Whistle (2025)

Final Destination already did the death-comes-for-you thing, and the only new trick in Whistle is the delivery method, which is also its problem. Chrys, a new transfer student, inherits a late basketball star’s locker and finds a skull-shaped whistle inside. It’s an Aztec death whistle, and anyone who hears it gets chased by their own future death, in whatever form it was always going to take. That’s a nifty, nasty idea, and Corin Hardy squeezes a few memorable jolts out of it. Everything around the hook is stock: a detention crew of types (the jock, his girlfriend, the cousin), and rules explained by a convenient grandmother. The one thread with some warmth is Chrys and Ellie refusing to save themselves by handing the curse to someone else. Audiences were much colder on it than critics. A 4.6 because the concept is sharp and the movie around it is dull. $304.15 says the next time a referee blows a whistle at a game, you flinch harder than the players.

What works: The death whistle is a genuinely creepy hook, and a handful of the scares really land.

What doesn’t: Beyond the central idea, it’s stock teen horror, with thin characters and rules dumped out by a convenient expert.

Who it’s for: Horror fans who loved Final Destination and want a new curse to argue about.