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When Saw
creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell proved to Hollywood that they had
what it takes to put bums on seats, they found themselves in a rather
unique position. Like a lot of novice filmmakers, the boys discovered
they could suddenly get [almost] anything they wanted made – as meagre
as the idea may be.
Just short of being a spin-off about the tricycle-riding clown from the Saw movies (wouldn’t be surprised if it started out as such), Dead Silence
(which Wan directed, and both boys wrote) fixes on a ventriloquist
dummy that comes to life and starts killing people. And yeah, that’s
really all there is to it.
Sure, there’s something about a dead
‘doll’ lover’s soul lurking within the frame of the doll; there’s also
a subplot about the hero’s (Ryan Kwanten) ailing father and his quest
to find his wife’s killer – who, of course, since we saw the start of
the movie, was the doll, but by-and-large it’s a movie with a plot that
could’ve been penciled on the back of a piece of toilet tissue. Even
its best bits seem to be leftovers from Magic or Child’s Play.
On
the positive side, the film looks great. There are hardly any visual
effects in it… and it does the movie justice. It looks like old-school
Hollywood horror movies with smoke machines, well-designed sets, a
beautifully appropriate colour palette and – though unsuccessful ones –
scares made simple. Wan is obviously a very visual director and knows
exactly what a good horror movie should look like.
Its clear
that both Wan and Whannell have some genuine talent – but until their
love affair with cribbing elements from other films comes to an end, we
mightn’t get to see what they’re really made of.
EXTRAS
Extras include a hardly insightful making-of; an alternate ending and
opening; some deleted scenes and a couple of other bits and pieces –
like a visual effects featurette and music video. Nothing that
interesting. Conclusion:
Movie 45% Extras: 40%
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