In a rainy afternoon, the young couple Lisa (Laura Regan) and Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten) anonymously receive a mysterious package with a weird dummy inside. Jamie leaves the apartment to buy Chinese food, and when he returns, he finds Lisa dead, totally disfigured and without her tongue. The snoopy detective Jim Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) blames Jamie as prime suspect. Jamie finds in the box a reference to their hometown and he drives to the decadent Ravens Fair for the funeral services of Lisa and to investigate the legend of the ventriloquist Mary Shaw (Judith Roberts). His father Edward Ashen (Bob Gunton) and his young wife Ella (Amber Valletta) disclose that the woman was accused in the glorious days of Ravens Fair in the 40's of abducting and killing a boy that yelled with her on the stage. The locals, including his father, chased her, cut out her tongue and killed her. On the next years, the cursed families and descendant of the killers has had mysterious and creepy deaths, with the tongues removed and faces disfigured. Jamie goes to the old theater in Lost Lake trying to find evidences of his innocence and discovers that Mary Shaw was constructing the perfect doll, and that the spirits have long memories.
I like ghost stories and "Dead Silence" is above the average of the genre. The film has a magnificent cinematography, reasonable performances but something was missing in the story to make it excellent. The surprising final twist does not give satisfactory answer why Jamie survived for so long. The explanation could be because he has not screamed along the story, but anyway I was not satisfied with the fast paced conclusion. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Gritos Mortais" ("Mortal Screams")
I like ghost stories and "Dead Silence" is above the average of the genre. The film has a magnificent cinematography, reasonable performances but something was missing in the story to make it excellent. The surprising final twist does not give satisfactory answer why Jamie survived for so long. The explanation could be because he has not screamed along the story, but anyway I was not satisfied with the fast paced conclusion. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Gritos Mortais" ("Mortal Screams")