Your reviews of last Friday’s new releases are finally up: “Premonition,” “Dead Silence,” and “I Think I Love My Wife.” Surprisingly, “Dead Silence” is the best of them. It wasn’t screened for critics, and certainly many of the late reviews have not been kind. But I think if you take it for what it is — an old-fashioned goofy ghost story — you’ll find it more than a little creepy and a fair amount of fun to watch.
“Dead Silence” and “Premonition” are both thrillers of sorts, and I compare them both to “The Twilight Zone” in my reviews — favorably in one case, unfavorably in the other. “Dead Silence” uses a specific “Twilight Zone” device (remember the episode called “The Dummy”? CREEPY!) and expands on it. “Premonition,” meanwhile, uses a “TZ”-style plot and simply drags it out for 90 minutes.
(Both films also feature actress Amber Valletta in supporting roles. Weird coincidence for Ms. Valletta!)
I saw all three films in a mini-marathon on Monday at the Edwards Greenway 24 in Houston. I was in town visiting friends for a few days after SXSW, and I had figured I wouldn’t see the movies until I got back to Portland, but then my host had to work for several hours on Monday and I had to kill time anyway. And what better way to occupy oneself for seven hours than by paying for one movie and watching three?
