Corin Hardy, the director of THE NUN, is back to the horror genre with his newest film WHISTLE. Centered around the discovery and misabuse of an ancient death whistle, the film follows several high schoolers as they run from their own deaths.
Starring Dafne Keen (LOGAN, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE), Nick Frost (SHAUN OF THE DEAD), Sophie Nélisse (“Yellowjackets”), Percy Hynes White (“Wednesday”), Alissa Skovbye (“Firefly Lane”), Jhaliel Swaby (SHAZAM!), Sky Yang (REBEL MOON), and Michelle Fairley (“Game of Thrones”), the film is written by Owen Egerton (MERCY BLACK, FOLLOW). For fans of classic horror, this film hits all the high notes: an inescapable curse, a roster of disposably beautiful people, creative kills, a last-ditch effort, and a twist ending. Add to that gorgeously realized set pieces as well as classic settings like high school hallways and WHISTLE is positioned to be perfect horror snack food.
Dafne Keen is morbidly robotic as Chrys, wallowing in her self-prescribed stupor for most of the film, acting as a pinball in a machine. The levers and coils and switches that propel her through the story are all aptly entertaining, particularly her supports, Ellie (Nélisse) and Rel (Yang), as well as outside antagonist Haggerty (Hynes White). The film opens on a cursed subject who sees apparitions of his death before finally succumbing to the haunting, leaping forward for us to meet the new crop of victims. Chrys is a convenient and relatable central lead for the audience experience as she is new to the town and school, haunted and desensitized, and hardened to both fear and hope. Shes’ the perfect vehicle for the average horror fan who expects to be disappointed by every original film concept while still holding space in our hearts for surprise. WHISTLE answers that call with a shrill blast all its own.
The first two kills are admittedly underwhelming and suffer from patchy CGI, but patience rewards those who stayed plugged in for the film’s full, brief run time. There are elaborate chase scenes in perfectly rendered environments with disorienting cuts and edits, static frames of visceral violence that challenge freshmen viewers, and a fair lore that ties everything together. A clever bit of realization is that the apparitions of death which stalk our cast are the characters, themselves, twisted by their own eventual demise which arrives ahead of schedule due to the call of the titular whistle. Their death shadow is a version of themselves; to fight it is to fight oneself.
There is a scene of tension toward the middle of the film that I thought was superfluous; there was really no logical reason for the characters to be afraid but the filmmakers manufactured the tension in the scene to sustain the momentum of the film, I suppose. It still struck me as disingenuous. What does work, however, is the romantic subplot that moves the story forward, giving our characters something more to fight for than merely staying alive. To frame the romantic subplot, Chrys is given a line of dialogue that encapsulates what it means to let others in, wrapped in the rationale of selecting a tattoo: “Find something you love and let it scar you for life.”
I had the chance to chat with director Corin Hardy, who also directed the music video for my favorite Keane song, “Bedshaped,” about working with the cast, telling an American story, and the creativity necessary to entertain modern horror audiences.
WHISTLE is in theaters now.
Until next time, take scare.
-McEric, aka Eric McClanahan-
