Title: The Whisper Man
First Non-Festival Release: August 28, 2026 (Digital/Streaming Platforms)
Director: James Ashcroft
Writer: Ben Jacoby, Chase Palmer, Alex North
Runtime: 115 Minutes
Starring: Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
Attempting to re-establish some normalcy for his son Jake (Acston Luca Porto) after his wife died, Tom (Adam Scott) moves back to his old hometown. In the throes of their own tragedy, the town is reeling from the reemergence of child abductions and murders decades after they thought they put the perpetrator (Michael Keaton) away. Now, the Whisper Man has returned to Garretton and set his sights on Jake. With Jake’s time running out, Tom must work in tandem with his retried police officer father (Robert De Niro), despite their strained relationship, if he wants any hope of seeing Jake alive.
A dull, dark serial killer thriller, The Whisper Man fails to elicit any emotion against its plodding tale of child abduction.
Netflix’s latest foray into genre filmmaking starts rocky enough and never recovers. Director James Ashcroft’s third feature following his gut-punching, debut revenge flick, Coming Home in the Dark, and his wonderfully weird geriatric horror The Rule of Jenny Pen, The Whisper Man feels wildly out of place from the get-go. A cold open introduces the urgency sweeping the local police department with the recent resurgence of child abductions before switching perspectives to Tom gently coaching his son through the flurry of life changes affecting him. It’s a moment of calculated empathy. Tom is presented as an active, loving, and still struggling single father trying to navigate his grief in addition to his son’s. One drunken argument later and Jake disappears. From there, The Whisper Man plays it safe both with its depiction of a serial killer and its understanding of grief.
Unraveled through hushed and hurried conversations, the mystery of The Whisper Man loses volume the closer it gets to its conclusion. Its terrifying premise aside, there is a distinct lack of danger in The Whisper Man that makes it feel empty. Sure, the film establishes the serial killer’s patterns and adequately portray the consequences for failing to find Jake through other victims. Unfortunately, The Whisper Man lingers more on the angst between Tom and Peter rather than the explosive need to save Jake. The confrontations often lack direction or shape, merely used as an opportunity to grind out one more clue. The friction rarely leads to anything profound or interesting, as both Adam Scott and Robert De Niro give flat performances.
Lacking any substantial thrills, The Whisper Man glides from one plot point to the next without much consideration for pacing or tone. With Jake’s abduction carried out in the first act, it’s clear the film doesn’t quite know how to connect its first and third acts together convincingly. Tom crashes through each lead with the subtlety and thoughtfulness of an agitated bull. It may engender sympathy for his nightmarish situation but does nothing much beyond this. With Jake sidelined for much of the feature, The Whisper Man relies on its supporting characters to incite fear. Aside from a few red herrings and an awkwardly placed fight, the lack of stakes seriously kneecaps the film’s work to develop the mystery behind the killer. Muddy visuals impair the film’s attempts at moody direction and often obscure the action to its detriment even further.
Ashcroft’s signature dense, challenging psychological insights and emotional filmmaking are absent in The Whisper Man. Tom’s sympathy is rarely earned beyond the trappings of his character. Relegated to running amok his dimly lit, depressing hometown and letting his big emotions pour out every time he sees his father, Tom doesn’t do much to affect his own story throughout The Whisper Man. The lessons learned are quickly gleaned from whatever revelation passes by the ragtag group of investigators and aren’t given sufficient emotional weight.
Disappointing in nearly all aspects, Netflix’s The Whisper Man is a by-the-numbers serial killer thriller that lacks the intensity or psychological payoff necessary for success in the sub-genre. Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, and Robert De Niro sleepwalk through the middling script, doing very little to excite or engage. Despite its solid production values, interesting premise, and competent director, The Whisper Man ends on a whimper rather than a scream.
Overall Score? 4/10
