It was on limited release, but I made time to get out and give the new joint
Whistle a look.
A misfit group of unwitting high school students 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.
I've seen some heads call this genre "gimmick horror," but I consider it part of the "curse horror" sub-genre. To me that's any movie where a person or group of people get marked for death by a supernatural force that has a set of rules for survival attached. The Ring, It Follows, Smile, The Grudge, and Wish Upon are all examples.
In this case, the rules are really well put together and I won't spoil them since that's half the fun of a curse horror movie. The plot is itself is a shortcoming, but not a disaster. It's just incredibly generic. If you're a frequent poster in this thread, you'll recognize the characters and probably be able to guess the death order within fifteen minutes.
But, in spite of the basic plot, this jawn is entertaining! The actors are doing their best to pick things up, the direction and cinematography takes a real swing at elevating the material, and the deaths are the real winner here. I'd heard this has a "death of the year" candidate, and they weren't exaggerating. In fact, I saw a kill and thought "that's gotta be it," but then another one had me like "or was it that one."
So, this one joins Primate on my "it's not winning awards, but this was a lot of fun to watch" list. It's got plot contrivances, some effects come up short, and it doesn't reinvent the wheel...but it's got great kills, good performances, and a really fun set of rules that I could see working for sequels.
with Strange Darling so I have faith.
