Dead Silence

James Wan, director of the original Saw, goes for more scares with puppets in this woefully bad horror yarn. A ventriloquist’s dummy shows up on the doorstep of a young couple, and the female half of the duo promptly has her tongue ripped out. Her husband (Ryan Kwanten) goes on the hunt for the killer, while a policeman (Donnie Wahlberg) suspects it’s him. Predictable scares involving dolls moving their eyes by themselves, and some rather bad makeup-effects make this a pitiful project. Wan certainly doesn’t capitalize on his Saw fame here, although I wasn’t a fan of that one, either. I don’t think big fans of Saw will be blown away by this one. It’s pretty tame and actually quite boring stuff. Like Saw, this film has a big shocker ending that will probably make you laugh more than frighten you.