Dead Silence

This throw-back horror movie from Leigh Whannell and James Wan, the writer and director of ‘Saw’, fuses the theatricality of Hammer Horror with a modern sensibility. Its fog-wreathed graveyards and spooky sets are CGI-enhanced, but its twentysomething protagonist – though haunted by his family’s murky past – is very much of our time. Sadly, the overall effect is more creaky than creepy. Insipid ‘Home and Away’ alumnus Ryan Kwanten plays Jamie Ashen, whose claims that his wife was murdered by a ventriloquist’s doll fall on deaf ears where cynical cop Jim Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) is concerned. Lipton follows Jamie and the doll to the moribund community of Ravens Fair, where Jamie uncovers a dark family secret. Even if you find the staring eyes and flapping mouths of ventriloquist dolls scary, there’s a homage-by-numbers feel to the ‘sins of the fathers’ plot, with its references to Mario Bava movies and Edgar Allan Poe. It’s affectionately done, but rather pointless.