the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Whisper has the potential to be a really good movie. The interplay between all the kidnappers is very interesting, the scenery is beautiful and most of the actors are really good - Sarah Wayne Callies and Joel Edgerton especially.The main problem seems to be that the film is trying to be too many things at once - Omen, plus a kidnapping film, plus some sort of cop thing. The result being that none of these elements are played out to their full potential. The film ends up relying too much on jump scares, the rivalry between the two cops doesn't really add anything to the plot, the character of Max (while Josh Holloway is a good actor) is kind of boring compared to the other kidnappers and the soundtrack is ridiculously overwrought at times (also, Dulé Hill's moustache looks ridiculous) While it is still an interesting film, it doesn't really stand out from the crowd.

I've always enjoyed the evil-vs-evil sub-genre, even though the plot eventually turns into a classic good-vs-evil struggle. Those films are rare, and that much sweeter when they do show up. A demon in the guise of an 8 year-old boy gets kidnapped and ends up having a lot of fun – along with the viewer - with this luckless captors. Most "evil children" horror flicks suck, either because the kids are awful actors or simply due to the fact that when children perpetrate grievous evil deeds they look as ridiculous as talking/gun-wielding monkeys in futuristic sci-fi bombs. There are always the pleasant exceptions though. Certainly some people will moan about this being too much like "The Omen", but "Whisper" is far better than that movie. It also has a finale somewhat reminiscent of "The Shining", but who cares.The kidnappers are a mixed bag, as was to be expected. A small minus is the fact that half of them are far too nice to be snatching other people's children for ransom. The female kidnapper hasn't got a bad bone in her body; in reality, such a woman would be more akin to an Aileen Wournos than a Mother Theresa. (Well, actually Mother Theresa was more demonic that ten of those demon kids combined, but I use her name to make a point and not to un-blemish her tarnished name.) Her boyfriend is also far too nice to be a former felon. But there you go – that's left-wing Hollywood for you; they always have and always will either glamourize the criminal mind or trivialize/diminish his/her evil. Not that this movie has any political agenda – for once. It's becoming difficult these days to find an American movie that doesn't contain at least an ounce of liberal propaganda, and this goes even for the horror genre. I like the fact that they didn't get the kid to overact. I mean, the director could have easily shown him Nicholas Cage or John Travolta films (or both: "Face/Off") to inspire him to mug and grimace like a bloody buffoon – which is doubly worse when a kid in a horror thriller does it. Instead, the kid merely throws a subtle smirk here and there, which says a thousand words. The movie has a strange, tiny sub-plot involving the rivalry between two detectives working on the case. No idea why they threw that in.

Long time before Whisper, there were the Omen series, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist and other movies with a mysterious child having supernatural powers, with strong references to occultism and religion. Here, the child (9-years-old boy David, splendidly performed by Blake Woodruff), has been "victimized" more as he is being kidnapped. The events coming then are catchy to follow, but they all end in a similar manner and are mixed with flashbacks and wolves. The cast is also nothing special, with the exception of Woodruff and Joel Edgerton as Vince Delayo.Well, the movie is okay to watch, and about 1h 20 minutes only, but as for similar plots, I still prefer movies where a child punishes evil (people) using his/her own wit and skills - as in Home Alone series, for example.

There is a good and entertaining horror drama thriller about a young child called David who is kidnapped - but everything is not as it seems about him, much as we might follow but in different circumstances in Joshua and other child demon movies such as SHIVER.No spill of blood or sex scenes and I don't think this movie is intended to be a really scary horror movie, thank goodness, it is much better as a drama thriller with loads of suspense moments.Takes a while to work out who the girl is killed in the opening scene but once we engage with the child character after 20 minutes or so, we begin to understand. Love the Santa concept which they delivered well at the end.the 'secret Jones' is of course also integral and paramount to the storyline. So many good things about this movie that they override anything bad.Its not a great movie but if you like thrillers with a touch of horror and drama, you will enjoy this.