r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Sep 05 '26
Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Whisper Man [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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The Whisper Man
Summary
A grieving father and his young son relocate to the quiet town of Featherbank, which was terrorized by a serial killer known as The Whisper Man 15 years earlier, while rumors circulated that Whisper Man worked with an accomplice.
Director James Ashcroft
Writer Ben Jacoby Chase Palmer Alex North (based on the novel)
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Peter Willis
- Michelle Monaghan as Amanda Beck
- Adam Scott as Tom Kennedy
- Acston Luca Porto as Jake Kennedy
- Michael Keaton as Frank Carter
- Owen Teague as Francis Carter Jr.
- Hamish Linklater as Norman Collins
- Will Brill as Sgt. John Dyson
Rotten Tomatoes: 41%
Metacritic: 52
VOD / Release Netflix — August 28, 2026
Trailer Official trailer
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u/olllie Sep 05 '26
Great actors, terrible script. Passable, but forgetable movie
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u/Aduialion Sep 07 '26
Silence of the lambs meets some other horror/serial killer movie. But I also like those movies.
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u/Actonyourimpulses Sep 17 '26
Yes! Like that mixed with Hide And Seek and Kiss The Girls and Black Phone
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u/Gimme_The_Loot Sep 06 '26
It felt like there was a lot of details in the book that got left out in the movie
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u/scottyboy218 Sep 05 '26
did I miss how Adam Scott's character just so happened to move into the house where the one body had been buried in the basement?
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u/red_beered Sep 05 '26
I think this must have been edited out for the final cut, but it's heavily implied that Michael Keaton's character persuaded the nephew of the landlord who was in prison with him to somehow make the house a viable rental specifically for Adam Scott's character, knowing he was the son of deniro's character.
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u/tinydancer687 Sep 06 '26
Sadly this is one of those things that is explained very clearly in the book and left out in the movies. The book answer is that when Tom was looking for houses, Jake was fixated on this one and only wanted it. Tom was really stressed about Jake being happy so he ended up buying it. We later find out that Jake was keeping pictures of Rebecca as a kid and there was one picture of her in front of the house which is very likely what influenced him to feel entranced by it. When Rebecca was a kid, kids used to take pics in front of that house because it looked scary. And it was scary because the people who occupied it were involved in the creepy death museum business, which is how Dominic Barnett came to be there with Tony's remains.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
Now you see this was never explained in the film ,are we suppose to just guess when it was heavily implied they moved to be closer to the dead mother or something and even if it was ,it was hit and miss because nothing adds up in this whole freakin film
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u/tinydancer687 Sep 06 '26
Yeah idk what we were even supposed to assume if I only saw the movie lol. If a movie only makes sense with additional explanations from the book, that's kind of a problem
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u/preteen-wartortle Sep 06 '26
I think they probably thought it was fine to chalk it up to coincidence. Personally, I think this whole thing could’ve been solved with maybe two lines of dialogue and quite literally any explanation.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
How did the whisper man even know the writer wanted to move ,Did the writer advertise his plans of moving house?from what was explained it was just a random move that had soo many coincidences
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u/otis-redding Sep 05 '26
Why would Adam Scott ever choose that house? His kid has phobia of going up/down stairs and it’s giant Victorian with at least 3 flights of stairs and way too many rooms for 2 people.
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u/LtFluffybear Sep 05 '26
its a victorian style house that was cheap, are you gunna pass up on that kind of architecture just cause your kid is terrified of stairs? hell nah, he will get over it, but that victorian house only comes around once in awhile
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u/skyerippa Sep 11 '26
I thought the house had something to do with the mom and was waiting for it the whole time lol like it was her childhood house or something
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u/PowSuperMum Sep 05 '26
This really gave me early 2000’s thriller vibes. They don’t really make movies like that anymore so I enjoyed this in that regard. Is it a good movie? Not really. But it was fine for what it was.
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u/ILoveLamp9 25d ago
This was the exact reason I decided to watch. Reminded me of the 90s/early 2000s psychological thrillers which are some of my favorite movies.
They don’t make movies like this anymore, so I enjoyed watching a modern version of it again.
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u/GCC_Pluribus_Anus Sep 05 '26
Spoilers:
Maybe it was just me but I thought Michael Keaton spelled out the twist too obviously. He really hit the whole sons trying to be exactly like their dads thing hard so I kinda figured it was gonna be his son doing it.
Otherwise, it was decent enough. Nothing super special but not bad in any meaningful way.
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u/Inside_Dimension2319 Sep 05 '26
He absolutely did. I usually can never figure out the “twist” or the murderer in movies, and right away I was like “oh okay, it’s that son that they mentioned at the beginning.” It’s fine to make the twist obvious to the viewer, but when the detective has the same information and can’t figure it out, that’s a problem.
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u/Longjumping-Turnip97 Sep 07 '26
I forgave that because I assumed it was intentional. The story was implying that the detective was too strung up and feeling guilty about his own son to focus on the case. I.e. he was just naturally assumed it was all about himself and his own son Tom.
Obvious we the viewer would have a better full picture but I didn’t mind the detective for being a bit blinded or limited by personal issues.
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u/Teeenagedirtbag Sep 08 '26
The moment I see the first clip of the wife/girlfriend being interrogated by the police I was like the kid she is looking at off camera is 100% the killer. Too much attention being brought to that kid while withholding his identity
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u/Existing-Engineer490 Sep 06 '26
This felt so obvious that I thought it was a double-bluff "oh Michael Keaton basically just said his son is the murder, that's too direct to be true there must be more to this" ... nope! I still liked the movie but the dialogue here was so on the nose lol.
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u/Jbstargate1 Sep 12 '26
I thought the twist was gonna be that De Niro had adopted or taken in the 6th victim they mentioned or something along those lines. Scott mentioned he didn't really remember much as a kid so thought it was leading up to that.
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u/MamaNicole25 Sep 07 '26
Honestly was so easy to figure out. i guessed it before jake even went missing when the cop lady said “why would they wait so long to start back up again” it was so obvious it must’ve been his/a kid because what else kind of explanation is there…. way too obvious.
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u/RevolutionaryCan2463 Sep 06 '26
Right. I was trying very hard not to guess so I could enjoy the movie but this was too hard to ignore. The final twist, the real objective behind wanting the son in prison was also very obvious.
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u/Practical-Frame1237 Sep 08 '26
Way too early. It was obvious after they interviewed him in prison the first time. So disappointing
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u/RespectFew4439 Sep 05 '26
Spoilers
One of the biggest clues to me was when you see the children in the playground when someone (can’t remember who) gets arrested. I noticed that Owen Teague was with the children. Instantly knew what was going on. He’s kind of got an unmissable face
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u/No_Biscotti_7258 Sep 06 '26
This but earlier in the movie, you see his reflection in a metal table. At the playground scene, you see him again. I knew at that point
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u/bokia22 Sep 16 '26
Which scene was Tt ! I can’t seem to find it
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u/No_Biscotti_7258 Sep 16 '26
Maybe halfway through, it shows the killer creating a cassette tape, and you see his face reflected in a metal table
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u/mkgrant213 Sep 06 '26
Same for me. We actually stopped to rewind when I saw him in the background at the playground. Figured it out then. Also figured it was the mom in the blue sweater because Jake didn't like showing his dad the photos he chose for this special things.
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u/Lemme_Help_ Sep 08 '26
Yup, bro has a face that stands out. He looked suspect the minute I saw him.
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u/ShmebulocksMistress Sep 07 '26
I wasn’t familiar with the actor before, but I noticed when all the other school workers were paying attention to the kids and getting them inside. He was looking at Adam Scott’s character and didn’t seem to concerned with getting the kids away.
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u/Oinky_McStoinky Sep 06 '26
I did enjoy this movie but Adam Scott’s character is so unbelievably stupid. I’m sorry but if my kid started whispering like that on a regular basis and then I CLEARLY see a stranger’s hand reaching through the mail slot we are going to a motel immediately. I cannot fathom seeing and hearing all that and choosing to just…put your kid to bed and then get drunk???
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u/Mediochra Sep 07 '26
That really bothered me as a parent. Like… my kid would not leave my sight. There would be cameras and alarms everywhere. I’d probably move.
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u/niketyname Sep 07 '26
Seriously, like let me just let him sleep alone in a giant room with huge windows with access to the roof in a new house during a storm. Why not just sleep together a few nights and see if things improve.
His drinking wasn’t really shown as a problem- or I missed it. I didn’t pick up he was drunk till they said it.
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u/ConsistentHouse1261 Sep 07 '26
this really bothered me. the dad went out of his way to add a second lock to the front door, but kept the windows in his kids bedroom unlocked, knowing that this guy is possibly after his son.... regardless of the intruders intentions, even if you wanna assume it could just be a burglar, why not keep all the windows locked for the safety of your children? some burglars are not afraid to kill in home invasions if it means they will be caught. like... it's common sense.
also, the movie never explained how this weirdo freak serial killer got the kids to willingly get out of their rooms/house for the kidnapper... they said he somehow has a way to convince them, but i don't understand how a kidnapper stalking you at night through your window and what not can gain the trust of a child and be able to groom them to the point of not even having to snatch them?? like most kids around that age are not that naive. they aren't aware of how evil people could be but by that age they know what a kidnapper is. they've been warned. most kids would be creeped the hell out by a boogeyman looking at them at night through their window. regardless of how bad they may have it at home.
they said he chose kids that wanted to be chosen because they had trouble at home. with one of his victims being a foster child, i can imagine how he got through to that kid maybe. he was also working at the school one of his victims was attending i believe, but that still doesn't explain a lot.
But for Jake, yeah sure he was depressed that his mom died, but his dad was not some horrible abusive father? how is that an example of a kid that doesn't mind being kidnapped by the boogeyman creeping on them at night through their bedroom window??? overall though, i still enjoyed the movie despite the fact that a lot of things didn't quite add up and there were some questionable choices, but i didn't take the movie too seriously either. the cast also made the movie better than it was of course. with a lower budget and a no-name cast, i wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.
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u/niketyname Sep 07 '26
I agree with all that you said, I don’t know how this guy could be that successful kidnapping them from their homes. He can’t know Jake that well, his weaknesses, he’s only been at the school a few days.
I’m sure the book has much more detail, but is movie watchers need to get this information better than it was shown
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u/Chazlique 21d ago
I'm not sure if I am off track here and I haven't gone back to watch it but my theory is he actually did work at the school, so Jake knew him, wouldn't be sooo hard to believe Jake walked out on his own to someone known rather than a stranger if that were the case
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u/dwight_k_III 13d ago
I know this is an old comment but his casual "back to bed" after an insanely traumatic and terrifying experience was an insane choice
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u/johngie Sep 05 '26
If I had a nickel for every 2026 movie where Adam Scott plays a writer investigating missing persons case that culminates in a ghost mom saving her son, I'd have two nickels.
If I had a dime for every movie where Michael Keaton has a nemesis named 'Pete' and the big reveal involves his child, I'd have two dimes.
Overall, I thought this was a perfectly fine thriller elevated somewhat by a pretty stacked cast.
However, I'm going to need a 750-word essay on the symbolism of broken roofs and fatherhood submitted by 8am Monday morning.
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u/sumofawitch Sep 06 '26
Ha. I had to rewatch Hokum just after this movie. I just told my mom, another movie where he's a famous writer. Only he's even more depressed. Still with daddy issues.
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u/RegularFirm2179 Sep 07 '26
I honestly thought Adam Scott’s character was the accomplice at the beginning and his dad knew and was covering for him
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u/GimmieGummies Sep 07 '26
Now that would have been a good twist
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u/RegularFirm2179 Sep 07 '26
maybe it was a red herring the screenwriters put in to mislead, but the reluctance of De Niro's character to get involved and his shadiness totally tracked with his son being the accomplice, and the dialogue hinted that he and Adam Scott's character were actively in cahoots to sidetrack the police.
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u/Lint6 Sep 08 '26
I thought it was going to be that, because of his wifes death, Adam Scotts character developed DID and he was the one kidnapping the kids
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u/gloryday23 Sep 05 '26
This is the kind of movie Franchise would have made in the early 2000s, and it would have turned out exactly like this.
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u/otis-redding Sep 05 '26
Ashley Judd would have played the Monaghan part.
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u/gloryday23 Sep 05 '26
I like Ashley Judd a lot, so initially I was offended on her behalf, but then the rational part of my brain took over, and I realized you were completely correct! lol
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u/otis-redding Sep 05 '26
Definitely no shade, always enjoyed that era of thrillers that were trying to make an easy watch version of Se7en and Silence of the Lamb, and she was the lead actress in 70% of them.
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u/red_beered Sep 05 '26
The main message from this movie is that kids are fucking stupid and will get you killed and themselves killed.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
How did the kid get kidnap,the writer is the son of a detective and not once did he ever teach his kid to never ever talk to strangers aka adult men, trying to sneak into your room late at night even when they're pretending to be a ghost 🤦
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u/sumofawitch Sep 06 '26
His mother warned him about the boy downstairs but not about to wander out at night.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
True lol or not to talk to strangers or men peeking thru your window
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u/dave__autista Sep 07 '26
he saw a literal hand reaching through the mail slot trying to grab his son, and he thought nothing of it, he went and got drunk in front of the tv . . .
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 07 '26
True lmao ,Worse father ever ,I was not rooting for him 🤦and it's not like he was imagining it,the hand litteraly tried to open the door to get to his son ,also he saw his son talking to someone thru the peephole before the hand tried to grab the door handle so did he not even try to question his son to ask him what this individual wanted from him or even allow the boy to sleep in his room,it was also shown he setup cameras in the kids room yet never once inspected the surveillance to see who might have taken his son and as audiences watching this ,they're asking us to actually care for this messedup negligent hypocrite father
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u/skyleft4 Sep 06 '26
Everyone was really incompetent haha
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u/niketyname Sep 07 '26
Lowkey killer was incompetent too. They show him cutting Jake’s nails so we assume that he going to kill him soon. Method of killing was strangling so far. They never show Francis try to strangle Jake at all considering all the opportunities he has. He instead put him in a brick and metal box, which would take hours to kill him. What a weird decision. Just like the detective not shooting him despite the gun
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u/torielsie Sep 08 '26
It’s not a weird decision. Francis’s plan for Jake was to kill him in the same box that was the final resting place for his father Frank’s last victim, Tony Smith. He was trying to recreate his father’s final crime. I agree the nail cutting made it seem like Francis was going to strangle Jake, but it could have been so that Jake couldn’t rip the bag open that Francis put over his head in the box. Or he was simply keeping with his father’s tradition in cutting all of his victims’ nails.
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u/Mink1477 Sep 05 '26
At the start, there's a woman shadow in the open door. Me and my wife didn't understand wtf that was untill we released what it actually was. There's quite a few really cool shots like that, sadly the script was ass
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u/SilverOrdinary5162 Sep 06 '26
What was it?? The ghost of the wife?
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u/sumofawitch Sep 06 '26
Yes. She was also in the back seat of the car when they're coming.
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u/JollyZoggles Sep 07 '26
That was weird. I was like “why is he only acknowledging one of his kids?” And then “wait where did the other kid go? … oh there she is … oh no, she’s his imaginary friend.”
Unnecessarily confusing way to introduce the family.
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u/ConsistentHouse1261 Sep 07 '26
this confused me so much because for part of the movie i assumed the dad had 2 kids, not just one.
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u/VoldemortsHorcrux Sep 07 '26
It wasnt the ghost of his wife. It was his son's imaginary friend who was his wife as a child
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u/sumofawitch Sep 07 '26
Then How did his imaginary friend know about the boy in the floor?
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u/fusionman51 Sep 05 '26
It was a fine movie. It’s a prisoners lite. Just felt like the father/son dynamic really needed to be utilized more than it was. The twist was not crazy. The ending was just fine.
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u/Mellowtraveler Sep 05 '26
It's an enjoyable mid to low level thriller. The actors are great and fun to watch and there are enough twists to keep you entertained on a weeknight at home if you are tired from work. You can't think about it too much though and there are pacing issues.
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u/Global_Grapefruit103 Sep 06 '26
Why was Norman in the basement??
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u/OppositeNews76 Sep 06 '26
I think it was because he was informed that the 6th victim (Tony) was there?
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u/sumofawitch Sep 06 '26
But he had been there months ago, when he killed Dominic, right? Why was he still there?
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u/givmetakes Sep 06 '26
He never found the body I think? Still looking for it? . Or he did find it, and likes to go back and look at it
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u/vegetaray246 Sep 10 '26
My head canon says he found it and just liked going back and creeping over it…There was a bedroll on the floor next to the brick pile.
But another possibility is that he knew the body would eventually be found, now that Tom and Jake had moved in, and he was there to either take the body or grab a memento.
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u/Renee5285 Sep 12 '26
A squatter had been spotted there for months. So I guess he left his swank operatic murder museum to go sleep on a musty pallet next to a couple of dead bodies. I guess.
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u/sumofawitch Sep 06 '26
But man, he got months to look for it. It's impossible he didn't find it. unless, Michael Keaton told him not to, he could have taken it to his sick collection. It didn't seem he had any problem with legality of stuff.
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u/Seinfeel Sep 06 '26
Considering he kept the murder weapon he used and put it on display, he was probably there to relive it and also look at the dead kid.
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u/AustonsCashews Sep 05 '26
So the hero of the story is a hole in the floor. Whose shit idea was that.
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u/zudoplex Sep 06 '26
Technically a ghost
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
This reminded me so much of the Black phone ,at least the Black phone had reasons to explain why the ghosts were helping,here it was for plot reasons only ,and from the look on the writers face at the end ,it looked as if he never showed his kid pics of the mother when they were young so im assuming his believing in ghost now too
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u/wompthing Sep 06 '26
I don't think there's much need of explanation for why a ghost would protect her son.
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u/TrinityBellewoods Sep 07 '26
Adam Scott really did not do a decent enough house inspection before buying this place
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u/Negafox Sep 05 '26
The last act was dumb on so many levels for what was otherwise a serviceable movie. It was a series of everyone’s brains went out the window, and then the killer got beat by the dumbest coincidence imaginable.
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u/ConsistentHouse1261 Sep 07 '26
its because they needed to create a scenario where the ghost mom as a child saved jake, which made the plot so unrealistic and unnatural, and not even because of the supernatural part lol, but because of the dumb choices the characters had to make to get to that scene. it ruined the ending for sure.
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u/RegularFirm2179 Sep 07 '26
Cop’s son just randomly moves into a house with two bodies connected to the case his father broke?
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u/insulin_stan Sep 09 '26
Really sloppy writing. Some initial thoughts:
- Father doesn’t call the police when he sees a hand through the mailbox with a blue latex glove wooing his son; in a town where kids are going missing.
- Kid hides upstairs instead of leaving the building
- No explanation as to why the son left the house voluntarily
- nod to something paranormal, but no pay off for it
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u/srainey58 25d ago
- In the book, he does call the police, similar to the scene with the guy in the basement
- This entire scene isn’t in the book. Weird, bad writing
- Also not in the book. More weird, bad writing
- The boy in the floor has no payoff to it but I’d say the wife Rebecca being his imaginary friend is a good enough payoff
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Sep 05 '26
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
O let me just throw my police radio on the floor while having no backup to catch a dangerous serial killer predator Oh let me try to murder this kid even though he fled twice, just for kicks and even though I could've killed him without having to drop him in a hole Oh let me not worry about that latex gloves ridden hand that tried to unlock my door the other night Oh let me just lecture my kid on not to have imaginary friends but completely forget to warn him not to ever talk to dangerous predators thru the door
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u/WiltingPothos Sep 05 '26
What a shit movie
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u/zlide Sep 10 '26
I’m completely blown away reading every comment that isn’t this one lol. Just finished watching this movie and it was fucking awful.
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u/SpiralUniverse2278 17d ago
Yeah I'm reading these comments above saying it was a decent movie. Meanwhile I feel like I just wasted 90 minutes. Suckered in with an interesting premise, spooky atmosphere and good acting, just for it to turn into a complete shit show full of stupid plot holes and bad twists.
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u/Your-Wonder-Sunny Sep 05 '26
I liked the supernatural element to this movie — that was the part that wasn’t so predictable.
I wish Adam would have leaned in more to the tired Dad, crazed in needing to find his son arc, cos he could have taken that farther but I saw a little more from his acting chops so I am cool with how he performed.
Keaton and De Niro were so-so in their roles but it was enough for me not to immediately turn something else on. It kept me wanting to see it to the end, so it must have been doing something very right. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat but I was still curious enough to stay and see that reveal.
The stand out actor in this for me was Owen Teague as Frank Jr, we didn’t get to see him fully until the end but he played his part pretty well.
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u/Neomastermind Sep 05 '26
I hated the supernatural tidbit because it did nothing for the film. It’s so light and inconsequential that it may as well not have been there.
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u/sumofawitch Sep 06 '26
If you remove the scene where kid says the girl was afraid of the boy downstairs, which he couldn't possibly know, you could say it was indeed only an imaginary friend.
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u/Rideyourmoni Sep 12 '26
I loved the book, and it had a lot of ambiguity with the supernatural element that was executed perfectly. I get that it’s hard to translate on screen, but I feel like it was fumbled hard in this movie.
They actually used the supernatural element to add some mystery to whether or not the son was really encountering an actual perpetrator or if it was just one of his “imaginary friends”. I was shocked that it was made clear so early that there was an active kidnapper pursuing him (he also got kidnapped way earlier in the film)
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u/dave__autista Sep 05 '26
flirting with the supernatural does absolutely nothing for this movie. literaly nothing changes if they cut it out completely
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u/ConsistentHouse1261 Sep 07 '26
i guess the only thing it would change is that technically jake wouldn't have gone upstairs to the attic with the bad floor if it wasn't for his moms ghost leading him there. because most people think to run outside of the house through the front door and he had a fear of stairs apparently, so he most likely wouldn't have went to the attic. i guess the writers really wanted the attic floor/the moms ghost to be what gets the killer and not the grandfather cop or jakes dad lol.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
In the movie The Black phone the ghosts are essential to Finney surviving ,if you remove them the entire story changes ,in this movie the ghost is just for decoration purposes only,Nothing changes lol🤦
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u/RedzCharizard Sep 06 '26
Adam Scott sneaking into the house, phone has an amber alert. He full sends and grabs a pot then tip toes as loud as possible down the steps into the basement. Loses the pot. Pull sprints to his son gets over powered. Deniro holds it down for a sec, Adam Scott says fuck these 300 bricks and continues to not even hit the guy. The mom ghost the whole time face palming.
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u/dave__autista Sep 06 '26
the mom ghost needs a good look in the mirror not telling her son to not go outside when a serial killer is out there
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u/Vichamoksha Sep 05 '26
I just clicked on the thread to know whether it was Jason Statham movie. Disappointed.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
He would've played a writer whose ex navy seal ,ex retired kkickboxer but has to come out from the shadows to solve the murder of young boys and get his kidnap son back lol
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u/universeisadoughnut Sep 09 '26
The one main point that keeps bugging me; how are we supposed to believe that the main character didn't know that the "night man" that would tell him bedtime stories as a kid, was actually his dad?
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u/ShawnLights Sep 09 '26 edited 16d ago
Killer at the end became Jason Bourne! Bro hit the invincibility cheat code. The hole in the floor being the ultimate demise made me audibly say “ef off” lol.
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u/Hopeful-Home6218 16d ago
the grandpa had a GUN and still got stabbed. his son shouldve pushed killer to the side instead of try to pull him off like wtf
also yes obviously the serial killer’s son who was abandoned by him would want to follow in his footsteps, because everyone with damaged parents is irreparably damaged themselves. hated that part lol
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u/VampireBaby Sep 05 '26
I have no idea how this movie got made. It’s atrocious. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
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u/tinydancer687 Sep 06 '26
I loved the book but they changed the plot so much; agreed it wasn't great :/ I think they could have made a really interesting movie if they just followed the book more closely as it was so gripping for me
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u/Existing-Engineer490 Sep 06 '26
Whodunnit mystery novels are just very hard to get right as movies. They are much better suited to being tv-series because it allows for the extra details/characters to be introduced that obfuscate the real truth.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
Story: 🤦🏽♀️ Plot logic: 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ Character decisions: 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ Cast: 👍🏽 Cinematography/lighting: 👌🏽🔥 Basically: It looks like a good horror thriller more than it actually behaves like one smh
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u/Sparsif Sep 07 '26
I want to know how the FUCK this guy was so strong??? Homegirl had a gun and didnt use it?? also if I could hear my child next to me screaming for help and a crazy man was on top of me trying to kill me I would give everything in me.. why was that so awful? I love Adam Scott so much this was a let down
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u/KeriEatsSouls Sep 05 '26
Spoiler:
How come the cop slashed that guy's calf when he was running past her down the stairs and he kept running after the kid just fine like she gave him a papercut
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u/Negafox Sep 05 '26
The script completely forgot about the leg injury beyond that point given all the action back at the kid’s house lol
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u/HashThePass Sep 09 '26
Shit movie. 2/10. Worst possible script I’ve seen. How did this shit pass and get funding lol.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
This movie was so damn confusing and had WAY too many plot holes. 😭 So basically, this obsessed serial killer guy somehow sneaks a phone to another guy so that he can speak to the Whisper Man, which somehow allows the Whisper Man to reconnect with his son and groom him into killing boys again. But the movie barely explains how any of this is supposed to work. And then there’s the HUGE coincidence: the retired detective’s son just happens to move into the exact same town where a copycat is killing young boys in connection with the same case his father once worked on. And apparently, the writer supposedly never knew about this connection, yet these missing-boy cases were exactly what caused his father to ruin his marriage and lose his relationship and bond with his son who is now a writer of detective novels. 🤦🏽♀️ AND they somehow move into the exact same house where the first body was found?! Like… seriously? 😂 Did the movie ever actually explain WHY any of this happened or are we just supposed to accept that it’s one giant coincidence? Then there’s the writer's son Jake. He’s supposedly extremely traumatised and scared of basically everything yet somehow he gets out of his room at night and goes off with a complete stranger who apparently sneaks through his window. Did the killer literally just climb through the window? How did Jake not scream or alert his father? And this father supposedly already had cameras in his son’s room because someone had previously tried to kidnap him. Then they discover a completely different stranger living in the cellar(the same stranger who connected the whisper man to his pedo son)where they eventually find another body. So you’re telling me this father is THAT cautious about his son, but somehow a random stranger can still sneak into his house and take his kid?! 🤦🏽♀️ And WHY Jake specifically? Did the original Whisper Man somehow tell the copycat where his nemesis’s son was living? If so, how did he even know they had moved? Was this actually explained somewhere and I just missed it? There are SO many unanswered questions that I honestly lost track.Why was this copycat so determine to kill this boy who already fled when he could've gotten away several times And that's probably why I found the movie so damn boring. It felt like one of those clichéd horror/thrillers where the characters have to make ridiculously convenient decisions so the plot can happen, instead of the story naturally making sense. Maybe I missed something, but if I have to keep stopping the movie every five minutes thinking, “Wait… HOW did that happen?” then that's not a good sign
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u/steelystan Sep 06 '26
Best part about the camera in his son’s room was that he didn’t fucking review any of the footage when his son disappeared! It was the cops that showed him the footage of his Charlie Bucket ass looking son voluntarily walking out of the room.
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u/Maleficent_Duty_6235 Sep 06 '26
The worse father ever and we're suppose to root for this guy lol,I'm telling you I'm glad I watched this film for free ,cos had I paid I would be royally pissed at everyone involved in this movie
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u/weareallpatriots Sep 08 '26
How about the cops making sure Keaton's son gets locked up in the same prison as his dad, then presumably letting the guards know what the deal is, so they let him into his cell for the explicit purpose of murdering his son as a reward for helping the cops. That's a murder/accessory to murder charge for every cop and prison guard involved. Ridiculous. But yeah, everything you mentioned made no sense either and is even more ludicrous when you laid it out like that. I just kind of went with the coincidences, but in retrospect those are pretty unforgivable. Everyone clearly just wanted a paycheck, but surprising that they got so many big names to do this.
Only thing I would say is that the killer could've grabbed Jake and just covered his mouth to prevent him from screaming.
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u/Renee5285 Sep 12 '26
I truly don’t get why they’d actually reward Frank for sharing info. Like, they have no reason to make good on that.
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u/skyerippa Sep 11 '26
Youre wrong about so many things in the movie... it wasn't completely random they moved to this town. He kept saying the mom was from there but He knew his dad was there but they weren't in contact. Like another comment said frank the bad guy in jail talked another inmate into getting the owner of the house to give Adam Scott cheap rent because its that house with the body.
The kid wasn't afraid of everything. He was just sad and afraid of the stairs cause thats how he found his mom. The fact he trusted the stranger was weird and not explained but that does happen in real life. They explain he leaves on his own accord. The guy didnt kidnap him through the window.
The trophy creep didnt live in the basement he was down there because of the bodies. He has a massive house, why would he live in the crawl space...?
Did you even watch the movie? The trophy guy specifically says he reconnected the son and father "the eyes" before he kills himself. Frank tells the son to go after Jake because of who he is related too.
The creepy son has issues so went along with it to satisfy his daddy issues. He knows where they moved because frank literally got him the house. He wants to make his dad proud.
Its actually annoying how much they explained everything in the dialogue and yoy just decided to go LALALALALALa i can't hear you!! this movie sucks!
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u/thedonhudson01 Sep 05 '26
Great cast, but I thought this movie was a slog. The first hour was rough and the climax was so frustratingly predictable. Why would Monaghan go see this guy without any backup? Why didn’t Adam Scott help his dad sooner when he was fighting the killer? And what was the point of the little girl?
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u/notthatgeorge Sep 05 '26
The script was terrible. The cops were canvassing the area, she was knocking on the door that doctor she didn't know there was any harm. Tom had to get his son out of that hole, any parent would have done the same thing especially if you're esstranged. The little girl was his "imaginary friend" and helped him along the way. Including going up the stairs and into the attic where she knew the guy would fall through the floor. Then it shows her picture at the end.
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u/Inside_Dimension2319 Sep 05 '26
Yeah his son was specifically yelling “I can’t breathe” from the hole, so it makes sense Scott’s character ignored DeNiro to save him.
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u/thedonhudson01 Sep 05 '26
So was the “imaginary friend” Adam Scott’s wife as a kid? I was wondering why he was looking at her picture like that.
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u/SquirrelIll8180 Sep 05 '26
If you actually pay attention to the film when it's on you will catch these very obvious details.
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u/OtherwiseJob8959 Sep 06 '26
Lol right? That was like the grand epiphany for viewers and why it was chosen as the last shot of the movie.
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u/niketyname Sep 07 '26
I thought she went to go see the Dr and he happened to be there so she prodded. But odd she went alone and backup was so slow. She has a phone on her, why not be on a live call or FaceTime to make sure someone knows what’s happening there, especially since killer and victim were both there.
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u/MyAccoutWasHacked77 Sep 06 '26
Who was the body in the blue barrel?
Also I guess the Whisper Man killed boys, because he was raped by his father when he was a boy? He wanted to kill his own son, but instead killed random boys?
Also what was that 6th victim part about?
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u/OppositeNews76 Sep 06 '26
I believe the blue barrel body was the doctor who treated the son as a child. And then the son returned and killed the doctor, who he told the cop was his mentor, but had died. The 6th victim is Tony, I THINK, the "boy in the floor".
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u/justageekgirl Sep 09 '26
I didn't have a problem with it.
I know people think it was terrible, but I think I have a soft spot for campy films especially when you have actors like DeNiro and Keaton trying to carry the film.
I will admit, I didn't know who the killer would be until the end and I didn't pick up on any clues, but I'm guessing a lot of you did because there was something obvious that pointed to who the real killer was.
I liked some of the scenes and kept my interest until the end.
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u/pikameta Sep 07 '26
5/10. I was excited to see this when I saw who was cast (Scott, DeNiro, Monaghan, Keaton); Linklater was a surprise, but then felt like he was clearly going to be an accomplice/bad guy because why else would you get someone of his caliber in the movie? By the end i was just let down and extremely disappointed with it.
Most of the things that made me the angriest/i found unbelievable:
- Older detective is completely unwilling to talk to the felon in prison when more children are being abducted? why ? because "reasons". Even when his own grandson is kidnapped, he tells his son to let the cops handle it and that he won't get involved. SERIOUSLY? (yes he ended up helping, but only after feeling guilty)
- An intruder alert is called in to the local PD- within DAYS of a child abduction! and no one but a beat cop comes to investigate? ESPECIALLY when a child the same age and gender of the previous victims lives in the house.
- The intruder is believed to have been squatting in this house- again this is DAYS since Neil's abduction!! and no one investigates the hidey hole AT ALL. "give that shit to goodwill" ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?
- creepy blue gloves come into your mailbox, you fling open the door, run down the street and don't call the cops? even knowing you had a random person in your basement earlier that day? side note- I was fully expecting the creepo to dart back into the house when Adam Scott ran down the sidewalk away from the house with the door flung WIDE OPEN.
- This police department seems to be small, but there's only ONE detective? and ok, maybe she doesn't have a partner, but she doesn't even travel with a uniformed officer during an active investigation? and when she does call for back up, she throws the radio and they never show up?
- Lemme just burn these letters from the convicted killer that may give us insight into his copycat/fan.
There is more that bugged me, but i think at this point I'm thinking about the story more than the writer and director did.
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u/Snoo-72888 Sep 16 '26
Why does no one in this movie ever turn the lights on? The entire film was in semi darkness. I’m all for setting a mood but they overdid it.
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u/Entire_Umpire6801 Sep 05 '26
Fantastic cast although it doesn't get the best out of them. Dialogue was average, some actors made more of it than others, Hamish Linklater was a standout. Thought the story was interesting from start to finish. Can probably pick multiple holes in it but I found it to be engaging and good enough.
Solid entry in the Silence of the Lambs/Seven genre, worth a watch.
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u/Couldnotbehelpd Sep 05 '26
I haven’t watched the movie but I did read the book and remember thinking it was not very good..
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u/Three_Froggy_Problem Sep 05 '26
I read the book a few months ago and thought it sucked. It’s just filled to the brim with laughably cliché passages of alcoholics looking at “the bottle” and fighting their demons.
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u/Shakemyears Sep 09 '26
I didn’t read the book but the way they showed Deniro’s ceiling cracks plastered at the end made me think it probably isn’t very good.
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u/Ikyhus565 Sep 06 '26
It was an ok movie but 1st of all the cop gets stabbed so many times but lives. Ok thats fine maybe medics came on the scene quick I'd rather she live.
But the killer falls how many stories down and doesn't die wth was that?
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u/ConsistentHouse1261 Sep 07 '26
i already commented but i just thought of another thing that didn't make sense. robert de niro's character promised the whisper man that he could finally kill his (whisper man's) son if he tells him where jake is. ok fine. he made that deal unofficially, under the table obviously. then robert de niro's character dies shortly after this. even if the whisper man was like "hey, he promised me i could kill my son and i came through with my end of the deal" i just can't imagine any cop giving him what he wanted after they 1. already got what they wanted from him (jake's location) and 2. risking their own career and freedom if someone ever found out.
is it implied that the female cop (forgot her name) is the one who came through with that part of the deal, even though she didn't know about it through de niro's character since he died before he could properly tell her? is this implied through the letter the whisper man sent her, thanking her and de niro?
i just can't see her giving him what he wanted. not because she cares about the life of the creepy killer/whisper man's son, but obviously that plan involves other people knowing about it, like the prison guard who allowed the whisper man to get into his sons cell and told him to "make it fast" lol... i would assume she would be afraid of going to prison herself for setting that up. i know the female cop was stabbed by the whisper man's son so maybe that's why they had that stabbing altercation happen, to give her motive to allow the whisper man to kill his son. but it still seems far fetched.
if de niro's character didn't die, i could see him going through with the deal he made with the whisper man and honoring his words for a few reasons. 1. he established some kind of a connection with the whisper man after all those years, even though it was a negative connection obviously. but that could still be enough for some people to stand by what they promised. 2. he's already an old man and was retired so it wouldn't have been as much of a risk for him to break the law like this. 3. the case was personal for him since the whisper man's son kidnapped his grandchild. Despite the fact he never met his grandchild before, it doesn't mean he couldn't be emotionally swayed enough to let the man who kidnapped his grandson get killed. This would have been more realistic since he has a better motive to go through with this and less risk, unlike the young female cop.
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u/Chimpsen Sep 08 '26
Can someone enlighten me how they started suspecting the collector guy ( Norman)? They look at visitors and DeNiro just goes "this one" and thats that. Also for the showdown. Why is Tom even there? DeNiro tried to call him but doesnt reach him and he just comes to the house randomly?
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u/preteen-wartortle Sep 06 '26
Blah. Along with the other observations of great cast and bad writing:
- Long-retired cop casually given free access to evidence, sits in on interrogations, crosses tape lines, etc. for literally just existing near the crime scenes.
- Man asks for a lawyer and the cops immediately start interrogating him—anything he says would be thrown out—AND they can’t piece together who Frank really wanted to be connected with over his fervent request to be connected to his son plus “I could just tell from the eyes”
- She threw her radio?
- The way prison and “the projects” were depicted lmfao
- I know I kind of covered the bad writing but the dialogue was crazy weird at times. Just super fucking strange
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u/lishmh33 Sep 05 '26
Read the book a few months ago, felt that it was pretty generic and very trope-y. Watched the movie last week and felt that it was pretty generic and very trope-y.
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u/entilza05 Sep 07 '26
This movie started out great... I found out when this movie went to shit, it was the moment the Tea was thrown at Detective Amanda, after that it was downhill...
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u/smokingace182 Sep 05 '26
Cop radios in for back up saying she’s found the suspect………. Nothing happens. Anonymous caller says the suspect is somewhere and every cops races off even one that suppose to be watching a house.