It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It started off interesting enough. I liked the opening scene and the kidnap scenario was kind of interesting. And then it just went downhill fast. Bad script, lousy direction and woeful acting (not entirely the actors fault given the bad script/direction) and a silly messy storyline make for a snooze-fest that had me reaching for the fastforward button very early in the show. The child actor was wooden and unconvincing. His acting abilities were limited to looking vaguely bored and looking vaguely smug. He wasn't creepy or scary. Just irritating and precocious. There was no suspense, no thrills, no scares, no intrigue, no drama, no originality, just nothing. I honestly can't see who would like this film. Finally, I couldn't care less about any of the characters or what happened to them, they were non-entities with no personalities or interesting characteristics. Except the kid, he was annoying me so badly with his wooden acting and lame smug expression I was hoping someone would kill him and put us all out of our misery. Fortunately that wasn't necessary as I simply pressed eject immediately after yet another smug look from the child and stopped watching the movie about half way through. Don't waste your time on this one. If you want to see truly creepy child actors, good acting, a good plot and experience true jump scares & suspense watch Mama instead.

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.

When it comes to the characterisation of children, Hollywood doesn't really have much of a gray area: a kid can be either unbearably cute and sweet or, alternately, a supernatural Hitler. That's pretty much it. When you go for the second option (which I encourage), your movie pretty much stands or falls with the child's acting performance. I'm glad to say "Whisper" really hits a bulls-eye in that field, because Blake Woodruff is an intensely frightening kid who nails every scene he's in. He's almost as scary as Harvey Stephens from "The Omen", the movie "Whisper" so transparently tries to ape. In fact Woodruff is almost too good, because it's incredibly frustrating how nobody ever picks up on his evilness. You know that scene from every slasher ever where you're supposed to yell "don't go in there!" when a character's being stupid? "Whisper" gives you that feeling for pretty much its entire running time, and nobody listens here either. Doesn't change the fact that it's quite entertaining though, because the scares are very well-done (despite the overuse of dream sequences) and the finale gives you everything you could want from this kind of B-movie. Just don't expect anything really creative.

Okay, I realize it's not very friendly to refer to any certain film with the words "weak – derivative – implausible" directly in the subject line, but "Whisper" truly is yet another umpteenth mundane and forgettable attempt at horror/thriller and I honestly don't see any reason to encourage anyone to see it. Everyone whose even remotely interested in the thriller genre has seen this type of story numerous times before, only … the vast majority of the other versions are quite superior. "Whisper" again revolves on an evil child, a 9-year-old called David, who terrorizes a bunch of adults. This time the adults are a bunch of dimwit criminals that kidnapped David for ransom, but obviously they didn't count on having abducted a brat from hell. David can plant murderous thoughts into people's minds, controls wild dogs and has telekinetic powers. Basically this means that he is more lethal than "Carrie" and Damien from "The Omen" combined. On top of that, he's also a manipulative little bastard and even manages to make the kidnappers mistrust each other. Needless to say the story of "Whisper" is overly silly and on the verge of preposterous even. There isn't any suspense to detect throughout the entire movie simply because the plot is too grotesque and the characters are totally uninteresting. The female lead can still count on some sympathy, but the movie stupidly undermines this by revealing her fade at the very beginning of the film already. As a horror picture, "Whisper" fails tremendously as well, with dull and totally laughable death sequences. Seriously, a heart-attack?!? Simply in order not to come across as an utterly negative sourpuss, I do want to emphasize that the film does feature a few bright elements as well. The snowy Maine filming locations, for example, are quite atmospheric and the young Blake Woodruff does a surprisingly impressive job as the little demonic bastard. And, last but not least, the soundtrack contains a terrific use of "Ring of Fire" by the almighty Johnny Cash and that alone deserves another extra point.