Publication Date: 02-04-2026

Whistle (2026) review

Dir. Corin Hardy

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★½

The horror genre has reached a point where a movie about a group of teenagers discovering an ancient Aztec death whistle and deciding to use it is almost implausible for the sheer fact that the kids in these movies have likely seen quality films of the genre and would know better not to screw around with such a thing. The term “elevated horror” gets criticized for good reason, but there should be a term for movies like Whistle: basement horror, and not in the Barbarian context.

Dafne Keen’s Chrys (short for Chrysanthemum, apparently) is adjusting to life at a new school having moved from Chicago to a more rural enclave. Naturally, she’s subjected to a lot of strange looks from other high schoolers in the hall, and inadvertently draws more attention to herself when she’s assigned the locker of the star basketball player who was burned alive in the opening scene. Inside the locker… an Aztec death whistle of all things, so large and unwieldly that the user looks like they’re smoking a bowl.

High school teacher, Nick Frost’s Mr. Craven (get it?), is the first to find out the hard way what blowing the whistle does. Once blown, the person’s corpse will come hunt them and kill them in inventive ways. For as bland and as boring as it is, Whistle is somewhat salvaged by its kills, which employ the kind of ingenuity that made Freddy Krueger a household name. Chrys and her friends, including her sorta-girlfriend (Sophie Nélisse), a stoner (Rebel Moon), and a drug dealer (Percy Hynes White, I Like Movies), who hangs on the periphery, will all have their opportunity to blow it if they’re brave enough.

Whistle plods along in the way that many bad horror movies do, bypassing character development and having some ominous historian half-heartedly explain the innerworkings of the central MacGuffin. It might bore you to sleep if the film’s sound design wasn’t so abrasive. Jump-scares are underscored by loud, ear-piercing synths, which yo-yo the picture’s volume. The sterile visuals and frumpy characters don’t infuse this picture with half the fun of, say, Wish Upon, and when Owen Egerton’s script tries to incorporate ancient history and woo-woo, it’s as lead-footed as it was in Tarot.

The film was directed by Corin Hardy (The Nun), who still has yet to find a visual style that makes his projects distinguishable. As a concept, Whistle recalls teen-centric horror movies of yesteryear, even with its R-rating. As a movie, Whistle simply blows.

Starring: Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, Sky Yang, Jhaleil Swaby, Ali Skovbye, Percy Hynes White, Michelle Fairley, and Nick Frost. Directed by: Corin Hardy.