‘Whistle’ is a 2026 cursed object horror film written by Owen Egerton, directed by Corin Hardy, and starring Dafne Keen, Sophie Nelisse, Alissa Skovbye, Sky Yang, Jhaleil Swaby, and Nick Frost. Kind of wild seeing Nick Frost pop up in here as the a-hole teacher ‘Mr. Craven’…get it, like Wes Craven? This movie was full of little horror Easter eggs like that. I just feel like any time I see Nick Frost he’s usually in a buddy role with Simon Pegg, but there was no Pegg to be found in this movie so honestly it took me a second to place him. I recognized his face immediately though and was like “God, who is that?!”, but I figured it out, and before you even think it yes, it was without having to Google it. I review movies online and consider myself a film (especially horror) fan, so give me a little bit of credit here. Dafne Keen was the star of the show though as ‘Chrys’. She’s probably best known for her roles in ‘Logan’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’, but she also stars in the HBO show ‘His Dark Materials’, so this was kind of like her breakout role as the lead in a film and I think she understood what her character was meant to be and played it pretty well. I also recognized Sophie Nelisse immediately as the girl who plays the young version of Shauna in the TV show ‘Yellowjackets’ and while I always disliked Shauna as a character, I can’t deny the girl’s acting ability in portraying her. You’re not supposed to like Shauna and Sophie knows it. It was kind of funny seeing her play ‘Ellie’ in this film though, because she’s so sweet and understanding and caring in this movie, compared to the hate-able role she fills in ‘Yellowjackets’.
The movie revolves around a cursed Aztec Death Whistle. Honestly, pretty neat. It’s hard to believe in all the horror films I’ve seen that this is the first time that this whistle has been used, at least that I’ve seen. I’m a bit of a history nerd so I was already somewhat acquainted with the lore behind the Aztec Death Whistle, but if you’re not aware it’s this ancient whistle carved out of wood or stone to look like a human face or a skull and the Aztecs used them. What for? Not entirely certain since it’s such ancient history, but likely for either ceremonial or warfare purposes, or maybe even both. If you’ve never heard one though, I don’t even know how to describe the sound fully but it’s horrifying. It sounds like an almost inhuman scream of terror or pain, like a screaming banshee, and it’s enough to make the hairs on your arms stand on end. I truly don’t know what twisted Aztec designed or discovered this, but it’s kind of crazy to think that it’s so ancient and so terrifying. The first Aztec to make or blow into one of those things was probably like “WTF?!” and just HAD to show someone else. Anyways, before I get too carried away in Aztec lore, that was the catalyst for the horror in this film. The story goes; your death is searching for you from the moment that you are born and if blow into this cursed whistle (that seeks you out, you don’t seek it out), then that allows your death to locate you early and take you. So, if you were to die at 88 of old age but you blow that whistle at 19…tough luck buddy because now your decrepit 88-year-old self is going to track you down and take you. Super neat and led to a lot of intrigue along the way as you started to figure out what each character’s death was meant to be.
The film had plenty of similarities to the ‘Final Destination’ films obviously with the concept that death was the killer in this film hunting you down to take you, but they added their own twist by making the death an actual entity that comes to find you and that entity actually being you, which I really liked. The writer and director pair also said they pulled some inspiration from other films like ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and things like that and I could see that as well. Donnie because the main character ‘Chrys’ is similar to him in ways, dark & mysterious and the newcoming outsider that gets gossiped on and bullied for various things. Chrys has a very checkered past though that plays into her story so that adds a certain level of angst and sadness to her character as well. ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ felt like it was someone’s favorite movie in this writer/director crew and that was mainly due to Easter eggs and references, the biggest I already mentioned being ‘Mr. Craven’, but there were songs played throughout that appeared in Nightmare movies as well and the high school setting gave some reminiscent vibes to all those teen high school horror films of the past also. I enjoyed that while feeling nostalgic and kind of similar to things you had already seen in the past in ways, it still found ways to be different and carve its own path in horror as well.
They also do not skimp out on the death sequences in this movie either. Some are obviously more potent than others, but this is Rated-R level violence for sure, and a couple of these deaths specifically are pretty well-done and crazy. It’s a bit twisted as a horror fan to say you enjoy those sequences or think they’re cool, but we all do to a point. I just appreciate the detail and the effort in the sequence itself a lot of the time, plus if it’s something interesting and new then it’s going to stick with me more as well. It’s kind of strange though because from what you can see online it’s decently positive reviews for this movie, not flying off the chain crazy good, but middling and you can take that for a horror film. 64% from audiences and 54% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 5.2/10 on IMDb. Again, not great but at least acceptable, but a lot of the movie reviewers I watch and listen to on YouTube did not seem too impressed with this movie and I can accept that, but I can’t place why they didn’t like it. Some of the story was LIKE things we’ve seen before, but it was different enough in concept and character to feel original and I honestly had a good time with it myself.
That’ll just about do it for this one though folks! ‘Whistle’ is available to watch now on Shudder, but if you don’t have Shudder don’t worry because I’m sure in this day and age it’ll drop onto other streaming services soon enough if you just stay on the lookout. Speaking of, stay on the lookout for my latest posts by liking the page on social media if you haven’t already or coming back to elisupdatez.com because I upload new posts weekly. Thanks for the read and until next time, be good to one another!
