Certain things will always be off-putting. Little kids singing creepy songs, clowns doing whatever it is clowns do, and of course, ventriloquists' dummies. So let's take some dummies, and add in a really freaky ghost-demon of an old lady that likes to rip out your tongue and eat it. Bam! You get Dead Silence, or, alternately, the stuff of nightmares. Mary Shaw is scary, but it's because of all the other elements that this film is so freaky. Dolls, ghosts, violent murders... a clown dummy that's possessed and rocks in a rocking chair. That's a recipe for fear casserole.
