'Whistle' (2025)

Relocating to a new high school following as yet undisclosed past traumatic event, young Chrys (Dafne Keen) finds herself lost and alone. Inheriting a locker from star basketball player Mason “Horse” Raymore (Stephen Kalyn), Chrys becomes entwined in ancient and mysterious machinations as she finds an urn containing an ancient Aztec death whistle.

Opening on a high school basketball game, star athlete Mason is haunted by visions of a charred spectre. After winning the game, the young man is promptly accosted and overwhelmed by the man on fire, setting him alight to his death. Not dawdling, ‘Whistle’ holds up zero false pretenses and instantly reveals its hand. Delivering a so-so CGI monster, loud jump scares and predictable tropes, it’s like the film almost invites one to accept what they have bought a ticket for and ease into the supernatural teen deaths that are sure to follow.

Wasting no time, we’re introduced to gloomy Chrys on her way to her new home living with her cousin Rel (Sky Yang). Speeding through a slew of formalities, i.e. the hazing of the new girl, unrequited crushes and arbitrary detention, Chrys finds herself surrounded by a disposable group of youngsters.

As the title promises, the eponymous whistle quickly makes its appearance. Unavoidably the instrument is used, presumably due to its supernatural call, beckoning whoever is willing to listen, to blow it. All in the group hear it and start experiencing visions of figures following them.

Finding out the next day that the teacher who was also interested in the whistle, Mr. Craven (Nick Frost) had perished the night before, Chrys and her new friend (and crush) Ellie (Sophie Nélisse) trace the origins of the whistle to Mason’s grandmother Ivy (Michelle Fairley).

Following a very useful expositional history lesson from Ivy, the two learn they have summoned their deaths and their time will expire once it catches up to them, long before they were actually due to die. A little bit more inconsistent than rules laid down in other supernatural teen slashers, such as ‘It Follows’ (2014), the spectres of death don’t pursue each victim at a consistent pace or follow any restrictions, rather appearing whenever the plot demands it.

The girls also learn that they will meet their doom as they would have originally, i.e. one of the group, Gracie (Ali Skovbye), being haunted by an elderly lady, - she eventually dies of old age in seconds. Chrys and Ellie realise they can escape death by briefly dying and decide to induce death and revive each other.

Not all goes according to plan as they are hunted by B-story bad guy Noah (Percy Hynes White) who inadvertently offers himself up as sacrifice to the spectre of death, thereby allowing Ellie to escape her premature death. Just moments prior, Chrys is brought back to life as she fights to survive, not to defeat death, but to have the opportunity to live.

Perhaps a little too heavy with the philosophy lesson towards the end of the feature, the girls manage to escape their untimely passing, surprisingly concluding on a very positive note. Unsurprisingly, the film allows itself to indulge in one last final trope, - just before the credits roll, a new student can be seen holding the whistle, beckoned by its call.

A post credit scene shows that same student, in preparation for a performance in front of the whole student body. Whipping out the death whistle, Chrys and Ellie scream and plead for it not to be blown, . . . as it’s being blown, dooming the entire high school to their deaths.

Almost unable to help themselves, the creative team have crammed the feature so full of familiar and overused clichés, that they almost completely drown out the fun and novel concepts stood alongside the tired tropes.

Keen radiates teenage angst and a dark, sombre past. Contrasted starkly by the bright new light in her life, Nélisse completes the pair and the duo head out together, making each other stronger and more well equipped to deal with whatever darkness haunts them. An unexpectedly pleasant element, the budding romance between the two girls does not detract from the story and works in its favour to deliver a heartfelt through line to what mostly amounts to predictable trope-slop.

Another thing the film has going for it are its gruesome deaths. With each unlucky character meeting their untimely demise, their death will occur as it has been fated. A few of the more memorable ones being a student experiencing a car crash suspended in air, with each bone breaking and vessel popping, the film delivers some of the most spectacular and innovative deaths seen on screen. Credit where credit is due, being haunted by your own death and then experiencing being shredded by empty air hits different, more visceral and gruesome.

A novel concept on the whole, ‘Whistle’ adds a little something new to the table. Going beyond a possessed doll or a ghost summoning board game, ‘Whistle’ introduces mainstream horror viewers to less explored concepts, with the creatives behind the film twisting the folklore to fit their warped imaginations and deliver something truly delectable. Novel, yet drowned in a sea of mediocrity, ‘Whistle’ has unique ideas lost in the shadows of cheap and familiar tropes.

Score: 2/4