“Whistle” is in a mad crush on nineties’ costume, manner, and music. It believes it is edgy by having a chain-smoking curmudgeon high school teacher, lead characters in lesbain teen relationship , and an almost complete absence of adults. But it is not the nineties anymore and those are passe.  “Whistle” wants to remind us of the pre-CGI days of horror films until it is time for the horror, then it decides to use CGI rather than practical effects, no really they did. And that sums it what the main problem of the film is, it is hypocritical. While being that the movie just slaps you in the face with melodrama and chokes you with exposition. It also fell into the cardinal sin of caring more for its nostalgia aesthetic than the story. There really isn’t one and It knows this. It tries to make up for it by being even more gruesome with its horror as the film goes along. The film believes too if it pumps a good soundtrack that it will make up for an absence of a story, and it doesn’t. It’s unimaginative, uncreative, and highly telegraphed where it is going the whole way. The film is pure laziness and riddled in cliche, completely riddled.

The script feels like there are massive amounts of pages missing, and it is so jumpy that cuts from scene to scene feel like an unattached puzzle pieces to put a picture together. It is an incoherent mess.  There is a weak attempt to pass it off as if it is halloween when this is all happening in the film.  The “Harvest Festival” scene is one of the most bizarre edits ever put on film. The jokes don’t land at all. Characters are textbook teen cliches. For the life of me I could not tell you any of the names of the characters after watching it. Because who care when don’t have any chemistry or charisma with each other. Even the classic creepy exposition old-lady makes an appearance. Making death be the actual ex-machina in this is a gem of this apathetic script. Just insert the death when you run out of ideas of the scene.  Classic. 

“Whistle” fell on its own sword by not really defining what it wanted to be. A slasher, a teen haunt, or a melodramatic horror.  It wanted to be all of that and the result a tone-deaf to the horror that inspired it. Those inspirations being of “The Craft” “The Faculty” “Disturbing Behavior” and “Scream”. It completely wears its inspirations on its sleeve. There is good news, there is some talent on display. Dafne Keen is actually remarkable in this. The actors in this are really giving their best to what they are given.  But after seeing this it made me want to rewatch the films that inspired it rather than talk about this one because “Whistle” is definitely not a “Scream” 4/10.