Teenagers die violently in “Whistle,” a disappointing supernatural chiller about an ancient, cursed whistle and the high schoolers who soon regret breathing on it. The whistle in question is an Aztec musical instrument that forces both the user and any listeners to “summon your death,” according to the whistle’s inscription. This time, the whistle’s victims are a handful of Pellington High School’s seniors, who mostly don’t deserve what’s coming to them in this post-“Final Destination” potboiler. So what’s the point of all this by-the-numbers carnage?
Director Corin Hardy (“The Nun“) conspicuously tease viewers with their genre movie influences by scattering lame Easter egg callouts throughout, like a box of Muschietti Cigars, a sign for the Verhoeven Steel plant, and even a stuffy teacher named Mr. Craven (Nick Frost). But nothing in “Whistle” feels as distinct or as urgent as the best aspects of those filmmakers’ signature projects, not even the effective jump scares and grasping teen drama of the Andy Muschietti-helmed “It” movie adaptations.
“Whistle” follows a bunch of sympathetic-looking characters who either conform to or negligibly rebel against stereotypes before getting stalked and picked off by the grim specter of death. Some of them die expressively, with their limbs snapping and their bodies liquefying into a computer-generated slurry. But then it’s on to the next kid, and for no other reason than because that’s what’s expected of this type of movie.
Even “Whistle”’s most likable misfit protagonists tweak rather than subvert the generic patterns of behavior that they ultimately conform to. Rumors swirl around Chrys (Dafne Keen), who loves “old” music, like Cobretti and Megadeth, and maybe kicked a drug habit and also killed her father, too. Nobody seems to care that much about her, though, not even the leering jock Dean (Jhaleil Swaby) or his nice, but unavailable girlfriend Grace (Ali Skovbye).
Chrys also has two constant companions throughout her death-whistle-related trials, her geeky but loyal cousin Rel (Sky Yang) and her potential love interest Ellie (Sophie Nélisse). Too bad that everybody hears the same whistle, so their personalities stop developing right after we meet them. Circumstantial peril comes first, as well as a few equally undeveloped plot-thickening twists. If you like these characters, it’s mostly because these young cast members sometimes make them seem believable. They don’t have much chemistry with each other, which makes it harder to care when Chrys makes a pass at Ellie or when Rel tries to impress Grace.
Like a number of ostensibly distinguishing traits, Chrys’s haunted past only hints at darker concerns than the filmmakers choose to pursue. So “Whistle” only comes alive during its well-mounted and appreciably grisly kill scenes. The rest feels like empty window dressing for a familiar story that’s squarely pitched at the easily distracted.
Everybody gracelessly spells out their concerns like they just want to get to whatever comes next, though it’s hard to see why, given how little care or concern is shown for the characters’ oft-hinted-at inner lives. Even the filmmakers don’t seem to care that this is Ellie and the gang’s last year before graduation, as she reminds Chrys right before inviting the new girl to the Annual Pellington Harvest Festival. It’s also hard to know why or if Rel’s infatuation with Grace is meaningful to him based on the way he tugs at his flask or talks to her with incredible bravado. The rest of that connection is dropped almost as soon as it’s hinted at.
Maybe you, like me, want to root for Chrys and Ellie, especially after seeing Chrys write out and then delete a few possible text message replies to Ellie’s Harvest Festival invitation. It’s a cute scene, but that’s mostly it for Chrys, unless you count when she perfunctorily explains her hangups, which are sadly not as compelling or as lurid as one might hope. It’s also not really important for what happens next to Ellie and Chrys, leaving one to wonder why these high schoolers must remember that some day, they, too, must expire.
Ironically, the varying ways that kids are murdered in “Whistle” is its most compelling and under-utilized conceit. Anybody who hears the whistle also prematurely faces the end that they would have otherwise encountered later on in their lives. Sadly, only a handful of these characters’ deaths reflect back on them. If anything, the best kills in this movie are the ones that throw that central premise out the window and focus on delivering more graphic splatter.
This might have been a better movie if its creators embraced their fitful bloodthirst. Instead, they seem to hope that you like these stock characters enough that you’ll gasp when their friends and enemies inevitably bite the dust. A machine to kill vague people, “Whistle” never delivers on its frightful promise.
