Horror is a great genre of cinema, capable of enormous inventiveness and creativity, insightful societal commentary, and provocative transgressions of culture and morality. It has been a particularly great decade for horror as well, with some of the most innovative and impressive genre works hitting cinemas, home video, and streaming.

Sometimes, however, you might not be seeking such insight or provocation. Sometimes, you simply want your meat-and-potatoes horror flick: a small group of characters getting violently murdered one by one in a variety of garish and bloody ways. Such films have been finding commercial audiences for decades, because no matter what else gets made the audience inevitably has a comfort zone. It’s the film equivalent of junk food: competently made, and satisfying if not necessarily healthy, like an indulgence when you are tired and unwilling to put in too much effort.

This is why, for all the imagination one can find in films like Backrooms, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and Hokum (all 2026), I am ultimately grateful that movies like Whistle still exist.

A group of senior high schoolers come into possession of a mysterious Central American ‘death whistle’, blowing on which summons the spirit of one’s future death to the immediate present. As they are picked off one by one, the increasingly panicky band of friends search fruitlessly for a means of escaping fate.

Whistle is directed by Corin Hardy, who’s pulpy Hammer-inspired Conjuring spin-off The Nun (2018) was a similarly guilty pleasure for me. He has a strong visual eye, working here with cinematographer Björn Charpentier to give this supernatural thriller a keen, dynamic look. Musical duo Doomphonic contribute an atmospheric electronic score that feels heavily inspired by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ film work of recent years – and effectively so.

The film’s various death set pieces are effectively and rather juicily handled, with a strong debt to New Line Cinema’s long-running Final Destination movies. There is also a vague echo of Andrew Fleming’s 1996 film The Craft – more a vibe than anything specific – but it shares a similar perspective and tone on its cast of teenage characters.

It is a fairly solid cast as well. Obviously these sorts of pulp horror confections are not often a stretch for a competent actor, but the ones assembled here do perform a decent job. It is nice to see Dafne Keen (Logan) in the lead as Chrys, a sullen ex-addict with a silly name and a terrible secret. Sophie Nélisse plays the prom queen one. Sky Yang is the nerd with an unrequited crush. Jhaleil Swaby is the angry jock. Aly Skovbye is likeable as the generic nice girl who never really gets a character or a strong motivation. Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones) and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) both make serviceable appearances as the grown-ups.

There is nothing in Whistle that has not been seen before, but while it does not do anything particularly innovative – bar one or two nice visual moments – neither does it present itself poorly at all. Sure it is disposable, and largely forgettable, but thankfully it is also quite watchable. This is a film that knows its niche and sits in it.