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Dead Silence (2006)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 3.9/10
Reviews Counted: 74
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 59

More tasteful than recent slasher flicks, but Dead Silence is undone by boring characters, bland dialogue, and an unnecessary and obvious twist ending.

Average Rating: 4.2/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 9

More tasteful than recent slasher flicks, but Dead Silence is undone by boring characters, bland dialogue, and an unnecessary and obvious twist ending.

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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 212,195

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Movie Info

Saw duo James Wan and Leigh Whannell re-team for this chilling tale of a widower (Ryan Kwanten) who returns to his hometown to unearth clues about his recently departed wife's untimely death. In the quiet town of Ravens Fair, children taunt one another with spooky stories about a ventriloquist whose mind was ravaged by insanity. Mary Shaw was a popular entertainer until she was accused of murdering a young boy. Subsequently hunted and captured by the vengeful townspeople, Mary's tongue was cut

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Horror

Directed By: James Wan

Written By: Leigh Whannell, James Wan

In Theaters: Mar 16, 2007 Wide

On DVD: Jun 26, 2007

Box Office:$16.5M

Universal Pictures

Wan and Whannell have a carnivalesque sense of fun and a sure instinct for recycling classic horror tropes, but their characters are so flat and their plotting so listless that this low-budget feature fails to generate much suspense.

December 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Terrified of puppets? Enjoy being scared? Then you'll be half-satisfied with Dead Silence, a rote horror pantomime.

March 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Scott Brown

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

Dolls are innately unnerving, but the movie's semi-menacing Charlie McCarthys never live up to their potential.

March 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

Jim Ridley

Village Voice

Top Critic

Armed with a decent budget, director James Wan and co-screenwriter Leigh Wannell fashion at least a dozen sequences that are spooky even while they defy logic.

March 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press

| Comment

John Monaghan

Detroit Free Press

Top Critic

The movies have always asked us to suspend our disbelief, but Dead Silence demands our ignorance of its own derivations. A conflation of the horror genre's laziest tropes, plot angles and shorthands.

March 20, 2007 Comment

Ed Gonzalez

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Formulaic and rather lazy exercise in booga-booga scare tactics.

March 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

John Anderson

Variety

Top Critic

A Nightmare on Dummy St. from Saw creators.

December 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Charles Cassady

Common Sense Media

Plodding and bereft of suspense, "Dead Silence" is an irredeemable jumble of clich� genre fragments.

April 26, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com

| Comment (1)

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

"Dead Silence" is not going to reinvent the genre. It's actually a big pile of nonsense, but that doesn't stop it from being fun nonetheless.

April 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Beyond Hollywood

| Comments (3)

Brian Holcomb

Beyond Hollywood

It's awful. It eats your soul, it's so awful.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy

| Comment (1)

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

All Wan and Whannell know is shock-and-awe tactics. They may shock, but there's no awe.

July 29, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com

| Comment

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

For the love of Chucky, avoid this insipid attempt at reviving the killer doll horror.

July 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

| Comment

Adam Smith

Empire Magazine

...an ambitious misfire.

July 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews

| Comment

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

There's something quaintly charming about the filmmakers' unabashed affection for their inspirational source material, although the sense of over-familiarity means that none of it is in the least bit scary.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]

| Comment

Mark Kermode

Observer [UK]

Has plenty of inherent flaws, but in spite of it all, it's also a very creepy little ditty that works once it rears up to the second half...

July 10, 2007 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

| Comment

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

Poorly written, badly directed and ultimately scare-free horror flick that's further hindered by dismal performances and unintentionally laughable dialogue.

July 7, 2007 Full Review Source: ViewLondon

| Comment

Matthew Turner

ViewLondon

It's woefully flat and not nearly as scary as it thinks it is. It almost makes one yearn for Saw. But not quite.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: This is London

| Comment

Derek Malcolm

This is London

I admit that I didn't see the daft last-minute twist coming, and sort of admired it, but for the rest you'd need an extravagant love of hokum not to feel mildly bored.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent

| Comment

Anthony Quinn

Independent

Dead Silence is redeemed by a so-bad-it-is-good factor.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Sun Online

| Comment (1)

Sun Online

It's also a bit shocking that a movie this mediocre is getting a cinema release at all. Dead Silence more resembles one of those five-quid DVDs you find in petrol stations.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK]

| Comment

Daily Mirror [UK]

This is Days Of Our Lives for the living dead - possibly the only film in history to prompt the reaction, 'That would have been worse, if not for Donnie Wahlberg's acting talent!' and far more predictable than you'd expect from the director of Saw.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK]

| Comment

Daily Mail [UK]

"Who's the dummy now?" she rasps. Well, you are if you waste your hard-earned on this tepid retread of Dickie Attenborough's 1978 Magic, a curious stumble from Leigh Whannell and James Wan after the success of their Saw gore-fests.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film

| Comment

Total Film

there's something about its overblown stormy-night atmospherics and reliably dismal dialogue that's bad in almost a fun way. I'd rather laugh through this kind of harmless, rickety schlock, any day, than grimace through Saw III.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph

| Comment

Tim Robey

Daily Telegraph

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Audience Reviews for Dead Silence

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I kinda liked it...though I'm probably in the minority. I'm terrified of puppets/dolls coming alive, so this movie freaked me out. I've watched so many horror films and I'm not phased by anything...except puppets/dolls. Ever since I was a kid, I thought they were just so fucking creepy. So this movie definitely scared

September 30, 2011

J P

Super Reviewer

There are two things in this world that creeps the hell out of me: the first being clowns and the second being evil puppets. Terrifyingly enough, this movie has both! Now, I'll be honest here and say that I didn't expect much out of this film. In fact, I was but a word of discouragement away from skipping it

July 1, 2007

Mike S

Super Reviewer

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