The million-dollar question is: if you had a chance to know when and the manner in which you would die, would you take a peek? A tempting proposition, but admittedly a bit anxiety-inducing. If one were to refer to the “Final Destination” series principle, avoiding that log-carrying truck on the highway will only work for so long. Death will eventually get you, and that fear is an easy theme for horror films to bank on. Who isn’t afraid of death, right?
In Corin Hardy’s “Whistle,” the horror film bends the formula and repackages it with splashes of “The Ring” and “It Follows.” If the life of a high school student wasn’t stressful enough, an Aztec death whistle appears in a small Chicago town to make matters worse. The film’s opening sequence, featuring a star basketball player, lays out the basic parameters of the curse. Let’s say you blow the whistle. Eventually, some other worldly presence will come after you. As the death scene in “Whistle’s” first minutes shows, a rather horrible end awaits. It’s not so much that there’s a demon causing all of this; instead, it’s your future self. Yes, the physical manifestation in which you are going to die is the manner in which you meet your maker. That premise is Hardy’s strength – the director imbues many demented scenarios inspired by Freddy Krueger’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” hellscapes.
“Whistle” / Photo Credit: IFC Films
But as the thrills unfold in this 97-minute package, Owen Egerton’s story neither elevates nor detracts from the film. The characters have just enough archetypal fiber to be fodder for the evil. Chrys (Dafne Keen) has moved in with her cousin, Rel (Sky Yang), in the aftermath of a personal tragedy concerning her father’s death. In looking for a brand new start, she’s also trying to leave addiction and guilt behind. Chrys’s start at the new high school begins a little rough. High school varsity jock Dean (Jhaleil Swaby) has heard about her story and decides to taunt her with it. She and a few other students, including Dean’s girlfriend Grace (Ali Skovbye), Chrys’s romantic interest Ellie (Sophie Nelisse), Rel, and Dean, end up in detention with the rather ornery teacher, Mr. Craven (Nick Frost).
That’s not before Chrys discovers something in her locker – once in the possession of deceased basketball player Mason (Stephen Kalyn). There appears to be an urn with Mayan symbols and writing all over it. Inside is the dreaded whistle. After a brief informational overlay about the object, the mayhem begins. People seem to be entranced by the whistle; they blow it, and you might as well have signed your own death warrant. Thereinlies the highs of this film, where Hardy and Björn Charpentier’s cinematography seek to display the sheer mercilessness of this phenomenon in different stretches. However, there isn’t much emotional investment in wanting a particular character’s outcome to be positive.
“Whistle” / Photo Credit: IFC Films
Affection develops between Chrys and Ellie, but it serves as an intermission between the rising body count. Noah (Percy Hynes White), a minor antagonist, is a youth pastor who doubles as a drug dealer. His purpose is to pop up from time to time and tempt Chrys to fall back to her own ways. Mason’s grandmother (Michelle Fairley) exists for the sole fact that “Whistle” needs more information about the point of origin of the cursed object. When she appears, Fairley’s character also gives general ruminations about death. At one point, Chrys asks, “What if I don’t want to die?” to which she remarks, “Then you shouldn’t have been born.” Touche!
Whether it be a hooded figure with a long scythe or an undead girl crawling out of a television, death will always be a perennial figure in horror. It’s inevitable, but like a well-timed jumpscare, the possibility feels like an unrelenting monster — at times, revealing that it can do its worst when you least expect it to. “Whistle” shows flashes of a fun play on reaper-involved themes built before it, but leaves much of the lore and character development by the wayside. There’s a way not to explain things where the allure of the mystery entices you to want more. The film plays a cat-and-mouse game, trying to elicit more explanation but quickly opting for another gruesome sequence – a reflex in which the dog eventually catches the car too many times.
