Watching a movie about an Aztec dying whistle is, I think about, much like the act of blowing an Aztec dying whistle: what else did you count on? It’s, admittedly, a schlocky, agreeably tasteless premise on which to construct a slice of teenybopper horror cheese – Whistle is a movie a few whistle that kills. Alter your expectations accordingly! However regardless of setting the bar manner down low within the pits of hell, Whistle barely crosses it.
Teenage recovering addict Chrys (Logan’s Dafne Eager, lastly in a lead position 9 years later) – born Chrysanthemum however she’s not like different women, you see – strikes to an overcast metal city within the wake of a private tragedy. Whistle isn’t brief on environment (it’s a uncommon fashionable horror that feels deliberately dourly lit) however relating to impactful scares it comes up empty.
Chrys arrives at her new college and instantly inherits a locker housing an historic Aztec dying whistle (If I had a penny…) Blow it, claims the compulsory exposition-spouting older lady (Michelle Fairley) in the beginning of act two, and your dying is introduced ahead. Fated to die of previous age? You’ll shrivel up on the spot. Purported to go away in a automobile crash? Your physique goes to be violently filleted in your bed room. It’s a curious twist on the Last Vacation spot idea that’s given some life by Corin Hardy’s intense, energetic path.
However Whistle is finally hamstrung by plasticky frights and limp characterisation. Eager begins off morose and stays morose because the grieving Chrys, and the movie clearly thinks it’s doing one thing by emphasising a thinly sketched romance between Chrys and the sweetest lady in school, Ellie (Sophie Nélisse). The pair are supported by a forged of Breakfast Membership knockoffs – the nerd (Sky Yang), the jock (Jhaleil Swaby), and the queen bee (Ali Skovbye) – who’re neither charming sufficient to mourn nor bitchy sufficient to detest.
Hardy peppers in Easter egg references to famous administrators – David Cronenberg, Paul Verhoeven and, uh, Andy Muschietti – so he’s clear about his influences, however poorly-rendered charred ghouls and decrepit crones can’t come near the evocative physique horror of his inspirations. Nicholas Emerson’s crisp modifying retains Whistle ticking alongside at a tremendous tempo nevertheless it’s all too po-faced. The dirty industrial city ripped from All of the Proper Strikes and the inclusion of a youth pastor who’s secretly a drug pusher (?) are amusingly retro particulars (there’s a sturdy ‘don’t do medication, youngsters!’ sentiment that feels largely unironic), however Whistle by no means lands on something memorable.
Greater than something, Whistle evokes 2017’s Want Upona equally weak, CGI-riddled horror a few haunted music field that additionally drew closely from 80s horror. Each movies take B‑film concepts and fail to provide them the suitable dose of camp and gross sensible results to essentially pop. There was room to do one thing ridiculous right here – it bears repeating: this can be a movie a few killer whistle. Why is it taking itself so severely?