Vague Visages’ Whistle review contains minor spoilers. Corin Hardy’s 2025 movie features Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse and Percy Hynes White. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Modern, mainstream horror tends to be toothless. In an effort to fill multiplexes on a Friday night, movies like The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) and Black Phone 2 (2025) sand down their edges to appeal to as many punters as possible, most of whom only watch horror so they can jump at the big quiet-quiet-BANG moments. Credit to Whistle, then, for being both gnarlier and riskier than the vast majority of studio horror movies (consider the 2024 film Night Swim, which debuted in cinemas around the same time and was quickly erased from our collective memories — for good reason). Much of that is down to director Corin Hardy, whose prior two releases — The Hallow (2015) and The Nun (2018)— showcase that he isn’t afraid to go dark, even when constrained by the higher-ups controlling the purse strings.

Appropriately opening with a blown whistle, Whistle at first feels like just another Friday night fright flick. Although the first death is rough — it looks like spontaneous combustion but is later dubiously attributed to a gas leak, despite taking place in a shower — the moment is addled by unconvincing CGI and a phantom that isn’t especially frightening or uniquely designed. Happily, this is Whistle’s weakest moment, with each subsequent death increasing in gruesomeness, gore and inventiveness. Hardy, working from a screenplay by Owen Egerton (Blood Fest, 2018), wisely subverts expectations by putting his worst foot forward first, so the only way to go is up.

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Whistle’s heroine is Dafne Keen (Logan, 2017), who provides “I’m a unique rebel” energy in an oversized army jacket and permanent glower while rocking a Lydia Deetz-style choppy haircut. To be fair, Chrys (short for Chrysanthemum) has actual trauma to justify her emo outlook; she’s a recovering drug addict whose father perished in a horrific car accident while trying to rush his overdosing teenage daughter to the hospital. Evidently, the character is struggling with the guilt of losing her dad due to her own bad behavior, so she generally keeps everybody at arm’s length, preferring to keep her head down and just trying to stay out of trouble. After relocating to a new town, Chrys is taken under the wing of a hyperactive but well-meaning cousin, Rel (Sky Yang), at the local high school.

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Rel nurses a crush on popular girl Grace (Grace Friedkin), who’s dating obnoxious jock Dean (Jhaleil Swaby). Rounding out this ragtag group is Ellie (Yellowjackets star Sophie Nélisse), who immediately catches Chrys’ eye. Hilariously, she wonders aloud whether Ellie is straight, even though she’s wearing a waistcoat, hinting that the girl is either queer or a die hard Diane Keaton fan, maybe both. Nick Frost also cameos as a teacher named Mr. Craven, while controversial Wednesday (2022-) star Percy Hynes-White does nasty work as a local evangelical preacher who moonlights as a drug dealer. It’s an interesting twist on a well-worn archetype, if a little on the nose, with the actor lurking on the periphery for much of Whistle to tempt Chrys into relapsing before his true nature comes into clearer view. Suffice it to say that Hynes-White makes an impression despite little screen time.

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Otherwise, Keen and Nélisse, and their characters’ burgeoning relationship, is Whistle’s main focus. The other kids are fleshed out enough that audiences will worry about their lives being in danger, but Chrys and Ellie are easily the most intriguing characters. It’s always nice to see a queer love story in a mainstream movie, but the fact that this one is front and center and involves the two leads, and biggest names on the call-sheet, is especially heartening. Fortunately, there are no titillating scenes to take away from the sweetness either. In fact, it’s treated the way any other romance would be. Hardy has his own striking and distinct visual language, which is most obvious in the death scenes, which are staged with operatic brilliance. Crucially, Whistle doesn’t cut away from the carnage either – it zooms in.

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The film’s premise loosely surrounds an Aztec whistle that accelerates the death of not just the blower but everyone within earshot of its horrible noise. This means that the visions of each person’s demise, which happen shortly before it actually occurs, are all different because they’re all personal. Likewise, the characters suffer injuries when they’re inflicted on their death avatars. Whistle obeys its own rules. So, even when it feels a bit hokey, the idea being played straight saves it from any sense of noxious self-importance. There are tons of cool visuals, including some Slayer-style raining blood (or Blade depending on your preference). Movie references abound but they’re subtle, whether it’s the aforementioned Mr. Craven, a box of Muschietti cigars, a kid sitting in the rain dressed like The Crow or a key sequence being set at the Verhoeven Steel Company. There’s definitely a bit of Adam Wingard’s unfairly maligned Death Note (2017) to it too, in both the styling and overall look.

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Björn Charpentier’s saturated cinematography captures the wintery Toronto (standing in for New York) landscape beautifully, giving Whistle a real old school feel. In an era of horribly televisual movies, it’s a welcome respite. This feels richer, more lived in, while the design of the whistle and the box that holds it is creepily evocative. Composer Doomphonic’s shuddering metal riffs, which increase in intensity as each death grows closer, complement the gloomy atmosphere. Slo-mo is utilized judiciously in Whistle’s more stylized moments but otherwise it’s relatively straightforward, with little humor. The script could stand to be punchier, with jokes about Google Translate being unreliable and the idea of acting “casual, not Kardashian” standing out amongst all the earnestness. But these are moody teens facing their rapidly impending deaths, so it makes sense that they’re not standing around trading quips. It’s another welcome change, in many ways.

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Egerton’s central idea is strong, and rooted in real-life mythology, which gives it some heft, but Hardy undoubtedly elevates and electrifies the material with his keen eye for staging the scariest moments for maximum impact — after all, horror fans can forgive a lot if the deaths are effective. But the pacing is noticeably off in Whistle, particularly considering it’s 100 minutes long. The movie feels rushed in parts, and viewers don’t really get to know the central group aside from Chrys and Ellie, which may be by design considering they’re the heart of the whole thing. One kid appears to be a regular drunk driver, while his parents are nonchalantly like “you should stop that, son!” It’s a jarring moment that exemplifies the surface-level characterization which, thankfully, doesn’t apply to the two leads. Keen is utterly believable as a struggling addict, imbuing what could’ve been a one-note character with real depth and emotion. It’s a winning performance from an actor steadily coming into her own as an adult.

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When considered among the current horror slate, Whistle is relatively throwaway fare. Competently made and performed, it has a few tricks up its sleeve but won’t exactly be changing the game like Oscar nominees Sinners (2025) and Weapons (2025). At the same time, when it comes to modern, mainstream, multiplex horror, Whistle is considerably more exciting than 99% of what clogs up theaters on an average Friday night. It’s got plenty of heart, soul and ingenuity, and Hardy’s film isn’t afraid to get nasty either. If nothing else, Whistle bodes well for the future of studio horror.

Whistle releases theatrically on February 6, 2026.

Joey Keogh (@JoeyLDG) is a writer from Dublin, Ireland with an unhealthy appetite for horror movies and Judge Judy. In stark contrast with every other Irish person ever, she’s straight edge. Hello to Jason Isaacs. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film reviews at Vague Visages.

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