Dead Silence
Dead Silence is a 2007 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. The film stars Ryan Kwanten as Jamie Ashen, a young widower returning to his hometown to search for answers to his wife's death. It also stars Amber Valletta, Donnie Wahlberg, and Bob Gunton. "Dead Silence" was theatrically released in the United States on March 16, 2007, by Universal Pictures. The film was dedicated to Gregg Hoffman. Plot. Jamie Ashen and his wife, Lisa, receive an anonymous gift of a ventriloquist doll called "Billy". When Jamie goes out to pick  up their takeout dinner, a figure attacks Lisa, who is pregnant, causing her to have a miscarriage and scream. Jamie returns home and finds her 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, now old and rundown, Jamie visits his estranged, wealthy and wheelchair-bound father, Edward, 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 urges him to bury Billy. Jamie does so but is confronted by Detective Lipton, who followed Jamie and finds his actions suspicious. Henry explains to 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 doll and buried with her 101 dolls, who she called her children. Henry, then still a child, saw Shaw (after she was turned into a dummy) rise up, but was spared thanks to his silence, because Mary takes her revenge by killing those who scream. Jamie finds out that Michael, who actually "was" murdered by Mary Shaw, was his great-uncle. As part of Mary's lynching, 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 and all those in Raven's Fair by killing them using the same method. Mary Shaw kills Henry Walker and Detective Lipton discovers that all of Mary Shaw's dolls have been dug up. He informs Jamie and is just about to arrest him, when Jamie receives a call from "Henry", asking him to go to Shaw's old theatre to prove his innocence. At the ruined theater, Jamie and Lipton discover 100 of the dolls in their massive display case, along with Michael's body , which had been turned into a marionette. Mary reveals to Jamie that she killed Lisa because, unbeknownst to him, she was pregnant with his son, thereby killing any potential newborn of the Ashen family. Jamie and Lipton burn the theatre and all of Shaw's dolls, but Lipton falls and screams, sealing his fate. Back at his father's residence, Jamie is confronted by Mary, but repels her by throwing Billy into the fireplace. He learns, much to his horror, that his father actually died long ago; the current "Edward" is actually a doll converted from his corpse, controlled by  Ella, who is the "perfect doll" that Mary Shaw created just before her death. Jamie screams in terror as Ella, possessed by Mary, kills him. The film ends with Jamie reciting a nursery rhyme about Shaw while a photo album with human puppets is shown: Lisa, Henry, Lipton, Edward, Ella, and Jamie himself. Mary closes the book, finally completing her revenge. Production. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Release. "Dead Silence" was released in the United States on March 16, 2007, with an "R" rating for Violence. Box office. 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. Tentative plans for a sequel were abandoned. Critical reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 21%, based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 4.00/10. 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." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 34 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Home video. 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. "Dead Silence" was released on Blu-ray Disc in the U.K. on October 25, 2010. 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. Soundtrack. Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack of "Dead Silence" on March 20, 2007. The CD contains 31 tracks, the first track being the song "We Sleep Forever" performed by American rock band Aiden (despite not actually being featured in the film itself). The rest of the CD is taken up by Charlie Clouser's film score. Clouser has worked on many film scores, such as the "Saw" series and "". Alternate scenes. Many alternate scenes were released on both the unrated  DVD and the unrated HD DVD. They are listed below: Post-release commentary. In his personal blog, screenwriter Whannell reveals the origins of the film within the context of the Hollywood film industry. In a candid post entitled "Dud Silence: The Hellish Experience of Making a Bad Horror Film", Whannell explains that the film was conceived following the advice of his agent at the time and that a "script doctor" was eventually employed by the production studio. Whannell concludes the post with a description of the key lessons that were learned following the "Dead Silence" experience: After everything is said  and done, I'm almost glad "Dead Silence" happened, because it gave me an extreme, coal-face lesson in what not to do. It was like learning to swim by leaping off Niagara Falls. I only write scripts on spec now, which means that I write them in my own time without getting paid and then take them out into the world to see if anyone's interested. Never again will I enter the arranged marriage of selling a pitch. I have also become very gun-shy about working with studios. In the world of independent film, what you write  ends up on screen. Plus, they don't have the money to bring in script doctors! Works fine for me. Who knows, maybe one day I will work with a studio again...