‘Whistle’ Review
There’s no illusion about what kind of horror movie Corin Hardy’s Whistle is emulating as its group of cursed teenagers try to escape their untimely demise after blowing on an ancient Aztec death whistle. From its opening moments, where a promising young basketball player begins seeing visions of a shambling, burning corpse in the middle of a critical game for his high school, Owen Egerton’s screenplay treads familiar territory to intentionally shorthand its way through the boring setup and attempt to put a fresh spin on a tired trope. In this case, it’s cheating a most certain death. While the formulaic structure and abbreviated character arcs never stop feeling lazy, it’s in service of a fun ride of gruesome deaths and a premise that has the potential to go places now that the groundwork has been laid. Whistle might not be the best at what it does, but it scratches an itch while leaving room for an entire universe of possibilities.
When Chrys (Dafne Keen) moves to a new town to attend high school with her cousin, Rel (Sky Yang), she’s already knocked on death’s door. A stint in rehab after an overdose, Chrys (which is, of course, short for Chrysanthemum) wallows in misery after the death of her father. Death and drugs have a hold over her new school as well, as the recent mysterious death of its star basketball player follows the overdose of another student just a year prior. It’s a small industrial town, but Pellington High School seems to be a microcosm of suffering. That’s only made worse when Chrys discovers an Aztec Death Whistle in her locker, left behind by the recently deceased star player, and soon finds her small group of acquaintances under the spell of a death curse after blowing into the whistle.
What follows is a plodding narrative that doesn’t do a lot to shirk expectations or break from tradition. Whistle owes every ounce of its legibility to the influences it openly evokes. It’s a blueprint for making an effective teen horror film with a clever premise, and it's been followed to a T for decades. The characters fit neatly into established archetypes that have been skewered and parodied ad nauseam over the years, from the bullheaded jock (Jhaleil Swaby) to his studious girlfriend (Ali Skovbye) to the protagonist’s love interest (Sophie Nélisse). Adults seem woefully reckless, and the ones who do seem to know how to help our misfit group of teenagers are hilariously severe. “What if I don’t want to die?” asks one of our teenagers marked for death, to which a pitch-perfect Michelle Fairley exclaims, “Then you shouldn’t have been born!” It’s cheesy, but that cheese is part of the fun.
Where Whistle shines is in its premise: a blow on the Aztec Death Whistle doesn’t just curse those who hear its deafening screech—it also fast-tracks that individual’s cause of death. However, unlike a Final Destination, where people believe they can simply avoid death by avoiding situations that would put them in harm’s way, the way you’re supposed to die will happen regardless of whether the situation necessary to facilitate that is in the vicinity. Obviously, instances such as dying of old age are easier to occur in any place, but Whistle cleverly commits to the potential gruesomeness of its premise by mutilating bodies and contorting them to meet the expectations of death. Naturally, none of the film’s cursed teenagers have similar deaths, leaving Hardy and the visual effects team with plenty of room to get gnarly in the post-production.
Holding Whistle back is the fact that, as much as it eventually becomes a carnival of violence, it does spend an exorbitant amount of time treading water. The shorthand it utilizes somehow still takes up too much runtime. Weirdly, in the relationship between Chrys and Ellie (Nélisse), it seems like a film that moves inward rather than expands. No character feels more fleshed out than Chrys, and that’s because all of Ellie’s conversations with her seem designed to see why this is her struggle and not anyone else’s. A character who has faced death and is facing it again, Chrys is a perfect protagonist, but Whistle struggles because it doesn’t seem to care about anyone else affected by the curse.
Hardy has established himself as a massive horror fan since his feature debut, The Hallow, which remains his finest hour, aside from some of his work on the show Gangs of London. However, that love and adoration for the genre feels like it’s holding him back from delivering something truly wild. When Whistle hints at more ambitious ideas, it’s the kind of potential that can make any horror fan excited, but the problem is whether or not it will just be another cool idea dressed in another film’s clothing. His latest film might be brimming with potential, but what could be doesn’t trump what is. Whistle refuses to buck expectations, and as a result, it’s entertaining in the moment but frustrates with the taste of something better left in its wake.
