Whistle star Dafne Keen: ‘I love death scenes. I love killing on camera, that’s all very fun to me’

How many teenage horror movie victims could have been saved by a little common sense? Don’t go into the woods alone. Definitely don’t go down to the basement. And maybe don’t blow that creepy, ancient skull-shaped object that will result in your future death hunting you down.

Such is the premise of Whistle from British director Corin Hardy, where a group of misfit high school students discover a whistle and can’t help but blow. Surprisingly it’s a true story, or at least a real artefact. The Aztec – or more specifically Olmec – death whistle is thought to have been used as a battle cry or in sacrificial rituals and it does sound frightening.

Whistle stars Dafne Keen as Chrys (short for Chrysanthemum). Best known as X-23 in Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine, and Lyra in the BBC’s adaptation of His Dark Materials, Keen is one of the world’s fastest rising young talents.

Keen and Hardy join Big Issue to talk about the film, while Hardy waves around his prop whistle: “I could blow one for you now if you like but you may not survive until the article comes out.”

Big Issue: So Chrys finds the whistle. Where is she in her life when that happens?

Dafne Keen: Chrys is a young girl leaving her big city life to live in a small town after suffering the loss of her father and overcoming addiction. She’s just come out of rehab, trying to adapt to this quieter life. But darkness is following her. What’s so special about the whistle artefact is that it sort of finds you. It finds unhappy, depressed people so this whistle finds her at a very pivotal moment in her life.

She’s dealing with big enough issues without being stalked by her future death. Does horror always heighten whatever drama characters are already facing?

DK: It raises the stakes and I think it puts every character in a position of questioning themselves. [For] someone who is incredibly self-sabotaging and self-hateful, it’s a big leap to try to save yourself. When she’s actually faced with death, she realises that she does want to live.

Corin Hardy: I always felt that if the whistle hadn’t come into these teenagers’ lives, they were in this dead-end town, dead-end situation and they probably wouldn’t make it out of there alive anyway. This whistle almost accelerates their need to be active and fight and work together.

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If you found a strange object would you automatically think, oh I’ll just give it a blow and see what noise it makes?

CH: That’d be a cool film about a bunch of teenagers hanging out and not blowing a whistle. The whistle has a certain mystical power, almost like the ring in The Lord of the Rings. There’s something calling out to you, it’s starting to possess you and pull you in.

DK: It has a way of seducing you.

CH: This is a really potent, dangerous object. It must have been passed through many hands many times so it’s probably got thousands of souls in this thing seducing you to blow

On one level it is still teenagers doing silly things. Dafne, you were a teenager when you made the film; now you’ve just turned 21. Happy birthday by the way.

DK: Thank you so much. 

Do you feel more mature now?

DK: I would like to think so. The thing is, we would all like to think we wouldn’t blow it, but me personally, I’d be like, well, it’s bullshit. And then that’d be your demise. 

Given the premise it’s probably not a spoiler to say you get to play your future dead self. Was that a fun day at the office?

DK: I love doing those things. I love doing very violent films. I love doing death scenes. I love killing on camera, that’s all very fun to me.

CH: We tried out the death look on Dafne and it was so cool, I knew immediately how it was going to work. Your face, Dafne, is just so photogenic and cinematic.

If you encountered your future self, and we assume it wasn’t coming to kill you, what advice do you think it would share?

CH: This is all baked into that story, the idea that your death is out there waiting for you. If you don’t blow the whistle, it’s waiting for you and it might happen in a week, it might happen in two years or 90 years, but when you blow it, it’s gonna happen in the next few days. And it’s almost gonna teach you that lesson: I think it is ultimately, live your life to the fullest. Dafne what about you?

DK: I’d say, it’s important to be stern with yourself and disciplined, but also gentle. And it sounds so woo woo, but it’s important to practise self-love. It’s very easy to delve into this narcissistic cycle of hating on yourself. I would just say to any past version of myself, just be nicer. Just be easier on me.

Whistle is in cinemas from 13 February

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