Whistle director says he's "never known chemistry" like Sophie Nelisse and Dafne Keen's in the new queer supernatural horror: "It worked so perfectly"

New horror movie Whistle may give the Final Destination franchise a run for its money when it comes to elaborate death scenes, but it's not all blood and guts. So much so in fact, director Corin Hardy describes the scary flick as The Ring meets The Breakfast Club, as it sneaks a genuinely heart-warming romance in amongst all the gooey, gory terror.

Written by Owen Egerton (Mercy Black), it follows Chrys (Marvel's Dafne Keen), as she moves in with her cousin following the death of her father. It doesn't take long for her to catch the attention of sweet student Ellie (Yellowjackets' Sophie Nélisse)... or to find a strange ancient object inside the locker she's been assigned: the locker of one of the school's best basketball players who recently perished in a gruesome "accident".

When one of their friends sounds the instrument in an attempt to summon some spirits, they unknowingly unleash a horrifying curse – and Chrys and Ellie have to work together to stop their fast-forwarded fates from hunting them down and snuffing them out.

"I've never known the chemistry that they had, or friendship on and off set," Hardy says of Keen and Nélisse in an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+. "When there was a very emotional scene, [those] guys would just be chatting and laughing and mucking around, and then I'd be like, 'Okay, children, get into action', and then [they'd] both just go straight into these really heartfelt, full performances. I didn't actually say 'children' ever," he laughs. "But you know!"

"We just we knew that we understood each other and had the exact same kind of humor," smiles Nélisse. "We both knew how to turn it on on 'action' but yeah, as soon as the scene cut, we'd be back to talking about our personal lives.'"

"I was just so relieved to see these two characters brought to life by Dafne and Sophie. Their characters are kind of yin and yang anyways," says Hardy. "But, I mean, Sophie kind of exuded such purity as Ellie. There was so much kindness in [her] eyes and it worked so perfectly against Dafne's, like, darkness. Then they managed to convey this gradual yin-yang change over the course of the movie where they sort of take on aspects of each other to be able to fight together as well."

Whistle releases in US theaters on February 6, before landing in cinemas across the pond on February 13. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.