I’ve seen many inanimate objects become the catalyst for horror movies: killer ceramic hands (Talk to Me), killer jar of dirt (It Lives Inside), and killer music box (Wish Upon). Never did I think we’d get to killer whistles. In Corin Hardy’s gory and silly supernatural film Whistle, starring Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse, a group of high schoolers are in possession of a skull-shaped Aztec whistle that summons your own death through an apparition of yourself once you blow it. Despite the film’s lack of originality, there’s at least a fresh leading sapphic romance and some solid kills.
After her father’s death, grunge teen Chrys (Keen) moves to a small town and inherits the locker of Mason (Stephen Kalyn), a high school basketball star who died mysteriously after blowing an Aztec whistle. When the whistle resurfaces among a group of misfit students — including Ellie (Nelisse), Grace (Ali Skovbye), and Dean (Jhaleil Swaby) — a piercing blast marks them for death, and their group begins dying one by one. As Chrys and Ellie grow closer, they race to uncover the whistle’s origin and stop the curse before it claims them next.
We’ve seen this kind of horror movie many times over. This one is very reminiscent of Final Destination and Nightmare on Elm Street but without the joy of seeing the Grim Reaper go on a Rube Goldberg machine streak or a Freddy Krueger-like foe. With Whistle, you’re mostly there for the kills. Some of the frights vary from gore-fests without any real tension buildup to solid, dreamlike horror fire rivaling that of Freddy Krueger. However, it is more effectively executed in terms of its practical effects than its CG components.
The performances are also subject to the same sentiment, as some of the side players, such as Skovbye and Swaby, are middling in their efforts. Their performances are sometimes campy, which gives the film a cheesy B-movie quality. But Hardy’s script and tone are excessively self-serious, which results in their performances feeling awkward.
But Whistle is truly carried by Keen’s Chrys and her cutesy romance with Ellie. When Chrys gets to school, Ellie falls in love right away and goes into girlfriend-knight mode until she becomes her girlfriend. Ellie puts in the work to make Chrys hers. Chrys’s occasional gay panics to her cousin Rel lead to some of the film’s best moments, and attempts at humor here land.
Their romance is underdeveloped and rushed considering it all takes place in the matter of days. Chrys even shares with Ellie how they only met briefly after they shared their first kiss. Still, Keen and Nélisse have a sweet on-screen chemistry bolstered by their charisma that keeps their angsty teen dialogue alive, despite all the death in their character’s orbit.
Seeing a sincere teen lesbian sapphic romance put front and center of a horror film and making a concerted effort to have them support each other quite affectionately is refreshing. It’s not that new, as the Fear Street Trilogy and Bodies Bodies Bodies fit in that canon. But the wlw-horror-led pack is already so limited, so it’s nice to have an added entry.
Plus, it’s funny to see Sophie Nélisse finally have a successful gay love story in a film for herself for once, amid Shauna in Yellowjackets being confirmed bisexual last year and, of course, Landry in Heated Rivalry being the supportive straight girlie amid an MLM relationship. She worked so hard, and this movie really gives the Nélisse sapphic hive what they want and deserve. Even if it’s under a mediocre, tonally confused and mediocre horror flick.
