James Ashcroft
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The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
influenced The Whisper Man (2026)
Themes Characters Plot
…fails to congeal with the sort of “Silence of the Lambs”-appealing pressure desired of a proposed tête-à-tête between longtime rivals on opposite sides of an investigation…
James Patterson’s serial killer novels, Slender Man, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Black Phone, and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger all shape the story…
The Whisper Man is not going to challenge The Silence of the Lambs as the high-water mark of this genre…
She even gets her own Clarice Starling moment, because, again, all these movies are chasing The Silence of the Lambs.
Michael Keaton makes the most of limited screentime as the original Whisper Man, long locked away for his sick deeds, ready to play Hannibal Lecter-esque mind games with the police when they seek his advice on who might be picking up where he left off.
…a shop-worn narrative that feels like a remix of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon…
Funny Games (2008)
Directed by Michael Haneke
influenced Coming Home in the Dark (2021)
Themes Plot Characters
It recalls the ominous Lake Berryessa murder scene in David Fincher's Zodiac and has all the unbearable energy of Michael Haneke's Funny Games .
The pointedness of the film’s aims means it trades out the unnerving ambiguity of its undeniable cinematic forerunner—Michael Haneke’s Funny Games—for a more straightforward pulpy didacticism, making the subsequent desensitizing effects of the violence an unintended outcome rather than the entire point.
Adapting Owen Marshall's short story of the same name, first-time feature director James Ashcroft appears to be taking cues from Austria to begin with, however, and fashioning Coming Home in the Dark after Michael Haneke's two versions of Funny Games.
One such offering, Coming Home in the Dark, is a deeply unsettling bit of Ozploitation (although it’s actually from New Zealand, so Kiwiploitation?) that begins like a distaff version of Haneke’s own Funny Games by way of Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek.
In Haneke’s Funny Games , Peter and Paul were free-ranging sadists, playing with holidaymakers ostensibly to pass the time.
…from Kiss the Girls to The Bone Collector, before the Saw franchise replaced mystery and suspense with gristle and innards…
Kiss the Girls…
…from Kiss the Girls to The Bone Collector, before the Saw franchise replaced mystery and suspense with gristle and innards…
The Bone Collector…
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven
influenced The Whisper Man (2026)
Themes Characters
In the 1980s, Freddy Krueger turned sleep itself into something terrifying, stalking his victims through their dreams with a razor glove and a nursery rhyme.
James Patterson’s serial killer novels, Slender Man, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Black Phone, and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger all shape the story…
…isn’t able to thread that needle with the same deft hand for desperation that someone like Denis Villeneuve managed to harness with his American breakthrough “Prisoners,”…
…selling Tom's desperation by doing his best Hugh-Jackman-in-Prisoners impression…
De Niro may have thousands of theoretical co-stars who could appear here but only two movies with that storyline. And if you figure critics were barred from blowing open the ending of 2005’s Hide and Seek, well, you incorrectly presume they were even allowed to see that film early.
The Whisper Man sometimes resembles another De Niro thriller, Hide and Seek—though this one is far better. Like Hide and Seek, The Whisper Man deals with presences that might or might not be imaginary.
…could have been released in between the evil clone horror Godsend and imaginary friend thriller Hide and Seek, the kind of bottom-tier project that offers the actor a nice big cheque and the audience a nice little nap…
Without a Trace…
Copycat…
James Patterson’s serial killer novels, Slender Man, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Black Phone, and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger all shape the story…
…before the Saw franchise replaced mystery and suspense with gristle and innards…
James Ashcroft’s (The Rule of Jenny Pen) The Whisper Man is no Sharp Objects. I draw that comparison because I think Gillian Flynn’s source novel and showrunner Marti Noxon’s HBO series of the same name are this century’s strongest serial-killing storytelling around.
…a shop-worn narrative that feels like a remix of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon…
James Patterson’s serial killer novels, Slender Man, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Black Phone, and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger all shape the story…
…nor does it have the benefit of a menacingly unhinged Nicolas Cage performance, like the one that made Longlegs turn heads…
The End of Oak Street (2026)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
influenced The Whisper Man (2026)
Visuals
…along with the increasing frequency of the technique in other, more stylistically motivated recent films like “The End of Oak Street”…
There are vaguely supernatural suggestions, complete with The Whisper Man’s own signature nursery rhyme that’s more The Snowman than The Babadook (If you leave a door half open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken).
…could have been released in between the evil clone horror Godsend and imaginary friend thriller Hide and Seek…
There are vaguely supernatural suggestions, complete with The Whisper Man’s own signature nursery rhyme that’s more The Snowman than The Babadook (If you leave a door half open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken).
Keaton playing a very similar smirking-killer-behind-bars role to the one he pulled off in 1998’s Desperate Measures…