Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, IFC, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Corin Hardy, sophie nelisse, whistle

Whistle Dir. Corin Hardy & Star Sophie Nélisse on Supernatural Horror

Whistle director Corin Hardy and star Sophie Nélisse spoke to us about crafting teen angst supernatural horror, LGBTQ lead characters & more.

Sometimes the stories write themselves, especially when you blend historical relics like the Aztec Death Whistle, which, when blown, produces an intimidating wail, replicating a human scream, that often drives fear into the uninitiated. Combined with a script from Owen Egerton (Blood Fest) and director Corin Hardy (The Nun, The Hallow), you have a recipe for supernatural horror that blends elements of classics like Donnie Darko and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Whistle follows a misfit group of unwitting high school students who 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. Hardy and star Sophie Nélisse (Heated Rivalry, Yellow Jackets), who plays Ellie Gains, spoke to Bleeding Cool about blending teenage angst with supernatural horror, shaping the LGBTQ narrative between Ellie and Chrys (Dafne Keen), casting, and balancing between practical and CG effects.

Whistle Director Corin Hardy and Star Sophie Nélisse on Creating a "Very Powerful, Simple, Elegant, and Scary Mythology" for a Supernatural Horror Story

BC: What intrigued you about Whistle?

Hardy: There were maybe three things to begin with when I read the script written by Owen Egerton. The first one was as a fan of horror and a horror director, finding a mythology that hadn't been seen on screen before. The idea of a death whistle and Owen's created mythology around it of an ancient artifact that calls upon your future death to hunt you down. That was a very powerful, simple, elegant, and scary mythology. The second part was to do with the relationships in the film, the love story that runs through it, and this teenage angst world that I'd always probably wanted to explore in a movie in this American high school genre. Then the deaths themselves, the elaborate perishment sequences, which were a lot of [where I] had to sit and figure them out.

Sophie, what'd you like about Owen's script and working with Corin?

Nélisse: I was thrilled to work with Corin because he's a legend in this field and in this genre. He's such a pioneer, and I knew that not only would he make something fun and thrilling, but there was something that felt, from our first conversations, so personal to him in the script, and I knew that I was in good hands because of the attention to detail in them, and all the minutiae around it. There was this sense of wanting to incorporate a lot of softness and honesty into the script, despite the chaos.

I thought it needed that balance of humanity, and it was the humanity of it all that touched me and made me want to take this role on because there's a beautiful balance in these characters who all find each other, but under these circumstances all bring out the best in each other, especially [my character] Ellie and Chrys, but even the relationship between Rel (Sky Yang) and Grace (Ali Skovbye). You really get to see these characters under the most stressful circumstances, but what comes out of it is actually quite beautiful.

Corin, can you tell me about how you got the ensemble together as far as the casting process, and was there anyone you had penciled in from the get-go?

Hardy: Yeah, that's a great question. It was a real eye-opener, because I was plunged into pre-production, excited, starting to put the thing together, and looking at locations. When we started casting, it was only then that I almost realized that in my own experience, the movies I've made have largely been more adult characters than teenagers.

Suddenly, I had to find a group of five or six characters to portray 17 and 18-year-olds, and that meant a certain age of actor. That's a real particular area to find a certain talent and energy level. I wanted to be inspired by some of the movies I grew up on, like The Breakfast Club (1985) or The Lost Boys (1987), where you had this incredible energy in the cast; they were all bubbling, and they were going on to bigger things. I was trying to look for the best actors I could get for the roles, but also, you're looking at what they've done and what they're going to do, so I was so lucky and thrilled to be able to cast Sophie, who was the first to come on board.

That set a certain level we were going for because Sophie's renowned for her performances, has done some interesting characters, and is known for things like Yellow Jackets. It was quite exciting to then also get Dafne Keen, who we know from Marvel as X-23 and His Dark Materials. It's then putting them together and seeing the charisma that they would have. Sky Yang, who plays Rel, worked on Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon, Jhaleil Swaby, and Ali [Skyovbye]. It was so great to get them all together and see what this group was going to be like. They're fantastic people and fantastic performances.

I was surprised that you got Michelle Fairley and Nick Frost as some seasoned veteran editions there. Sophie, can you tell me how you developed your chemistry with Dafne? Was there anything you did to help develop your characters' relationship before filming?

Nélisse: Our relationship came in very naturally. We shared a similar sense of humor, and we became close because of it, which was perfect because we needed that levity on set, going through all this trauma bonding. Sometimes, it clicks for no specific reason, and I'm very thankful that it did. Before starting to shoot, Corin brought us to this, like we had a whole day of activities planned with the group, like this escape room, but in our characters. The whole gang got along so well very quickly.

What went into the inspirations for the creature effects in the death scenes, and how much CGI versus practical did you work out?

Hardy: Well, I grew up on movies that were practical, and when I was young, around the age of 12, I wanted to be a monster maker. I spent a lot of my childhood and college years training in art and sculpture, so I always approach films and special effects as practically as possible, with real locations, stunts, and as practical effects as you can, but also knowing when the limit is reached and relying on CGI or visual effects.
It is like the ingredients in a recipe where you use a little bit of puppetry here, you use different angles, some prosthetics, and an animatronic hand from certain angles, and afterward, you use visual effects to do some blending or some removal of wires. What I knew is that there's a number of these deaths and they all want them all to be very different, almost like different sub-genres of horror. They're going to be different in the movie, and they're also going to try to show you things you haven't seen before in other movies. They all required a slightly different percentage of practical to visual effects, but I had [prosthetic makeup designers] Steve Newburn and Paul Jones, two brilliant practical effects guys, and Herne Hill doing visual effects. We were able to work together and mix techniques with props, costumes, performers, stunts, and everything. A lot is going on in all the different deaths.

IFC's Whistle, which also stars Percy Hynes White, comes to theaters on February 6th.

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