Is 'Dead Silence' Based On A True Story?

I’m thinking of Dead Silence, and there was a part in the film where they talk about the legend of Mary Shaw. The only thing fictional about this woman is that she wasn’t real. Her story is that of a ventriloquist who was brutally murdered by an angry mob of townspeople. She was a performing artist, mistakenly believing that she was loved by her audiences. Her gruesome demise is the cause of legend for the bloodiest and most gruesome haunting in the country’s history. Those who have seen the film will remember that the legend of Mary Shaw is said to have been based on the true stories of many ventriloquists throughout the years who were cruelly murdered by irate crowds.

While Mary Shaw and the events of Dead Silence are strictly fiction, the performer’s tragic downfall mirrors a common character archetype found in many urban legends. Often these are peaceful, creative people who are tortured and ultimately murdered by disagreeable audiences. Just as with The Texas Chain Saw Films’ Saw, where infamous serial killer Jigsaw exacts horrific revenge upon his victims in a bid to force them to confront their darkest selves, horror can be a great way to explore the kind of horror that real-life events cannot. Here, the grizzly and inexplicable demise of ventriloquist performer Mary Shaw serves as the setting for the film. A decrepit town with dark secrets of its own, Ish Rowland’s fictional Hollywood, PA. much resembles real life ground zero for underground contamination, Centralia, PA. The fear that this promotes is real, even if largely the result of fiction. Movies are meant to scare. And to silence. The rule to ‘Beware the stare of Mary Shaw’ will send chills down the spines of anyone familiar with local folklore. That the legend of Dead Silence feels real is a testament to Wan’s mastery of his medium.

It's a made up story, but it feels so real, especially in regards to the aesthetic and sense of tension that a deep-sea exploration horror story would have. The void of space outside of a ship at drift can create a lot of pressure just like the deep ocean. The narrow corridors and failing technology to navigate through them creates a sense of real hardship and dire circumstances. The sense of alienness to the environment where almost everything fails quickly is akin to that found in deep-sea disaster stories or those of cave diving. The true feeling of horror is translated from those familiar fears to apply in a space setting. We fear drowning, being crushed and dark unknown waters. The book simply asks us to translate that to a void of space and it's very effective in inspiring terror.

This is also true for Verux, as the behaviors of a corporate cover-up of a scandal are pretty standard, deny, attack the credibility of the person bringing the issue to light, then ‘disappear’ all evidence of the issue. This kind of behavior is found in the tech world, the energy world, and in politics. And the horror of being a small, powerless individual caught in the massive machine of a single-minded corporation, behaving only to protect the corporate image and increase profits? This is a reality for many individuals today. And The Book of Verux takes this modern day anxiety and transforms it into a psychological horror story, complete with a supernatural ghost ship as a threat to the main characters. But more ominous and harder to escape is the threat of a single corporation, made by man.