Based on the novel by Alex North, The Whisper Man comes to Netflix starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan, and Adam Scott. This serial killing melodrama about fractured families, heart-wrenching grief, and supernatural surrogates is elevated by the top-tier ensemble cast. Taking a premise that audiences would have seen before and turning The Whisper Man into a silk purse rather than a sow’s ear.
Robert De Niro already has a history with Netflix thanks to the superior Zero Day, while Adam Scott has seen his profile explode thanks to Severance. What The Whisper Man does is put a Hollywood veteran and revered character actor in opposition to each other, giving this Netflix original some backbone. Michelle Monaghan adds some additional layers to this copybook serial killer thriller, but De Niro and Scott remain the reason to keep watching.
Director James Ashcroft lifts liberally from The Sixth Sense and manages to inject just enough atmosphere to keep audiences watching. Drawing on folklore elements through nursery rhymes to tap into childhood terrors familiar to anyone growing up in old houses. He also leans into certain imagery prior to the reveal which takes advantage of Stephen King’s IT, and more specifically Pennywise.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
As The Whisper Man meanders between police procedural and family melodrama it ticks all the boxes people would expect, ramping up paranoia as this Alex North adaptation twists in different directions. Unfortunately, this film suffers from a pacing issue that is all too common in movies made purely for streamers. Plot threads connect too cleanly, action beats or dramatics revelations come too thick and too fast, and everything just feels rushed.
Whether or not the performances are any good almost feels academic, since no one character feels rich enough to trouble the upper echelons of serial killer gold standards on Netflix including Mindhunter. Granted that might be a series helmed by one of the most influential directors in that genre, but The Whisper Man should at least attempt to measure up. It might not have the breadth of a ten-episode run to exploit, but there is still that excellent ensemble cast.
Thankfully, not one of them is phoning in their performance and squeezes as much drama as they can out of this copybook premise. The Whisper Man might not move beyond Sunday afternoon serial killer lite vibes, but it remains a watchable endeavour even if it never creates anything original from the influence of others.
The Whisper Man is streaming on Netflix now.