The movie opens by showing us the decrepit hand of Mary Shaw lighting a candle, and this
could be seen as a foreshadowing of what would eventually happen to the theater in the movie’s
climax, but it may have also been chosen as sort of a director’s trademark for James
Wan.
After their breakout success with Saw, Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell teamed up
again to make Dead Silence, which was released in 2007, and contained many recognizable elements
that established Wan as an auteur.
The opening shot of Saw contained a small blue light floating in the water, so Dead
Silence’s first shot has its colors altered to that the flame’s light also appears blue.
One of the first things we see is her blueprints for “the perfect doll”, which are also
pretty similar in style to designs made by the antagonist of Wan’s first movie.
Dead Silence would not only bring back more trademarks established in his previous film,
but would also set up conventions that wouldn’t be expanded upon until years later in his
career.
For this and many more Things You Missed, make sure you stick around to the end of this
video.
Am I becoming like the doll movie guy?
It’s not really on purpose, it just kind of keeps happening.
Anyway, the opening title sequence shows Mary Shaw flipping through a photo album.
It’s difficult to see the details, but if you do pay attention to them, it sets up a
secret that would later be unveiled.
When the mystery is all but solved, we find out that Mary Shaw’s spirit is going after
the families that killed her and dismembered her tongue in 1941.
So essentially the curse is tied to your lineage, and that's why we see her documenting each
family tree, from the birth of a new son in the Ashen family, to the introduction of Aunts
and Uncles, the tracking of new wives and daughters, cousins with creepy faces and more.
Further on in this booklet, we see her design sketches and blueprints jotted down about
“perfect design” and making the “perfect doll”.
We see the doll parts like legs and eye triggers, which we don’t realize are part of the construction
of a human doll, unless you really look closely at the proportions.
We see more of this book when Jamie discovers it later on while exploring the theater, where
there are more diagrams that seem to be plans for the human version of the doll as well
as pages talking about surgery and human anatomy.
I’d also like to comment on the music.
The soundtrack was done by Charlie Clouser, who also worked with Wan on the Saw movies,
and the main theme sounds like a children’s wind up music box, which fits nicely with
the whole theme of dolls, and kids being turned into ventriloquist dummies and stuff.
The main character is Jamie Ashen, and he seems to have a passion for bicycles, judging
by the decorations in his apartment.
He has a vintage bicycle poster in the kitchen, this “cycles Gladiator” poster, which
I found out is actually a type of wine, not a bicycle brand, but still features a bicycle
on the label, and of course, actual bicycles.
I think that the reasoning behind these choices has less to do with actual bicycles, and more
to do with the idea of Mary Shaw’s curse being generational.
Each subsequent generation of the Ashen family represents a new life cycle, a new victim
for Mary Shaw to circle around to.
That’s why the first victim of the movie appears to be his wife, but actually turns
out to be the boy she was carrying.
When the package containing the ventriloquist doll arrives at their door, Jamie’s wife
Lisa makes an interesting promise to the doll.
“If Jamie to scream, I’ll make sure you get seven minutes in heaven with my old Barbie.
Deal?”
It’s an interesting choice of words, because the legend of Mary Shaw warns that the victims
should not scream, in fact, the movie ends when Jamie actually does scream, and he pays
the price for it.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
Another potential attempt at foreshadowing can be seen on Jamie’s fridge.
And I say potentially because I can’t confidently translate the meaning behind all of these
fridge magnet letters, but one thing that does stand out to me is the word: LAKE.
The theater where Mary Shaw’s curse began, which is also the location of the climax of
the movie, is located on the island in Lost Lake.
But perhaps the biggest easter egg I found in Jamie’s apartment was this, which at
first appeared to be a painting, but upon closer inspection, I realized was actually
a Jigsaw puzzle!
This is a clear connection to Saw, where the villain would cut Jigsaw pieces out of his
victim’s bodies.
When Jamie comes home from picking up takeout, he finds his dead wife’s body hidden under
a sheet, which is great for me, because I can show some of this scene, and again, great
for me, because I can point out another director’s trademark: covering a victim in a sheet to
create suspense was also a tactic that Wan used in Saw, where Sing and Tapp discover Jeff
Ridenhour.
There's also another cloth pull scene later in Dead Silence where it looks like the same cloth is even used.
This could also explain why James Wan became friends with Lights Out director, David Sandberg.
In the following scene, we meet the man who would be investigating Lisa’s murder.
We can tell he’s a cop, not by the fact that he's in a police station, but because
he’s eating a donut, and we all know cops cannot resist donuts.
"Just refill this with jelly will ya?
Thanks. You're an angel."
When Jamie gets back into his hometown Ravens Fair, he drives by a sign describing it as…
A Quiet Place, which coincidentally would be the title of an excellent horror movie
11 years later where the characters were also at risk of being killed if they screamed…
but what I actually wanted to point out was this logo at the top of the sign.
It's very similar
to a logo later seen on the grave markers of Mary Shaw and her many puppets.
This could suggest that she has a greater influence on the town than previously disclosed.
The town is now run-down and falling apart, like the in-real-life equivalent of Screen
Rant’s reputation.
We see mannequins in this shop window, and we would later find more mannequins at the
theater.
At this point in his career, it’s safe to call this another director’s trademark.
You may remember from Saw, that Jigsaw’s workshop is hidden in a mannequin factory.
"It's an old listing. Used to be a mannequin factory."
What can I say?
The dude loves mannequins!
But I think there’s actually something deeper going on here.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the recurring elements in his films: mannequins,
dolls and we later see Mary Shaw take over a ventriloquist clown.
There’s one thing all of these elements have in common, they are all prompters for
a phenomenon known as the uncanny valley effect, which is when something has a human likeness,
but is not human, or at least has something non-human about its appearance, causing our
brains to think that something is wrong, which is why a lot of people find clowns, dolls,
or even the original trailer for Sonic to be kind of creepy.
So I would say that’s something Wan finds fascinating, because we’ve seen examples
of it come up time and time again in his work.
I mean the dude’s Instagram handle is @creepypuppet.
Jamie’s first stop was his childhood home to visit his father, but the surprise he would
find there holds major clues about the movie’s twist.
When Jamie returns home, the door is answered by Ella…
Oh…
Oh no.
Please don’t tell me that’s your mom dude.
“Well, I guess I’m your stepmother.”
*breathing through teeth* Yeah… she’s pretty young.
I guess, she’s not technically young because of the whole part where we find out she’s
actually Mary Shaw.
There may be a clue in there, in that she has this vibrant eye color, which is shared
by the creepy version of Mary Shaw and by all of her dolls.
The next part I legitimately don’t get.
Like I don’t understand it.
Let me roll the clip.
“Ella, who’s down there with you?”
Isn’t the whole twist that the father has been dead the whole time and she’s controlling
him like a life size ventriloquist doll?
So who’s saying that?
The only thing I can think is that she can actually give the dolls like a voice of their
own, because we do see a similar effect in the theater flashback, where the audience
reacts as if Billy’s voice actually is coming from the crowd.
“You won’t find me mother.”
I guess the idea behind Mary Shaw’s “perfect doll” idea is that she taxidermied the father
and converted him into a ventriloquist doll.
I think the idea is teased at when Jamie goes to the funeral parlor and sees Marion Walker
playing with a stuffed crow, another example of the use of taxidermy.
But can we talk about how hilarious this lamp at Jamie’s motel is though.
It’s just like a fish spitting out the lamp.
That’s my kind of humor.
Also at the motel: scary faces behind a window curtain?
Director’s trademark.
"Josh! Josh, Josh, please!
Someone's in Kali's room. Someone's in Kali's room!"
The next day is Lisa’s funeral, and there are a couple of tributes hidden in the cemetery
set.
The first is this tombstone with the name: John Musikka.
John Musikka is the name of an Ontario based locations manager, but he doesn’t appear
to have been involved with Dead Silence as far as I can tell.
So I wonder if this is actually a graveyard set that has been used in another production,
and this headstone was just kind of left over.
The alternative is that he just wasn't’ credited, and if you’ve seen my last video,
you know that that’s never good.
Another grave marker has the name Gregory, which was likely a tribute to the late producer
Greg Hoffman, who is always credited posthumously by his friends Oren Koules and Mark Burg.
Jamie learns the name of the the ventriloquist doll: Billy, which
is also the name of the puppet used to deliver messages to the victims in Saw.
The Saw version of Billy would also make a little cameo, later in the movie.
We’ll get there a little bit later on though.
The name of the theater that Mary used to perform at is called the Guignol Theater.
“That’s a French *** name!’
That is correct, Darrell.
The word “guignol” translates to “puppet”, and it may more specifically be named after
a French theater, The Grand Guignol, which was known for the horror productions it put
on in the early 1900s.
Seems appropriate, given all the horrific moments in this movie, like an old woman asking
to be made into a doll after her death, and this part where her ghost can only be seen
passing by in the mirror.
But after exploring the theater and its history and trying to re-bury Billy himself, Jamie
is unable to find the answers he’s looking for about the connection between his Great
Uncle Michael Ashen and the curse of the ventriloquist, Mary Shaw.
He returns home again to confront his father.
Most of Mr. Ashen’s lines are delivered in close-up, so that we as the audience don’t
see Ella’s lips moving as he’s speaking.
However, in this shot we do get a glimpse of it, but it’s brief enough that most probably
wouldn’t notice.
We also see it happen in a wide shot, while our eyes are drawn to the motion of Jamie
leaving the room.
Similarly, when Jamie receives the phone call from Henry Walker, the funeral home director
who was killed by Mary Shaw not long before, Ella is conveniently not in the shot until
Henry’s voice stops, so again, we can’t see her lips moving.
Although Detective Lipton does try to stop him, Jamie storms off to go meet Henry at the theater.
“Jamie!”
"JAMIE!"
“Now you’re gone and I’m waiting patiently.
Jamie!”
“I don’t have a full tank of gas!”
Actual footage of me being nominated as a designated driver.
Once they do arrive at the theater though, the Detective finally starts to believe that the
ghost stories might be true when he hears the voice of Henry coming from seemingly nowhere.
“Yes, he is!”
“If you say I told you so, I’ll shoot you.”
You know, officer, that sounds a little bit like
“BRUTALITY!”
Jamie disappears into a secret area behind the wall, leading them to discover that all
the dolls from the cemetery have somehow been relocated here.
One of them looks a lot like an early version of the Annabelle doll that would debut in
James Wan’s 2013 film, The Conjuring.
Obviously, I don’t think he predicted the future and knew he would making The Conjuring,
because the original plan for that movie was to use the Raggedy Ann doll that looks like
this, but once it was decided that they’d be making scarier looking doll for the film,
I wouldn’t be surprised if he went back and said, “OK, why don’t we use something
like this?”
The first doll that Mary possesses in this scene,
as I mentioned earlier is the clown puppet, and it has a spiral
on its forehead which is yet another connection to Saw, where there were several spiral patterns,
most notably on the cheeks of Billy the Puppet.
This is also the scene where Billy makes his cameo.
He can be seen lying on the ground in the dark whenever they cut back to the wide shot.
Saw also featured some spiraling camera movements, and I think we can count this as another example
of James Wan being an auteur.
I noticed one such camera move back at the house, not to mention the fact that they have
a spiral staircase.
Detective Lipton does what probably anyone would do in this scenario.
“Brutality!”
“Brutality! Brutality!”
“Brutality!”
But unfortunately for Lipton, he can’t stop himself from screaming…
"AHHHHHH!!!!!"
...and he gets the old tongue-ectomy treatment.
Jamie on the other hand is able to catch himself before screaming, in mid-air might I add,
and he burns the place down and goes home one final time to take care of the last doll
and when he gets there, there’s one more director’s trademark: the recap montage!
Let’s roll it.
"Jamie, I can prove you didn't kill her."
"Jamie!"
"Glad to have you home."
"Now who's the dummy?"
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
"Shhhhhhhhhh......."
There’s a
good amount of lore in this movie that I’ve yet to cover, so be sure to join me next week
as I analyse the history of Mary Shaw.
Remember to subscribe to CZsWorld for new horrors every week, ring that deathbell for
notifications and I’ll see you in the next one.
Assuming we both survive.