Whistle Director Corin Hardy on his Elm Street-Inspired High School Horror Film—and the Importance of its Queer Romance
The Nun director talks the enticing mythology of his cursed object thriller, curating the film’s killer needle drops, and whether stars Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse have earned scream queen status
By Lana Thorn 9 February 2026
Courtesy of Black Bear Pictures
When I speak with Corin Hardy over Zoom in late January, I’m immediately struck by the grisly monsters in the background of his camera feed. With his experience in animatronics and prosthetics, the British filmmaker’s workshop is a den of sculpted creatures embellished with the moody touch of what appears to be smoke wafting through the room. “That’s not a dramatic thing; it’s just one of those diffusers,” he reveals with a laugh, while conceding that it does add to the atmosphere. “There’s a bit of Hammer Horror going on.”
After working for years in music videos (directing the clip for Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” amongst others), Hardy put his love of practical effects to good use in his debut feature The Hallow. The gruesome folktale-cum-creature-feature charmed audiences at Sundance in 2015 and paved the way for him to join The Conjuring cinematic universe and helm The Nun. After directing on the popular British crime drama Gangs of London, Hardy returns to his favoured genre with his third feature film, Whistle. With a stacked ensemble including Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, and Nick Frost, the cursed object chiller follows a group of high school students who find an Aztec death whistle that, if you blow it, summons your future death prematurely. For the ill-fated teenagers, it’s a nightmare. For Hardy, it’s a chance to contribute to a brand of horror movie that he’s loved since childhood.
Phantasmag: You’ve tackled evil fairies, a demonic nun, and now you’re giving us your take on the classic high school horror film. What is it about this subgenre that excited you and how did you want to leave your mark on it?
Corin Hardy: As a film director growing up in the UK and watching a lot of American horror movies, I recognised that there was a genre of American high school [horror]. And in the back of my mind, I was thinking, ‘I’ll probably do one of them at some point, I wonder what it would be?’ I had grown up watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lost Boys, The Breakfast Club, Fright Night, and The Blob—and they inspired me quite a lot, my love of horror and monsters and things. So when the Whistle script came around and Owen Egerton had written it and set it [in a US high school], first of all, I was taken by this simple and effective, elegant mythology of a cursed object called a death whistle, which I had heard of but never really knew a great deal about. And I didn’t know that they were real until after reading the script and researching them. But I suddenly realised: well, this can be my American high school movie.
Dafne Keen in Whistle. Courtesy of Black Bear Pictures
P: What’s your favourite film from that canon?
CH: I class The Lost Boys as a high school horror film, although it doesn’t take place in high school but it’s of that age. The guys in it have just moved to a new seaside town, but if you mean actually set in high school, maybe a tie between Fright Night and The Blob. If you’re being even more strict that it has to actually take place in high school, Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty. And A Nightmare on Elm Street. That’s probably the ultimate one. Gotta go for Nightmare on Elm Street. It was one of the earliest horror movies that really terrified me. I was about 12 when I saw it. Nancy falling asleep in school, the visions of the body bag being dragged down the corridor… The teenage angst of it and a film like Donnie Darko was something I really wanted to capture in Whistle. This idea of high school kids having to defeat something evil that’s coming for them whilst trying to go about their normal lives, and their parents don’t believe them.
P: Whistle is led by two wonderful scream queen performances by Daphne Keen and Sophie Nélisse. What was it like working with them, and bringing their queer romance to life?
CH: Do you think they’re scream queens automatically?
P: I mean, with the performances they gave, I think so.
CH: That’s awesome. I guess there’s some screaming going on. Again, in the script I loved that there was this mythology surrounding an ancient cursed object that, when you hear it, calls upon your future death to hunt you down. That was simple, effective mythology that I hadn’t really seen—I hadn’t seen a death whistle horror movie before, but what really also attracted me to the project was this love story that ran through… that in sort of tragic, horrific circumstances, there was this story of these two girls coming together. Particularly, Chrys overcoming her grief to some extent amid the horror—and finding a reason to want to fight to live in Ellie—was something that I was keen on: finding hope within the horror and making it heartfelt.
So horror with heart was what I was going for. And then to have Dafne come on and Sophie come on, with where they’re at in their careers, with Dafne having obviously been X-23 [in Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine], Sophie having done Yellowjackets… and the other members of the ensemble: Sky Yang had just done Rebel Moon, Ali Skovbye had done Firefly Lane, and Jhaleil Swaby is in the new Hunger Games movie. So I was trying to cast my teenage ensemble in a way where they all had a sort of bubbling energy that reminded me of what I saw in a movie like The Lost Boys, when they were all about to go onto big things. I was lucky to get them.
Sophie Nélisse in Whistle. Courtesy of Black Bear Pictures
P: The film has some incredible tracks. How did you curate the killer soundtrack, and what did it add to the film?
CH: I love being asked this. I haven’t been asked it too often, so it’s nice. Well when I’m working on scripts, I’m always listening to music and making playlists, and I used to make compilation tapes. I started making one for Whistle called “Death Lives”, which was 3 hours of music that made me think of the world of the movie. Whilst doing that, I was pinpointing key tracks that I would love to get in the movie. And having done a number of music videos over a 10 year period, I got to know bands like The Prodigy, Gunship, Rachel Stamp, and Iron Maiden, and I was able to call on them and work with the music supervisors. I had always loved, for instance, Concrete Blonde’s track “Joey”, and I was on a mission to find a movie that that would work in. That was one of the first tracks that I was really keen to get into the emotional scene between the two girls when they’re trying to figure out what to do.
And the soundtrack is tapped into Chrys feeling an overwhelming grief and guilt for the death of her father. He’s left her his record collection and his jacket, and she’s got these few things of his to connect to him. She plays his music on a record player, and I wanted that to be quite eclectic and not just goth or pop or rock music—it was a merging of different genres. So I was really happy to get those bands: Divinyls, Gunship, Olivia Rodrigo, The Prodigy, Iron Maiden, Concrete Blonde, Rachel Stamp. It should be a good soundtrack to listen to if you like the movie.
P: 100%, maybe a vinyl soundtrack?
CH: I will mention that. We are actually in the process of getting a Whistle vinyl score soundtrack, which I’m also really pleased about. We worked really hard on the score by Doomphonic, balancing retro synth and orchestral in there. So that’s something to look out for for anyone who likes vinyl.
Dafne Keen in Whistle. Courtesy of Black Bear Pictures
P: Horror is experiencing something of a boom and is playing a vital role in keeping audiences in theatres. How do you feel about the genre today, and why should viewers go see Whistle in the cinema?
CH: I’m thrilled that horror tends to do well at the cinema. I think it’s because audiences like being surprised, they like being drawn in by mystery, they like experiencing a roller coaster ride that kind of piques your adrenaline. I’ve always loved horror so it’s just great that it keeps coming back and reinventing itself, with recent movies like Sinners and Weapons and The Substance. It’s really exciting to see them being recognised and doing so well. And with Whistle, I wanted to create a movie that was reminiscent of some of the movies that I grew up watching. I loved entertaining horror that was heartfelt and took you on a ride and took you out of your comfort zone but also was a thrill. I wanted to create something very visual as well that you could kind of live inside for an hour and a half or two. So hopefully the audience enjoys spending time in the world of Whistle.
Whistle releases in the UK February 13th. Now playing in US theatres.