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Dead Silence
Directed by	James Wan
Produced by	Gregg Hoffman Oren Koules Mark Burg
Screenplay by	Leigh Whannell
Story by	James Wan Leigh Whannell
Starring	Ryan Kwanten Amber Valletta Donnie Wahlberg Bob Gunton
Music by	Charlie Clouser
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Edited by	Michael Knue
Production companies
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date
Running time	89 minutes 92 minutes (unrated cut)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million^[1]
Box office	$22.4 million^[1]

Dead Silence is a 2007 American supernaturalhorror film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. The film stars Ryan Kwanten, Judith Roberts, Donnie Wahlberg, and Amber Valletta.^[2] The film grossed over $22 million worldwide against an estimated $20 million budget.

Plot[edit]

Jamie Ashen and his wife, Lisa, receive an anonymous gift of a ventriloquist doll called 'Billy'. As Lisa is playing with Billy while Jamie goes to pick their carry-out dinner order, a figure approaches her, causing her to scream. Later, Jamie returns home and finds Lisa dead with her tongue cut out. After Jamie is released from custody by Detective Jim Lipton due to lack of evidence, he spots inside Billy's box a mysterious message about 'Mary Shaw', a deceased ventriloquist from his hometown, Raven's Fair.

Returning to Raven's Fair, Jamie visits his estranged and wealthy father, Edward, who uses a wheelchair, and his much-younger wife, Ella, for information regarding Mary Shaw. Dismissing them as superstitions, Jamie arranges for Lisa's funeral with the help of a local mortician named Henry Walker. Henry's senile wife, Marion, warns Jamie that Mary Shaw's spirit is dangerous and vehemently urges him to bury Billy. Jamie does so, but shortly afterward is confronted by Detective Lipton in his motel room, the latter still doubting Jamie, after returning from the cemetery where Mary Shaw and the rest of her dummies are buried.

Henry tells Jamie that Mary Shaw was a famous and popular ventriloquist who was publicly humiliated when a young boy named Michael rudely claimed that he could see her lips moving during one of her performances. Some weeks later, Michael disappeared and his family blamed it on Mary Shaw and lynched her. Mary's 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 (after she was turned into a dummy) rise up, but was spared thanks to keeping his mouth shut, because Mary takes her revenge by killing only those who scream. Jamie then finds out that Michael, who was indeed murdered by Mary Shaw, was his great-uncle. As part of their lynching of Mary, the Ashen family forced her to scream and permanently silenced her by cutting her tongue out; as such, she has since been seeking revenge against their entire bloodline by killing them using the same method.

While crawling under his house after discovering Marion with Billy, Henry is killed by Mary, who steals his tongue. Detective Lipton then discovers that all of Mary Shaw's dolls have been dug up and informs Jamie, who receives a call from 'Henry', asking him to go to Shaw's theatre, as he has a way to prove Jamie's innocence. There, both Jamie and Lipton discover 100 of the dolls lined up in their massive display case, along with Michael's body, which has been turned into a marionette. Through a clown doll, Mary reveals to Jamie that she killed Lisa because, unbeknownst to Jamie, she was pregnant with his son, thereby killing any potential newborn of the Ashen family. Jamie and Lipton then burn the theatre and all of Shaw's dolls, though in the process, Lipton falls and screams, causing him to be killed by Mary.

Back at his father's residence, Jamie is confronted by Mary, but he repels her by throwing Billy (the 101st and last doll) into the fireplace. He then learns, much to his horror, that his father had already died long ago; the current 'Edward' is actually a doll converted from his corpse and controlled by Ella who, it turns out, is the 'perfect doll' that Mary Shaw created just before her death. Jamie then screams in terror as Ella, possessed by Mary, lunges forward and kills him.

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

Cast[edit]

Ryan Kwanten as Jamie Ashen
Amber Valletta as Ella Ashen
Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Jim Lipton
Bob Gunton as Edward Ashen
Judith Roberts as Mary Shaw
Michael Fairman as Henry Walker
- Keir Gilchrist as Young Henry Walker
Laura Regan as Lisa Ashen
Joan Heney as Marion Walker
Shelley Peterson as Lisa's Mom
Steven Taylor as Michael Ashen
Dmitry Chepovetsky as Richard Walker
Enn Reitel as Billy (voice)
Fred Tatasciore as the Clown Doll (voice)

Production[edit]

Release[edit]

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

Box office[edit]

In the United States, as of April 16, 2007, the film's total domestic gross has been worth US$16.8 million (according to Box Office Mojo), and screenings of Dead Silence were ceased in most theatres 16 days following its release; the film's estimated production budget was US$20 million. As of April 1, 2009, US$5,572,971 has been generated globally. Worldwide, the film has grossed $22,382,047.^[4] Tentative plans for a sequel were abandoned.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 20%, based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 3.87/10. The site's critical consensus reads, 'More tasteful than recent slasher flicks, but Dead Silence is undone by boring characters, bland dialogue, and an unnecessary and obvious twist ending.'^[5] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 34 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating 'generally unfavourable reviews'.^[6]

Home video[edit]

The film was released on DVD on June 26, 2007 with an 'unrated' version also released, and the same thing was done for the HD DVD release. The film has since grossed US$17,304,718 in overall DVD sales.^[7]

Dead Silence was released on Blu-ray Disc in the U.K. on October 25, 2010.^[8] In May 2015, it was announced that Universal Studios would be releasing the film to Blu-ray Disc in the U.S. It was released on August 11, 2015.^[9]

Soundtrack[edit]

Dead Silence Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Released	March 16, 2007
Genre	Score, horror punk, Gothic rock
Length	51:19
Label	Lakeshore R

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