10 Horror Movie Villains Who Went To Great Lengths
4. Mary Shaw - Dead Silence
Few horror villains can hold a grudge like Dead Silence's big bad, Mary Shaw.
Although she was a respected ventriloquist during the 1940s, Mary was left humiliated during a show when a kid in the audience mocked her skills. Enraged, Shaw killed the boy, compelling the townspeople to execute her. So hell-bent on revenge, Mary's spirit passed onto her dolls, using them to slaughter this child's ancestors. Since the film's protagonist, Jamie Ashen, is the last member of that bloodline, Shaw will stop at nothing to end his life.
Jamie learns about Mary Shaw while speaking with his paralysed father, Edward, and his new wife, Ella, leading Jamie to destroy all of Shaw's dolls during the film's climax, seemingly giving her no conduit to survive. When Jamie returns to his father's estate, though, he sees Edward's spine has been replaced with an apparatus to control him like a puppet, as Jamie realises Mary Shaw is Ella and has been using ventriloquism to simulate that Edward was still alive. From there, Mary transfers her essence into Jamie's body, ending the Ashen bloodline.
It's a shame to see evil triumph, but you have to almost applaud Shaw for defying death, worming her way into Jamie's family, and fooling him hook, line, and sinker to achieve her goal.