It ends up feeling like a horror experiment that is not lacking in interesting elements (such as stylized and attractive photography by the experienced John R. Leonetti), but that at the end of the day, falls short. [Full review in Spanish].

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 31, 2025

Dead Silence is a guilty pleasure, especially if you have a gottle of geer beforehand.

| Sep 13, 2023

A wan Wan offering.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 1, 2023

Dead Silence is a solid horror film and a look into the early works of James Wan and Leigh Whannell. And while it might have become a bit dated along the way, it is still a brilliant horror film to terrify.

| Apr 17, 2021

Dead Silence has a lot of good qualities (the production design, the menagerie of creepy dolls, great makeup effects when folks lose their tongues/jaws), but overall this film has a huge debilitating weakness: it is dull as f***

| Feb 22, 2020

Mediocre and illogical retro horror pic about a malevolent dummy.

| Original Score: C | Sep 12, 2017

If you're in the mood for a Saturday afternoon-ish throwback thriller, you could certainly do a hell of a lot worse than this one.

| Aug 28, 2015

A very creepy little ditty that works once it rears up to the second half.

| Jun 26, 2013

A Nightmare on Dummy St. from Saw creators.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 14, 2010

All dolls are inherently freaky, but there's something seriously bent about a little wooden man with bulging eyes, shiny cheeks, and perfect chompers.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 6, 2010

Plodding and bereft of suspense, "Dead Silence" is an irredeemable jumble of cliché genre fragments.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 26, 2009

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 20, 2008

"Dead Silence" is not going to reinvent the genre. It's actually a big pile of nonsense, but that doesn't stop it from being fun nonetheless.

| Apr 18, 2008

Wan and Whannell have a carnivalesque sense of fun and a sure instinct for recycling classic horror tropes, but their characters are so flat and their plotting so listless that this low-budget feature fails to generate much suspense.

| Dec 3, 2007

It's awful. It eats your soul, it's so awful.

| Original Score: 1/10 | Sep 27, 2007

All Wan and Whannell know is shock-and-awe tactics. They may shock, but there's no awe.

| Original Score: F | Jul 29, 2007

For the love of Chucky, avoid this insipid attempt at reviving the killer doll horror.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 27, 2007

...an ambitious misfire.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 21, 2007

There's something quaintly charming about the filmmakers' unabashed affection for their inspirational source material, although the sense of over-familiarity means that none of it is in the least bit scary.

| Jul 14, 2007

Poorly written, badly directed and ultimately scare-free horror flick that's further hindered by dismal performances and unintentionally laughable dialogue.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 7, 2007