Whistle
Starting over is never easy; for orphaned recovering drug addict Chrys, just moved in with her cousin Rel and transferring in to Pellington High School as a senior, her reputation preceding her and somewhat embellished, she is already a target even before she finds her new locker once belonged to the basketball star who died in strange circumstances.
Jobsworth teacher Mister Craven more interested in handing out punishment than determining the cause of the trouble, with an eye for antiquities and a quick profit he is also easily distracted, letting detention end early so he can flog the “Aztec Death Whistle” Chrys found among the discarded items in the locker, the carvings on it supposedly allowing whoever uses it to speak to the dead, though a more correct translation warns that it summons death.
Written with glee by Blood Fest’s Owen Egerton and directed by The Nun’s Corin Hardy, Whistle follows in the bloody vein of high teen mortality horrors Final Destination and It Follows, anyone who has heard the shrill tone of the titular relic cursed to be stalked by the embodiment of their own eventual fate brought forward to meet them early, be it drunk driving, the ravages of old age or cancer or spontaneous human combustion.
With Logan’s Dafne Keen the sad eyed Goth chick called Chrysanthemum who connects with departed dad through his vinyl collection of Iron Maiden and Killing Joke, premature death is the price of hanging with the kewl kidz who in the space of a day went from bullying her to a late night pool / homework hangout with demonic party favours, while back in class Black Cab’s Nick Frost has a terminal visitation from his own expiry date.
Trying too hard in the opening act, offering generic high school horror by the numbers, Whistle improves enormously as it settles down and give the characters a chance to breathe (their last), the friendship between Chrys and Ellie (Sophie Nélisse) genuine even if it is unbelievable her after school job is working the nurse’s station in the local hospital, though youth pastor drug dealer Noah (Percy Hynes White) never evolves beyond tattooed bad boy.
The kids all owning cars yet only Dean (Jaleil Swaby) having parents, adult supervision of any kind is minimal though Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley pops up to offer deathbed exposition on the origin of the whistle, actually of Olmec origin, yet for all its derivative cliches Whistle moves at a respectable pace once it finds its feet at the Harvest Festival, trying to outrun or find a way to cheat death until the final curtain call.
Whistle is currently on general release
