By George & Josh Bate
Clearly, the characters in Whistle have never seen a horror movie before. You stumble upon an ancient Aztec death whistle and decide to whistle into it?!?! What could go wrong?
Making its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025, Whistle comes from director Corin Hardy (The Nun) and writer Owen Egerton (Blood Fest). The film stars Dafne Keen (Logan, The Acolyte) as Chrysanthemum, a troubled teen who moves in with her cousin (Sky Yang) after the death of her father. Shortly after arriving, Chrys and a group of other high school students (Yellowjacket’s Sophie Nélisse, Once Upon a Time‘s Ali Skovbye, and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping‘s Jhaleil Swaby) come across an ancient Aztec death whistle and decide to blow into it. What they don’t initially realize is that they’ve just summoned their own deaths. As bodies drop one-by-one, the teens investigate the relic’s history in an effort to prevent their deaths.
Whistle is clearly not the first cursed object horror movie (look no further than Talk to Me, Christine, Occulus, and so on), but Corin Hardy’s film does something a bit different with the longstanding horror trope. Blending cursed object movies like Talk to Me with Final Destination, Whistle achieves a degree of novelty through the simple, solid mythology that drives the story forward. Essentially, the death whistle works like this: if you blow into the relic and hear its whistle, the death that you’re supposed to experience at some point in the future arrives early. For instance, if you’re destined to die by being burned alive in decades time, the timeline of your death will expedite and you will be burned alive now. It’s a slight, yet clever spin on the cursed object trope that clearly draws upon Final Destination in having its teen leads try to prevent the deaths they are destined to endure. A tight script from Owen Egerton ensures that the rules of the death whistle are expressed succinctly and clearly, subverting any issues in being bogged down by convoluted mythology.
The rules of the Aztec death whistle entail the teens succumb to a variety of gruesome deaths. Mirroring the variety of ways in which actual people die, Whistle features an array of creative kills that escalate in their brutality over the course of the runtime. Some people die from old age, others die from gunshot wounds, and others die from car crashes. In turn, each death in Whistle takes on an identity of its own, which gives them a certain novelty. Hardy executes each kill sequence with incredible usage of An American Werewolf in London-esque practical effects that make the deaths all the more impactful, and often personifies the death that arrives early for the teens. In other terms, if a character is destined to die by fire, they are plagued by visions of themselves burned alive before their burned future self embraces their present self and kills them. In addition to the unique fusion of Final Destination and Talk to Me, Whistle retains uniqueness above-and-beyond the average cursed object flick through its range of innovative kills.
The victims of these innovative kills fulfill just about every archetype for a high school horror movie. There’s the asshole jock, the beautiful girl, the nerd, the more reclusive goth, and so on. For the most part, these characters serve as cannon fodder for the whistle, although Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse’s leads stand out amongst the bunch. After awkwardly exchanging glances of interest at the first, the two embark on a sweet queer romance that unfolds over the film. Sure, it’s a bit corny and run-of-the-mill, but Keen and Nélisse have chemistry lovely enough to make it endearing and believable. Keen’s character is the darker, lost girl haunted by her past, while Nélisse’s has everything put together and her life planned out. The juxtaposition of their backgrounds and personalities makes for a fun romance that imbues the film with a much-needed, albeit slight, heart.
The effective performances from Keen and Nélisse are unfortunately bogged down by an overuse of ADR (automated dialogue replacement). A throwaway line here and there is easily forgiven, but Whistle goes overboard with its extensive use of blatantly obvious lines of dialogue added in post-production.
Although Whistle is scheduled to hit theaters in February 2026, the film wonderfully embraces the Halloween holiday to cultivate a spooky, autumnal atmosphere. Hardy takes advantage of the Halloween setting by populating his film with pumpkins, decorations, fallen leaves, a corn maze, and Halloween carnival. Doing so sees Whistle feel decidedly more atmospheric and renders it perfect viewing in October (despite the perplexing February release).
The only detraction from the spooky atmosphere is an occasionally ill-fitting score from Doomphonic. Whistle marks the group’s first film score, which, for the most part, works well in establishing stakes and contributing to spooky scenes. During scarier scenes, however, Doomphonic employ electronic, almost rave-like music that detracts from the intensity of the scares. It’s certainly a unique decision for a horror movie, but one that doesn’t quite pay off.
After wrapping up in rather satisfactory fashion, Whistle concludes with an exciting, must-see mid-credits scene that perfectly lays the foundation for a sequel (should that ever come to fruition). The mid-credits scene, much like the tag at the end of Smile 2, goes grander with the film’s concept, ramps up the stakes significantly, and leaves one wanting to know how the next chapter of this story unfolds.
VERDICT: 7/10
Premiering at this year’s Fantastic Fest, Whistle fuses Final Destination and cursed object films like Talk to Me to make a solid, engaging horror flick. Corin Hardy’s third feature sports simple, yet clever mythology surrounding its cursed object, which opens the door to a variety of gruesome kills. The victims of these kills fulfill pretty much every high school horror movie archetype you can think of, although Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse excel with their delivery of a sweet queer romance between two decidedly different individuals. Set during Halloween, Hardy takes full advantage of the holiday setting to cultivate a spooky, autumnal atmosphere that is only detracted by the ill-fitting use of electronic, almost rave-like music during some of its scare sequences. After the main narrative wraps up in satisfactory fashion, an exciting mid-credits scene akin to Smile 2‘s goes grander with the film’s concept and left us wanting to know how the next chapter of this story unfolds. On the surface, Whistle lacks novelty as yet another cursed object horror movie focused on high school students. But, more fundamentally, the film intelligently draws upon a variety of influences to tell a unique and interesting tale that will make for great spooky season viewing.
Whistle is in theaters February 6, 2026
