't get a laugh.

Tricks like this are too "clever" by half, reducing the action to the level of a mechanical jump-and-scare movie, where you know you're not supposed to take anything seriously. Which is what happens when the script unveils its big "surprise" at the end. Even if you haven't been paying attention, you will probably see it coming, because that's what these films do: they tack on some last-minute shock to give the audience a final jolt of adrenalin before sending them out of the theatre. It worked in CARRIE back in 1976, but at this point it has become so predictable that the shock is seriously diminished; it feels obligatory and gratuitous, as if the filmmakers had simply given up on originality altogether.

Nevertheless, DEAD SILENCE works more often than not. Despite appearances, it strives to be more than just another Chucky-wannabe; in the end, it's more about the ghost of Mary Shaw than about her dummies (she looks even creepier than Billy, her ghostly apparition worthy of comparison to the best work of Mario Bava, e.g., the "Drop of Water" sequence in BLACK SABBATH), and the idea of a ghostly ventriloquist is nicely handled, without lots of whispery voices swirling around the stereo soundtrack, creating a dreadful sense of suspense because you never know whether the voice really belongs to the character it sounds like - or to Mary Shaw, who may be imitating it.

In the end, DEAD SILENCE, despite its title, really is a horror film about voices. Voices that sound like they're in your head - but turn out to be voices from the beyond. Using subtle sounds to generate fear, Wan and Whannell have crafted a delicious ode to old-school horror, even if they can't quite figure out how to wrap it all up in the end.