Dead Silence (HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/C+ Extras: C Film: C
It has
been a while since anyone made a film that involved wooden dummies, but James
Wan (of Saw fame) tries and sadly
fails in the disappointing Dead Silence,
which involves an exceptionally made dummy of old vintage that is delivered to
an unsuspecting couple (Ryan Kwanten, Amber Valletta) who do not know there is
something sinister going on.
Unfortunately,
the screenplay by Leigh Whannell has many good ideas and does not know what to
do with them. The production design and
actual puppets are authentic looking, but some of the digital work from the
faux film scratches in the opening credits is lame. Ultimately, this never adds up and all I
wanted to do was watch the Anthony Hopkins film Magic (reviewed elsewhere on this site) again. This is a curio at best, but above most of
the straight-to-DVD Horror junk we have suffered through lately.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 VC- 1 digital High Definition image is better than the anamorphically
enhanced DVD-Video side, but both have some depth limits from the digital
internegative, with the bad digital work that sometimes surfaces and gutted
color in scenes to bring this down a peg in quality. John R. Leonetti’s cinematography is good,
but should have been left less tampered with. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix on the HD side
and regular Dolby 5.1 on the DVD side are slightly compressed in the middle
throughout, ruining an otherwise decent sound mix. Charlie Clouser’s score is not half bad
either. Extras include deleted scenes, a
making of featurette visual FX piece, piece on Mary Shaw, Music Video,
alternate opening and alternate closings that were no better or worse than what
we got. At least the Saw guys are trying to be ambitious as
that franchise declines.
- Nicholas Sheffo
