Whistle director breaks down the gory horror movie's surprisingly sweet ending: "I wanted it to be gentle"

Corin Hardy directing Dafne Keen on the set of Whistle

(Image credit: IFC Films)

Almost every character in Whistle dies before the screen cuts to black and the credits roll. Hell, even the ones who actually survive pass over briefly in the final act in an attempt to confuse their murderous fates and stop 'em killing them for good.

Before we delve into the specifics, you should be warned that this article contains major spoilers for Whistle – though you've probably already guessed that. Turn back now if you've yet to watch the movie and don't want to know what happens!

So, considering the body count, I'm not sure we could justifiably claim the horror movie has a happy ending, but it was important to director Corin Hardy to wrap things up on a more hopeful note. 'Bury Your Gays' is a notorious trope in which a film's queer characters are killed off prematurely, often to propel another character's storyline forward or play into the harmful idea that LGBTQ folk are predestined to live tragic, doomed lives. Fortunately, Whistle bucks that trend; with its leads Ellie (Sophie Nélisse) and Chrys (Dafne Keen) not only making it out alive but ending up together, too.

"I wanted to make horror with heart. So it was important to nail that balance; to make sure there's as much heart as horror," he continues. "That you care about the characters. And I wanted to protect this love story, I wanted it to be almost quite gentle in some ways, amid all the terror around them. They're finding each other, they're finding strength in each other and learning about themselves through each other, too."

Sophie Nelisse as Ellie in Whistle — (Image credit: IFC Films)

Written by Owen Egerton, Whistle follows a group of high-school students who find themselves outrunning Death after one of them blows an Aztec death whistle. Turns out, the instrument doesn't "summon the dead", as their teacher Mr. Craven (Nick Frost) claimed, it summons "your" death... and it's bad news for anyone unlucky enough to hear its sound.

After their friends meet their makers in increasingly gruesome ways, and Chrys' cousin Rel (Sky Yang) gets ground-up by an invisible piece of machinery as his future factory accident catches up to him, Ellie and Chrys plot to pull a Flatliners and "die" before resuscitating themselves. If they can trick the Grim Reaper into thinking their time is up, they suggest, they might just be able to evade the curse. Things go pear-shaped, though, when local drug dealer Noah (Wednesday's Percy Hynes White) shoots Ellie before she can bring Chrys back to the land of the living.

Fortunately for the loved-up pair, Chrys manages to fight her demonic self and wake up, while Noah unknowingly stands in Ellie's blood and marks himself as her sacrifice. With that, the ghoul that was after her sets its sights on him instead – and the twosome live to tell the tale.

"It's a shame that this death whistle got blown and Death came to get these two, because if it hadn't, they would have had the same – well, maybe they wouldn't have had the same relationship," Hardy smiles, as he recalls Whistle's final scene in which Ellie and Chrys share a kiss at school and walk down the hall hand-in-hand. "That's what's interesting. It almost helped force them to come together. To fight together, and all that was very important. I just love that last shot, when they're walking down the corridor and you see [their] hands together and the tattoo that Ellie's got now – the chrysanthemum. It was just a lovely detail."

Whistle is in US theaters now. It's set to release in UK cinemas on February 13. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.

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