Confessions of A Creature Feature Preacher Interview Whistle Director Corin Hardy and Owen Egerton

Описание: The crowd at Fantastic Fest this year found Whistle (2026) a more than worthy festival closer. True the film follows the tried-and-true formula of kids in a group fucking around and finding out. But man does Whistle have fun finding out. Boasting some truly memorable just godawful kills, this cursed object horror movie puts yet another notch in the belt of both screenwriter Owen Egerton and director Corin Hardy whose previous films The Hallow (2015) and The Nun (2018) made me eager to see this one.

My own experience with Hardy’s work started with The Hallow, a chilling folk horror meets family drama. Next, I saw The Nun (2018), a religious based horror film full of atmosphere, an interesting story and the sense that a new horror icon might have been born. But whereas those films take place in other lands Whistle feels solidly American all the way from its primary objective at providing popcorn frights to what fucking around in horror films is often about. People doing things they understand they shouldn’t do.
Whistle uses an Aztec death whistle as the object in question. Little is actually known about death whistles. But they did indeed exist and scientists have recreated their ghastly sounds. Videos of which can be found on YouTube. But anybody who claims to too much about them is likely looking for clicks rather than to educate the public. Egerton and Hardy wisely choose to approach the subject as something shadowed in mystery rather than create a wholly coherent myth around it.

I asked the pair what led them from idea to screen, about the dangers of cultural appropriation, and how awareness of death can open us up to the beauty of life.