IFC & Shudder Zip Up The Irish-Candian Film 'Whistle'

It's been nearly two years since Black Bear Pictures initially announced the horror film Whistle. The film, based on the short story of the same name by author Owen Egerton, was part of the small group of films that were announced for production in October 2023, months into the strike, at a point when it looked like things might go on into 2024. At the time, Black Bear was looking to make a deal to get the project off the ground after teasing it at Cannes that spring and securing a high-profile cast, finally agreeing to make the enite film as a Canadian-Irish project under the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) instead of SAG-AFTRA.

The project is a collaboration between Egerton and director Corin Hardy, who Brits will know from Gangs of London, though he's better known in the U.S. for The Nun. When the project was first announced, Hardy said as part of the press release: 

“The premise of Whistle is simple, immediate, and has a fresh, haunting mythology. A cursed object that summons your future death to come and find you. The screenplay echoes some of my favourite classic horrors like The Ring, A Nightmare On Elm Street, or It Follows, with elements of seminal high school movies The Breakfast Club and Donnie Darko. I’m thrilled to be working with this brilliant young cast to bring this inventive, terrifying, and cinematic new horror to death… I mean life.”

The production filmed from November 2023 into early 2024, and has spent the last year in post-production, looking for American distribution. The good news is, they finally found some.

Here is the film's synopsis:

In Whistle, 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. As the body count rises, the friends investigate the origins of the deadly artifact in a desperate effort to stop the horrifying chain of events that they have set in motion.

The teen-focused drama stars Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials) and Sophie Nélisse (Yellowjackets). The supporting cast includes Sky Yang (Holding), Percy Hynes White (Murdoch Mysteries), and Nick Frost (Doctor Who). 

Owen Egerton (Bloodfest) wrote the script from an adaptation of his own short story; Corin Hardy (Gangs of London) directed. David Gross executive produced the Canadian/Irish co-production for No Trace Camping with Macdara Kelleher for Wild Atlantic Pictures.

Whistle will be released theatrically in 2025, followed by streaming on IFC, Shudder, and AMC+.