When “Whistle” starts, it’s hard to know exactly when we’re supposed to be – we’re at a high school basketball game, and the court is a little dingy and dark. It feels a bit like the 1990s, but some things also feel a little not of this world. For example, one of the basketball teams’ mascots is “the stalkers,” and I spent an inexcusably long time thinking one of the players’ last names was “Horse.” Apparently, at this school, they put nicknames on the backs of jerseys (who does that?).
This sounds like a dig, but I appreciate the decision to create a world that feels like it can only exist in a horror movie. Directed by Corin Hardy, “Whistle” attempts to do just that, following in the stylization footsteps of a movie like “The Faculty,” or, more recently, something like “Riverdale” – really taking a page out of the Kevin Williamson/Greg Berlanti book. “Whistle” is not quite as successful as either of those properties, but it has solid performances and enough gnarly kills to be a good time.
After a cold open where Horse (also known as Mason) is killed by a mysterious figure who appears to have been burnt to a crisp, we fast forward six months and meet Chrys (Dafne Keen), a too-cool-for-school, all-black-wearing teen who has just moved to town after the sudden passing of her father. She discovers a mysterious, ancient whistle in her locker, which – surprise, surprise – used to be Mason’s locker. While hanging out with her cousin Rel (Sky Lang) and his friends one night, one of them blows the whistle. Evil like the town has never seen before is unleashed, and the kids start dropping one by one.
Although, this town is pretty evil in its own right. “Whistle” deals in plenty of teen movie tropes – you have popular girl Grace (Ali Skovbye), the jock Dean (Jhaleil Swaby), and the girl-next-door, Ellie (Sophie Nélisse). But everything in “Whistle” is tilted just a little off of the mainstream, a little sillier and darker than you might expect. Yes, this is a world where our alternative main character listens to The Smashing Pumpkins (I didn’t figure out this film took place in modern times until a very conspicuous Olivia Rodrigo needledrop), and all the jocks are constantly wearing their letterman jackets. But, this is also a world where Chrys’ cousin Rel’s after school job is hard labor at the local steel mill. This is also a world where a youth pastor named Noah (Percy Hynes White) sells drugs to children while wearing a bolo tie.
In short, “Whistle” isn’t afraid to get a little goofy. The dialogue doesn’t hit at the same level of the movies and shows that it’s riffing on, and it has a level of earnestness to it that doesn’t match the type of camp you might be used to with something like this. But it mostly makes up for that lack in its performances and kills.
Keen, best known for her work in “Logan” and “His Dark Materials,” is the best out of the group at carrying a bit of a wink in her performance while not compromising on her character’s darkness. Chrys is a very recognizable character. Lonely kid, a little anti-social, kind of goth – think Clea Duvall in “The Faculty.” But, from a young age, Keen has been able to project a real sense of toughness, a guardedness that makes it feel like she has lived a hard life. That hard quality plays nicely off girl-next-door Ellie’s openness, and Keen and Nélisse have sweet chemistry (unlike Clea Duvall’s character in “The Faculty,” Chrys is actually gay).
“Whistle” takes its time in ramping up each kill scene, and the cold open is probably the one that falls the most flat – not exactly what you want from the thing that’s supposed to draw you into the film. But, as the stakes get higher, and the teens figure out what, exactly, the whistle has called forth, the deaths start to become gnarlier, with plenty of gore and spatter to go around. There is nothing really surprising about “Whistle,” which makes some of the exposition scenes feel a little slow. In general, the film works best when the filmmakers let loose a little bit – allowing the strangeness of the world to speak for itself (again, I must stress this; a bolo tie-wearing, drug-dealing youth pastor), and getting gross with their set pieces.