Horror films have become so challenging over the decades. Ever since HALLOWEEN (1978) created this boon in imitators and admirers, horror fans such as myself will always go into films with an anticipation of wondering where the key kills and scares could happen.
As Alfred Hitchcock once stated, it is not so much about the gore and scares that are the key, but how much information you provide the audience. Ambiguity is more allowed in horror than any other genre and you can get away with things a lot more than you can in other genres.
Corin Hardy‘s new film WHISTLE utilises the classic tropes of high school horror in a canvas that has been a staple of the genre ever since Sissy Spacek got doused with pig’s blood at the prom in the original CARRIE (1976), through films like HALLOWEEN, to the likes of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) and the original SCREAM (1996) which yields a seventh entry this year with some of the original participants.
Why this setting continues to be such a magnet for film-makers when it comes to blood-soaked carnage is a wonder, but it still can yield some freshness, as it does here.
The elements are there – a group of misfit students, the new troubled girl in town, the ‘Jock n’ Jills’ out in force to make said new girl, in this case lesbian student Chrys (Dafne Keen), suffering from major trauma having been sectioned, but she does try and fit in.
A youth pastor, Noah Haggerty (Percy Hynes White) wants to introduce Chrys to the virtues of enlightenment in pill form, but he is rebuffed. The school is suffering from tragedy when a basketball player is immollated after a game by a mystery figure summoned by a black ‘Aztec Death Whistle‘ a few months before Chrys arrives.
The same whistle appears in Chrys’ locker, which happens to have been owned by the said victim. When an altercation happens between Chrys and another student, detention beckons for all concerned courtesy of the sleazy Mr Craven (Nick Frost), who confiscates said whistle and wants to sell it for profit. Unfortunately, he touches it and gets cursed himself.
The item in this story soon becomes the link between enlightenment and survival as Chrys and the others try to figure out what it truly is…
Highly effective contemporary horror with one or two moments that had the preview audience cheering in terms of shock value, proving that there is still life in this type of tale. Hardy certainly knows how to manipulate the audience and WHISTLE utilises its’ simple premise to maximum effect.
Hindsight might make you think about a flaw or two, but in the viewing zone let the enjoyment of the horror genre run free.
WHISTLE opens in the UK on February 13th, 2026.
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