The history of the horror genre is riddled with teenagers doing stupid things that directly lead to their death. In recent years, we've also seen a boom in 'death curse' slasher movies, bringing back the idea of death itself as the villain, much like in Final Destination. Enter Whistle, a film that blends the 'death curse' slasher with a bunch of teenagers tempting fate in a stupid way, leading to the majority of them being killed off in increasingly outlandish ways. While it doesn't achieve the success of similar Smile films, it's also miles better than something like Truth or Dare.
Whistle follows Chrys (Dafne Keen), an ex-junkie who has just moved to a new town to live with her cousin, Rel (Sky Yang), after her father's death in a car accident. On her first day at a new school, she has a run-in with the obnoxious jock Dean (Jhaleil Swaby), his girlfriend, Grace (Alissa Skovbye), and her friend, Ellie (Sophie Nelisse). After the new gang winds up in detention together and Chrys discovers an Aztec whistle in her locker, the five are tasked with writing a paper for their teacher (Nick Frost). While working on it, Grace is pressured to blow into the whistle, unknowingly beckoning the future deaths of each one of them.
This is about as formulaic as you can get. You get a cold open kill, then you know pretty much exactly where the film is going from start to finish. It even takes the idea that always seems to always pop up in these kinds of movies, where the main characters plot to kill and then revive themselves, thinking it will cheat death. I'm not typically one to harp on horror movie characters making dumb decisions, but c'mon, even if it wasn't a creepy death whistle, I don't think any wise person is going to blow into something they found in their locker. It also feels at times as if director Corin Hardy, whose previous work includes The Nun and not much else, doesn't have a consistent grasp of the tone. At times it feels like the film takes itself too seriously, while at other moments it leans into some campiness with the over-the-top gore and fun soundtrack. Despite the film's flaws, though, there are a handful of things I enjoyed.
Seeing Dafne Keen as a full-grown adult after only ever seeing her in Logan is a bit weird, but she did a decent job here. It does help that I really loved her chemistry with Sophie Nelisse, but on their own, I found myself caring more about each of their characters than I thought I would. Yang gives a pretty great performance that starts out as fun comedic relief but takes a dark turn as the reality of their situation sets in, and despite only being in the film for a short time, I did love seeing Nick Frost. We also get the great Michelle Fairley as the film's harbinger, and something about her creepily dumping exposition just worked for me. While he has some controversy surrounding him, I also thought Percy Hynes White did a great job as a morally corrupt youth pastor/drug dealer, who feels somewhat shoehorned into the plot but still leaves a strong impression.
Above all the performances, though, the clear highlight here is the kills. The crux of the film is that the death that each person would face winds up coming for them, so we get to see death turn healthy young bodies into their eventual dead selves in some over-the-top and incredibly bloody death scenes. There is a bit more CGI than I'd like in some, but pretty much every one of them is creative and original. There are a lot of jump scares, but less than I expected, and most of them lead to terrific gore sequences so I'm willing to forgive.
I won't go out citing this as a must-see, it truly is as formulaic as it gets and if you can't handle horror characters making bad decicions you might just hate it. I'd be lying, though, if I said I didn't have some fun here and there, so while it isn't one to run out to see, it's not a terrible pick for an October movie night. 2.5/5
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