Dead Silence (2007) – An Excellent James Wan / Leigh Whannell horror-adventure with grand environments, it tells of Jamie Ashen, an uncomplicated everyman who journeys to his hometown to solve the murder of his wife -- who he eventually suspects was murdered by a ventriloquist dummy! With *modern* classic elements like evil dolls and urban myths (at the recitation of which everyone in the know clutches their pearls), Wan goes for a very over-the-top, theatrical effect. Imagine if the horror-themed ramblings of some wild-eyed elementary school kid were narratively tightened and given big-budget treatment. That’s *this* movie, and it couldn’t be more perfect for Halloween! Every place is amplified, American Gothic on steroids: the town of Raven’s Fair, nestled among the horror-hiding shadows of great trees, past the river, backed by misty scarps, abutting LOST LAKE . . . the local cemetery, with its stones leaning in the showering leaves, surrounded by a TWISTED WOOD out of a dark fairy tale . . . the great, dilapidated bulk of the Guignol Theater on its island, rising out of the mists of Lost Lake like a VAMPIRE’S CASTLE as the hapless hero rows near! In the midst of all this, we have the film’s star revenant and her handmade army.