Mary Shaw

Mary Shaw is a scary poem or rhyme from the horror movie Dead Silence. You can also read the supposedly true story or scary legend of Mary Shaw, the ventriloquist who was buried with her dolls and figure out if her curse is real.

Beware the stare of Mary Shaw.
She had no children, only dolls,
And if you see her in your dreams,
Make sure you never, ever scream…
…or she’ll rip your tongue out at the seam.
And if you see her remember this,
The only thing that can stop her is…
… dead silence.

There’s an old ghost story around here about a woman named Mary Shaw. She was buried with her doll collection. Now, some say it’s just a scary poem parents tell their kids to keep them in line, but others claim it’s more than just a ghost story.

There are things you remember, and there are things you can’t forget… Like the look on that woman’s face when she died. Her name was Mary Shaw, the ventriloquist who lost her voice.

Back when I was a boy, those were the glory days of Ravens Fair, and the town built itself a grand old theater, the Guignol Theater, out on Lost Lake. I only ever went there once.

It was 1941 and Mary Shaw was the ventriloquist on stage. She had a dummy called Billy. That night, during her performance, a young boy named Michael Ashen made fun of Mary and called her a fraud. He claimed he could see her lips moving when the dummy was talking.

Some weeks later, that disbelieving little boy went missing. Vanished without a trace. For his family, there was only ever one suspect, Mary Shaw. In fact, everyone in town felt that Mary Shaw must have played some role in it. And not long after that, she was murdered. Who killed her? No one ever found out for sure.

According to the legend, some members of the Ashen family dealt their own brand of justice. Along with other folks from Raven’s Fair, they stormed her dressing room at the theater. They forced her to scream, then ripped out her tongue, silencing the ventriloquist’s voice forever… Or so it seemed.

In her will, Mary stated that her dummies were to be buried with her… her children, as she called them… all 101 of them. Her body was brought to my father’s mortuary, so he could begin work on her other final request. Not only did she ask to be buried with her dolls, she asked to become a doll herself.

But she didn’t stay dead. She came back and took her revenge. Ever since she was buried, Ravens Fair has been plagued by death. One by one, each of the men involved were killed. They were found with their tongues ripped out. And then the same thing happened to their wives. And then their children. And their children’s children.

No one in this town dares speak Mary Shaw’s name, let alone go near her grave. They know she won’t stop killing until the screaming does.