Directed By Corin Hardy

Starring – Dafne Keen, Sophie Nelisse, Percy Hynes White

The Plot – A misfit group of unwitting high school students stumble upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec Death Whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle and the terrifying sound it emits will summon their future deaths to hunt them down.

Rated R for strong violent content, gore, drug content and adult language.

Whistle: Official Teaser | Dafne Keen, Nick Frost | HD | IFC Films

POSITIVES

Despite a heavily flawed and inconsistent execution that fails to find its own soul of originality from borrowing from so many familiar franchises, “Whistle” has no shortage of ambitious potential in the futuristic outlook of many possible sequels, particularly in the creativity of its concept, which sees death as a physical manifestation of inevitability continuously plaguing these unfortunate characters. As to where other films like “Final Destination” or “The Ring” have a similar idea in the constructive countdown of something atmospherically conjured to inspire unavoidable consequences to the characters involved in their conflicts, this movie gives us a glimpse into the dying days of its characters that not only evokes some torturously gruesome methods of pay-off to the many deaths in the film, but also a terrifying inescapability factor on the inclusion of its inevitability that merely involves characters to be present for the sacred use of this artifact, even if they never touched it, and with a mid credits sequence teasing a possible bigger scope at a more bloody and maniacal form of massacre, I would certainly be willing to give this franchise another chance, especially considering Hardy imbeds some visual flare for the presentation that effortlessly immerses us in the psychological plights of these characters much better than the heavy-handed exposition of the dialogue ever could. Hardy’s effectiveness for frights might leave more to be desired in his dependency to C.G special effects and predictably timely jump scares, but his grasp on the atmosphere certainly kept me firmly invested to the unraveling of developments, which are paid off with two of the year’s best death scenes, featuring morbid creativity that allows us to experience these characters’ darkest days, seemingly decades down the line from where they currently stand. Hardy’s isolated capture of these individualized characters stylistically evokes some fuzzy framing and intentionally choppy framing that distorts the clarity and coherence of reality, inspiring a helplessness in vulnerability that maximizes the already evident absence of parental figures from these struggling adolescents, in turn appraising an inescapable thickness that haunts each of them with such an unsettling reality. Besides these contributing factors to the movie’s appeal, I was also pleasantly surprised by the movie’s banging soundtrack and how it’s used valuably in the underlining of some of the movie’s most tender moments. Because our primary protagonist is privy to an extensive record collection full of artists like Concrete Blonde, Iron Maiden, and Prodigy, we constantly sample lyrical insight into the emotional impulses of the characters that lead to some endearingly vulnerable moments between them, and considering Hardy has firmly established music’s irreplaceably apparent value to the film, it proves that the production moved mountains to clear contractual rights to sample its stirring familiarity, cementing the soundtrack to beat in the 2026 movie season.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, while Hardy’s direction is often the most memorable aspects of the movie’s anxiously aggressive execution, the script from “Blood Fest’s” Owen Egerton is muddled in an abundance derivative familiarity and unsubtlety so compromising to the movie’s integrity that it fails to ever thrive on its own terms, leading to an uninspiring and cliche-riddled experience that weighs heavily on the movie’s overall memorability. Aside from feeling like a last-minute rewrite of a “Final Destination” movie, with some plot threads from that franchise even reused here as a resolution to the plot conflict, there’s all kinds of overused exploits that prove a complete lack of creativity to the movie’s foundation, with everything from the exposition dump supporting character, to illogical plot mechanics, to a protagonist rooted in tragedy finding its way to the movie’s establishing, completely overriding so many of the rare but noticeable beats of originality that Egerton elicits, but never with the kind of consistency that could help from making this such an overly predictable excursion, especially alongside characters who feel so thinly developed that they’re never able to effectively escape the one-dimensionality of their bare outlines. It’s a group of unlikely friends comprised of two jocks, a prom queen, a brainiac, a lovable loser, and a burnout, and while those are summarized descriptions of the kinds of characters we’re saddled with, the 93 minutes spent alongside each of them uncovers very little additionally to add dimensions to those types, having more than a noticeable impact on the integrity of performances from a highly talented but entirely wasted ensemble. While this movie already attained the unforgiveable sin of wasting away “Shaun of the Dead’s” Nick Frost in a thankless single scene of work that didn’t call upon his radiant charisma and impeccable comedic timing, its misuse of Dafne Keen and Sophie Nelisse is perhaps most unjustifiable to its connection to the audience, pitting them in a refreshing romance that is given time and focus, even as the characters have no palpable chemistry between their dynamic. Considering Keen’s Chrys is our firmly established lead, the abrupt methods that the storytelling utilizes to flesh in and out of her tortured backstory with the abruptness that can be found in a movie continuously rushing so many of its vital beats, leaving her so unappealing and aggressively bitter that her character design corrodes so many of the movie’s biggest emotional beats alongside with her. Speaking of underutilized, the arc itself feels like the least compelling aspect of a movie that creatively orbits it, complete with a lack of thorough exploration in the depths of its surface level lore that could give us a greater understanding of the rules and spontaneity of the imagery that we’re left to interpret on our own. A sequel in better and bolder hands would flesh out an established history that not only zeroes in on its speculative origins, but also how it’s able to maintain such a firm mainstay in the hallways of this high school of the setting, but it comes across as just another sacred artifact that stupid adolescents should keep their grubby hands off of, serving as a logic-shredding plot device instead of an insightful delve into expansive world-building. Finally, while the movie is fortunate to have two of the best on-screen deaths that I have seen in recent years, its dependency upon computer-generation leaves more to be desired in the anatomical contortion of those unfortunate souls involved, crafting cartoonish emphasis in the underlining that does detract a bit from the connective tangibility of the pain conveyed to the audience. This is really when the frights and deaths are at their best, as the lesser side of the equation pertains to heavily telegraphed jump scares and obscured framing of the inferior death sequences that combine intrusive editing techniques and poor camera placements to make so many of them feel like they transpire off-screen, and considering there’s such a compelling creativity with these characters forced to endure the condemned realities of their darkest days ahead, it regretfully doesn’t materialize anything artistically enamoring to the depiction, leaving so many of these sequences drained by budgetary choices that didn’t allow Hardy and his film to live up to the bountiful potential that it built for itself.

OVERALL
“Whistle” is an evidential byproduct of bigger and bolder franchises that portrayed a similar concept first and better, with not enough originality or expansion on the lore or world-building to deviate on the familiarly defined expectations of the audience. Though some stirring components of the movie’s foundation strike a compelling chord with an infectious soundtrack and Corin Hardy’s promising direction, the execution is flawed in everything from thin characterization to underwritten emotionality, proving it incapable of overcoming its own demons, on or off screen.

My Grade: 4.6 or D