Whistle (15)

New girl Chrys Willet arrives in the close-knit steel mill town of Pellington to live with her cousin Rel. She inherits the locker of a student, who perished in disturbing circumstances, and on the top shelf is an engraved vessel containing a skull-shaped artefact. One of the teachers, Mr Craven, identifies the curious trinket as an Aztec death whistle that can purportedly summon the dearly departed. Classmate Grace foolishly blows the whistle in earshot of boorish boyfriend Dean and pals.

LondonNet Film Review

Whistle (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Death comes to us all and in director Corin Hardy’s high school horror, it’s summoned far earlier than anticipated by blowing an ancient Aztec whistle that has a nasty habit of reappearing in the lockers of unsuspecting students who attend Pellington High School. Screenwriter Owen Egerton has a blast imagining gruesome endings for ill-fated characters, beginning rather tamely in a boys’ changing room before ramping up the gore to pulverise and eviscerate nubile bodies until they resemble little more than pulped flesh and bone…

New girl Chrys Willet (Dafne Keen) arrives in the close-knit steel mill town of Pellington to live with her cousin Rel (Sky Yang), carrying with her an unfortunate reputation as a recovering drug addict who killed her father. The truth about her tragic past is more nuanced but Chrys is determined to start afresh. She inherits the locker of a student, who perished in disturbing circumstances, and on the top shelf is an engraved vessel containing a skull-shaped artefact. One of the teachers, Mr Craven (Nick Frost), identifies the curious trinket as an Aztec death whistle that can purportedly summon the dearly departed.

Classmate Grace (Ali Skovbye) foolishly blows the whistle in earshot of boorish boyfriend Dean (Jhaleil Swaby), Chrys, Rel and Chrys’s crush Ellie (Sophie Nelisse). A local woman (Michelle Fairley) with knowledge of the whistle reveals the five students will soon come face-to-face with their own grisly demises. Try as they might, they won’t be able to outrun these terrifying phantoms. Regardless, Chris, Rel and the gang work together to evade death’s icy grip. Meanwhile, local pastor Noah Haggerty (Percy Hynes White) peddles drugs to his young flock and is partially responsible for a steadily escalating death toll of minors.

Whistle puts its lips together and blows out a gentle storm of squelchy special effects and teen angst, appropriating themes and elements from It Follows, Flatliners and Final Destination to condemn named characters to an inglorious exit. Some parting moments are wickedly imaginative and laden with gore. The central quintet including Keen’s gloomy outsider don’t feel fully formed but there is sufficient character development to warrant mild concern for students’ wellbeing. It’s easy to predict who stands the greatest chance of survival.

Hardy peppers the screen with visual Easter Eggs to honour favourite horror directors: Verhoeven Steel, Muschietti Cigars and, of course, teacher Mr Craven, an affectionate nod to the much-missed mastermind behind The Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes and the Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream franchises. Whistle can’t sit comfortably in that exalted company but it doesn’t suck.
– Kim Hu