Critic Reviews

It’s a clever hook, and the film milks it for some genuinely inventive, well-executed set pieces. As a delivery system for imaginative deaths, Whistle does its job with a certain professional pride.

Even though 'Whistle' offers nothing new to the supernatural death curse genre, it’s directed by Corin Hardy, and Corin Hardy likes to go hog wild.

Much like the rides at the carnival, Whistle delivers heady highs and some disconcerting lows, sometimes within the same scene. It’s a film with flashes of imagination and nostalgia that suggest something brighter lurking beneath the surface. Much like the whistle itself, it delivers on what it promises, and the noise it makes is hard to ignore.

It’s the same thrill as the Final Destination movies, which Egerton and Hardy have both noted as an influence: watching likable protagonists try and sometimes fail to evade death.

British director Hardy has far more fun here than he did with 2018’s mechanical franchise entry The Nun.

It may come dressed in borrowed robes, but this is a no-holds-barred horror with real bite — and surely the start of a new franchise.

The best thing Whistle has going for it is that the "monster" is actually pretty creepy, and the rules created behind what it does are intriguing enough. The gore and death scenes are effective, pulling in the viewer, as the character building pushes them away.

There was room to do something ridiculous here – it bears repeating: this is a film about a killer whistle. Why is it taking itself so seriously?

This might have been a better movie if its creators embraced their fitful bloodthirst. Instead, they seem to hope that you like these stock characters enough that you’ll gasp when their friends and enemies inevitably bite the dust. A machine to kill vague people, “Whistle” never delivers on its frightful promise.