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Created Jan 15, 2008 08:55PM PST • Edited Jan 15, 2008 08:55PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Whisper is an independent film about child possession. This horror sub-genre in general seems to typically be hit or miss. It is easy for it to end up with a mundane tone which hardly seems scary at all. The characters in this film serve as a good base, but Whisper works because it uses slyness and trickery to achieve the scares.

   Max Harper (Halloway) has recently been released from prison. He plans to stay out this time so he can have a normal life. He has a caring girlfriend, Roxanne (Callies) who is there to encourage him with this. Their plan is to own a small business possibly a restaurant. The only problem though is that since he doesn’t have good credit the bank won’t give him a lone to start this business. Max resorts to playing Santa at a birthday party. This gig is much more than the typical job though. Max was hired by someone to kidnap the child who lived at the house, David (Woodruff) since the family is very wealthy. Max and his associates, Vince (Edgerton) and Sydney (Rooker) help him out with the job. They take David and leave a ransom note as they head up to a secluded cabin.

   Roxanne is feeling very uneasy about this. At night she is having horrible dreams and David is a reoccurring character in them. Max is feeling bad about his situation as well. He doesn’t want anything to go wrong. He just wants to do what he has to, get his money, and be done with this life of crime. David seems to find ways of getting out of the locked room where he is being kept. He starts getting in to the kidnappers heads by whispering things to them through the mind. The men start dying off all through David’s control. As the truth of the kidnappers’ employer comes out, the stakes are raised. Max is being told to kill David because of the extreme dangers that he is capable of. He isn’t sure whether he can get himself to do this, but he better find a way to since his death is being plotted and soon it will be too late.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Blake Woodruff played the villain of the film well. He did seem to have a certain intelligence to him. The fact that he had that and seemingly so much power and control yet displayed it almost in a casual way gave him a spooky quality. Josh Halloway and Sarah Wayne Callies did good as our most direct protagonists. It is important that Max was trying to make a new life for himself. We know that just about everyone in this movie is flawed so in order to care about what happens to them it was important to humanize them. Also, Roxanne clearly cares for David, yet he doesn’t hesitate to destroy her, which emphasizes his lack of decency as if his murdering of his birth parents wasn’t reason enough. Joel Edgerton and Michael Rooker give good portrayals of characters who have done bad things yet that tough element to them is stolen away from them while they are left helpless.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    David doesn’t just kill those who kidnapped him which is something that sets this movie apart. Whisper is really about the trickery. David gets in to everyone’s minds around him and completely ruins them and what they care about. Then he makes sure they die painfully. David makes his victims truly suffer and usually by making them believe what he wants them to believe. So they are the ones ruining their own lives because of it. The film focuses on child possession, but it doesn’t seem that he is being possessed by anyone. David is doing the possessing, it is his demonic weapon against others and . David uses many voodoo tendencies. He draws the death of everyone on the wall before they actually die also he uses crayons as a voodoo doll in order to kill someone who might help Max against David. The fact that we were on the side of the kidnappers was a clue that the tables were being turned. It is as if this is what they got for kidnapping a child. This child clearly has pleasures upon seeing others death and getting as much pain out of them, often more emotional than physical. Whisper is a pretty decent horror film with some good ideas and themes in it. It doesn’t cover anything completely new and isn’t really great, but it is worth a watch.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

    Whisper is really not about the blood. Some of the deaths weren’t even all that graphic. It shows a variation in deaths. There is one where David traps someone on to thin ice. He falls through and gets stuck under. Not one drop of blood is shown here, yet it is still a very effective death. The intelligence of David’s advanced mind is what got his victim in that position.

17. Sex Titillating 2.4

18. Violence Fierce 2.4

19. Rudeness Salty 2.4

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.8

    The number of powers that David possesses alone is enormous and they are almost all things that aren’t realistic of human capabilities. David either tells the future or more likely makes the future. He also has voodoo powers and can take over anyone’s mind psychologically with not even necessarily being near them. Anything he wants to happen he can essentially make happen. I did like the end because although his visions and desires came true there was somewhat of an unexpected turn that he had to face; showing that although the mind is a powerful thing, you can’t play God.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 3.8

23. Biological Supernatural 3.8

24. Physical Supernatural 3.8