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.
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.