Whistle is very loosely based on my childhood summers growing up in New Orleans with my older brother. We’d ride our bikes in the neighborhood everyday with our friends, scourging for change around our house, begging our parents for money to buy some snacks from the corner store, and staying out all day until the street lights flickered on. We had to be inside by then. Of course being young, curious kids, we sometimes disregarded our parents’ warnings not to ride too far off, and to not talk to strangers in the neighborhood. The teens in this story do just that, and being scolded at home becomes the least of their problems.
The goal of my film is to have this project be a launching pad to my potential as a director and as a writer, two titles that I am more and more confident in describing myself with. I also want to portray characters that look like myself and the kids I grew up with. I want to give us a chilling story that isn’t rooted in racism, oppression, trauma, or any other societal horrors, just plain old creepy feelings and monsters.
This project is important to me because it showcases who I am as a storyteller, especially in coming-of-age stories with a touch of horror. I believe horror, as a genre, is an outlet for our stories to be told in ways that go beyond the ordinary. Horror has existed since the beginning of literature, using monsters, myths, and legends as metaphors for the challenges we face in life. I want Whistle to be a story about overcoming fears to save yourself and the people you love, especially in moments when you don’t feel worthy.
For this project, I am drawn to casting teens/young adults to portray versions of the kids that I grew up with. Having four teenaged characters having to confront a terrifying situation with only themselves and no help exhibits the freedom that I once felt as a kid. Funny enough, I don’t think I have since then reached that level of freedom that I had as that little kid– the only girl in the group, on our bikes.
I’ve always been a fan of the “ragtag band of kids on a morbid adventure” trope. This project is inspired by films and shows like IT, Stand by Me, and Stranger Things, with cultural tones reminiscent of Dope or Crooklyn. The tone of the film is warm, exploring themes of fear, loss, desperation, friendship, and siblinghood.
When watching this film, I hope audiences take away that nostalgia of being young, being free, and fighting for the people they care about. I want the audience to think of a time when they had to defy the laws of their perceived limits, and do something they never thought they could.
And if I scare them a little along the way… even better.
