A ventriloquist dummy appears outside Jamie Ashen’s car window. In the dark light of the graveyard the doll looks even scarier than in daylight. Jamie jumps, startled, and tries to escape. The doll appears outside the window again. Shadows flash across Ashen’s face. He cannot escape the stalking of the doll. Dead Silence, a movie released in 2007, is basically a story about a dead ventriloquist and her killer dolls seeking revenge. When the film hit theaters, most movie-goers did not leave thinking about how well the storyline compared to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Even those who made the movie probably did not notice the similarities, but by taking a closer look at certain aspects of the film, similarities can be seen throughout. A creation scene can be found as well as similarities in the mood of the story. Another scene in Dead Silence can be compared to the encounter between Victor and the creature on Victor’s wedding night.
The comparison can begin as soon as the movie starts. In the first scene, we see a situation much like the one in Frankenstein’s creation scene. A person who can later be identified as Mary Shaw is sitting at a desk in a dimly lit and ominous looking room excitedly making plans and designs for what we learn is supposed to be “the perfect doll”. In the creation scene in Frankenstein, Victor studiously works on his designs in what the reader usually pictures as a “mad scientist” kind of atmosphere. The scene continues as the doll is actually made and painted. As the doll is being painted, we are reminded that Victor chose all of his creation’s features as beautiful as he created him. The dolls features go along with the plans for perfection and Victor’s creature’s features were supposed to be beautiful, however, both creations turned out frightening. The mood of this scene is shown mostly by the dark lighting. This scene and the creation scene in Frankenstein are also very similar, as both of the scenes are ominous and dark. The creations seem to be the most wonderful ideas that their creator have ever had, but they leave the audience with a feeling of anxiousness and a curiosity as to what will happen next in the story.
As the story develops, we learn that Mary Shaw, a ventriloquist who has been dead for years, is killing people using her ventriloquist dolls. A repeating poem that is heard throughout the movie is, “Beware the stare of Mary Shaw, she had no children only dolls. And if you see her in your dream, never ever ever scream.” Mary Shaw saw her dolls as her children. They were her creations and much like Victor, her creations were her children. “Offspring” is used repeatedly in Frankenstein to describe his relationship to Victor. While Mary Shaw wants her dolls to kill certain people, Victor never really wanted the creature to kill. Victor’s lack of love for his monster causes him to turn away from love and begin to kill those who don’t accept him. Whether inadvertently or purposefully, both creators make their creations kill.
The main character in this movie is a man name Jamie Ashen who used to live in the town that Shaw was from. One day a package containing a doll shows up on Jamie’s door and his wife takes it out and embraces it being in their home. Days later, Ashen comes home to see his wife horribly murdered and the doll seems to be the only culprit. Jamie decides he will investigate the story behind Shaw himself and travels to his old hometown. This brings us to the second comparison scene. Mary Shaw continues her killing spree as the main character continues to search for answers as to why she is doing so. The search brings Ashen to an abandoned theatre that houses all of Mary Shaw’s dolls. While he is searching the scary old building, he is being chased by Mary Shaw and one of her dolls, Billy. This scene is relatable to the scene in Frankenstein on Victor’s wedding night. Victor is outside searching for the monster so the terror can end like Jamie searching for answers so the killing will stop.
Jamie sets fire to Mary Shaw’s dolls while he is in the theatre to try to stop the killings which only seems to make things worse. He ends up hanging by only his arm from what would be a pretty deadly fall while Shaw is trying to kill him. He gets away unharmed the same way Victor is unharmed by the creature on his wedding night; his wife, however, is not so lucky. Both of the characters, Jamie and Victor, leave their battles alive but their wives turn out to be innocent victims, killed to destroy their husbands lives. Both characters as well have to live with what they’ve seen and been a part of because of the creations. The scene in the old theatre is suspenseful and dark like the wedding night scene in Frankenstein. We aren’t sure what will happen next and are led to believe that Victor will be killed, not his wife. As the characters of both stories are followed by a terrifying presence, the audience feels nervous and jumpy.
Now we will return to the scene we began with. The ventriloquist dummy is stalking Jamie in a graveyard. The connection is now apparent. The comparisons have been given and the door has been opened to looking at Dead Silence as a Frankenstein film. We understand now that the doll was following Jamie just like Victor’s monster was following him through the novel. Though there are obvious differences between the two stories, there are also obvious similarities. The comparison of the two creations scenes is undeniable. The same mood is evoked from the audience when we see the ominous setting and the plans for a perfect ventriloquist doll. The audience knows that something bad is going to happen, much like we know during the Frankenstein scene that the creature will be frightening and probably cause problems. The overall mood of the two stories is very similar. The movie is dark throughout the entire thing and if we were visualizing Frankenstein, it would be dark and ominous as well. Mary Shaw’s offspring were her dolls, her creations, much like Victors offspring was his creation. Innocent wives of both of the main characters were killed because of these creations. Victor tried to make a perfect human and Mary Shaw tried to make the perfect doll. In the end, only death and destruction was a result.
