Corin Hardy (The Nun, The Hallow, Gangs of London) has announced his next feature, a high school horror movie titled Whistle about, you guessed it, an evil whistle.
The project has lined up an impressive cast, with Dafne Keen (Logan, The Acolyte), Sophie Nélisse (Yellowjackets), Sky Yang (Rebel Moon), and Percy Hynes White (Wednesday) playing a group of students who come across an ancient Aztec whistle which, when blown, unleashes some kind of curse. Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) is also on board.
According to the official synopsis, the movie will focus on “a misfit group of unwitting high school students who stumble upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec Death Whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle and the terrifying sound it emits will summon their future deaths to hunt them down. As the body count rises, the friends investigate the origins of the deadly artifact in a desperate effort to stop the horrifying chain of events that they have set in motion.”
The premise may sound a bit by-the-numbers, but the short story the film is based on by Owen Egerton (Blood Fest, Mercy Black) - who also wrote the movie - is said to be pretty good.
David Gross (Room) will produce for No Trace Camping and Macdara Kelleher (The Pope’s Exorcist), with Wild Atlantic Pictures and Black Bear handling international sales.
Production is set to begin next month in Canada, under ACTRA instead of a SAG contract.
Hardy tells Deadline, “The premise of Whistle is simple, immediate and has a fresh, haunting mythology. A cursed object that summons your future death to come and find you. The screenplay has echoes of some of my favourite classic horrors like The Ring, A Nightmare On Elm Street or It Follows, with elements of seminal high school movies The Breakfast Club and Donnie Darko. I’m thrilled to be working with this brilliant young cast to bring this inventive, terrifying and cinematic new horror to death… I mean life.”
Producer David Gross added: “We couldn’t be happier to be working with Corin Hardy and this incredibly talented cast on Whistle – with his ability to combine strong visual sensibilities with atmosphere and emotion and a propensity for relentless, imaginative set pieces Corin has a proven track record at getting horror just right and we can’t wait to see him bring his unique take to Owen Egerton’s script.”
What do you make of this one? Have you read the short story Whistle is based on? Drop us a comment down below.