Dead Silence review

At the heart of this dreary chiller lies an undead female ventriloquist with a vendetta against the townsfolk who tore her tongue out way back when. “Who’s the dummy now?” she rasps. Well, you are if you waste your hard-earned on this tepid retread of Dickie Attenborough's 1978 Magic, a curious stumble from Leigh Whannell and James Wan after the success of their Saw gore-fests. In fact, ‘Wan’ is as good a word as any to describe widower Ryan Kwanten's quest to discover why the mannequin left on his doorstep came alive and killed his missus. Unfortunately, by the time he's realised it's the work of its zombie mistress we're as sceptical as Donnie Wahlberg's wise-ass copper - one of the few actors here who doesn't behave like he's got a hand up his jacksy.