Some people don’t like clowns.  I know plenty of people that are even terrified by clowns almost as much as they are deathly afraid of heights and spiders.  I on the other hand have always been particularly weary of doll collections.  One doll I can deal with...but when a room is stacked ceiling high by these beady eyed collectables, I start to feel they are watching me and somehow telepathically planning violent unspeakable schemes with each other while I’m sleeping.  Yes, my mother kept at least a hundred dolls in her room.  She almost thought of them as her children and they all loved to stare at me...perhaps jealous in there own plastic nature.  Stuart Gordon’s Dolls came out in 1987 and has since then achieved lesser known cult classic status.  There is always the ever horrible Puppet Master series as well (should have stopped after the first installment) where a craftsman's eerie doll collection comes to life to commit multiple grisly murders.  Pissed off puppets (I almost forgot about Chucky!) are in their own sub-genre of American horror filmmaking and Dead Silence just happens to be a worthy title to be held as possibly the greatest puppet slasher in all horror history.

The creators of the Saw trilogy are at it again and now they are proving to us that they are both perfectly capable of dishing out more well crafted plots and exciting new twists that will leave your jaw dropped even after the credits have come to an end.  James Wan has already proven himself a rather sharp director with his camera work in the original Saw.  In Dead Silence his eye for atmosphere, superb techniques of capturing lighting effects, and well paced sequences of suspenseful direction is nothing short of the skill we see in other masters of horror such as Takashi Miike and a younger Tobe Hooper.  However, Dead Silence is not the next Poltergeist or Audition.  It still suffers from an awkward script and lousy talent that somehow finds its way in front of the camera.  This is something we’re also used to in the Saw trilogy but I’m not going to get started on every little quirk I have against this outstanding trilogy of films that are none the less, as I’ve said before, the best horror trilogy since Sam Raimi's Evil Dead.  It’s just that in Dead Silence we are once again forced to sit through a rather dry script and the occasional amateur actor.  It’s not all horrible by any means...just something you have to look past every once in awhile throughout the film in order to fully enjoy the entire picture.

Unlike the Saw films, the gore in Dead Silence has been replaced by thinly sliced cheese.  In some instances, Wan wants you to completely jump out of your skin and in most cases he hits the nail right on the head with the suspense and scares.  This also comes with a special thanks to the incredible make up effects of Damon Bishop.  In other situations, unfortunately it’s as if he wants you to laugh at the violence with some of the films more ironic moments, but in the end, it just makes the enjoyment level of the film incredibly uneven and a little too quirky at times.  I'd leave the comedy to M. Night Shyamalan.  Sue me, I find the man's movies hysterical!

As always, I'm not too big on giving the plot of any film away.  If you want the outline of the story look on IMDB.  If you are however looking for a good scare within a dark and interesting plot look no further than Dead Silence.  It's not a teen horror by any sense nor is it a gore fest.  It can be more closely related to many Japanese films that came to us within the later 90’s and earlier this decade.  It also shows us that puppets are still creepy as hell and that James Wan can still dish out the grittiness with superb attention to creepy atmosphere.

I recommend Dead Silence for American horror filmgoers who are eager to find another rising director within the scene.  James Wan has a much more different style of filmmaking as sayyy...Eli Roth, but it really all comes as a welcoming surprise with Dead Silence.  Not as much gore is in this flick as I originally anticipated, just some good ol fashion suspense and plenty of frightening images that’ll give ya nightmares for days after.  If anything, you’ll be paying more attention to the old dolls you used to play with as a young lad.  They maybe watching!