Exclusive: Director Corin Hardy and Writer Owen Egerton Reveal the Secrets Behind Their New Horror Film 'Whistle'

A group of teenagers unearths an ancient whistle buried in the woods — an object that, once blown, seals their fate and summons their own future deaths to hunt them. What begins as a night of curiosity and dares turns into a fight against time itself in Whistle. Director Corin Hardy (The Nun, The Hallow) and writer Owen Egerton (Blood Fest) fuse mythic horror with coming-of-age chaos, crafting a story that’s as much about the inevitability of death as it is about learning to live.

At the heart of Whistle is a cast led by Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, and Sky Yang, whose chemistry, Hardy says, evokes The Breakfast Club and The Lost Boys. Hardy and Egerton build what they call “horror with heart” — a genre piece steeped in teenage longing, spiritual dread, and practical-effects spectacle. The key to nailing this dynamic was finding the perfect ensemble cast to bring the story to life.

"It was really like when you’re assembling a team and you’ve got to put these cards up, and you’re looking at them, and you want to get the chemistry right. There are so many things you’re balancing."

Hardy’s enthusiasm for ensemble storytelling fuels Whistle’s emotional core. While the cursed object drives the horror, it’s the relationships that give the film its pulse. That tension between dread and desire became Hardy’s guiding star on set.

“It’s a love story, which is also one of the main reasons I did the movie, because, as much as I loved these imaginative and inventive opportunities to create death set pieces, it was these characters in there, and it was horror with heart, which is still really the phrase that’s come to me in relation to Whistle. You mentioned at the beginning that this movie’s about teenagers meeting their ends one by one, but there was also a real subtle transformation going on. So, trying to get that dynamic, capturing these characters, and then also cast people like Dafne, who I think we all want to see someone like Dafne Keen in our own movie, leading it in a horror movie, and Sophie Nélisse. She’s done such phenomenal work with Yellowjackets. Putting those two together, I was trying to create an opportunity for electricity to occur.”

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff interviewed Hardy and Egerton at Fantastic Fest 2025, where the pair discussed casting Whistle's ensemble, designing the cursed whistle, staging ambitious set pieces, and why the film aims to terrify and move audiences in equal measure. Check out the full interview in the video above, and the timestamp index below for key moments, and sketches from the film's production that Hardy shared exclusively with Collider.

• 00:00 - What is Whistle?
• 01:19 - Fears That Sparked This Idea
• 04:09 - Horror Movies That Inspired Them
• 04:52 - What drew Corin Hardy to tell an American-teen horror story?
• 06:18 - Which formative scares left a mark on Owen Egerton?
• 08:26 - Did They Blow the Whistle?
• 12:03 - Whistle Has More Stories to Tell
• 12:25 - Casting a Horror Movie "Breakfast Club"
• 15:31 - Why was Sky Yang the perfect embodiment of Hardy’s teenage self?
• 16:14 - Balancing Slasher Thrills with a Love Story
• 17:36 - Which death scene proved the toughest to execute?
• 19:36 - What surprised Owen Egerton most about seeing his script realized?
• 21:53 - Hardy Shares His Sketches
• 22:34 - How did the Harvest Fest sequence evolve from doodle to set piece?
• 23:47 - Dafne Keen’s “John Rambo” Look
• 25:21 - What final reflections did the filmmakers share about Whistle’s execution?

Whistle is set for a limited theatrical release on February 6, 2026.

Release Date February 6, 2026

Runtime 85 minutes

Director Corin Hardy