The Whisper Man has arrived on Netflix, delivering what fans describe as an outstanding thriller. The film follows detective Pete Willis (Robert De Niro), who put the infamous Whisper Man behind bars a decade ago after a series of child murders. Now retired, Pete is called back into action by his estranged son Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott).
After the death of his wife, Tom and his son Jake moved to a new area, but Jake was soon kidnapped by someone replicating the Whisper Man's crimes. With Pete and Detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan), plus guidance from the original killer Frank Carter (Michael Keaton), they begin the hunt.
The new killer's identity
For much of the film, it is believed the new killer may have been an accomplice of Carter's who escaped capture, but this is not the case. Tom and Pete find the remains of the original Whisper Man's fifth victim in a concealed section of Tom's house, along with the body of its former resident Dominic Barnett.
Crime-obsessed neighbour Norman Collins admits that Carter led him to Barnett, as Carter wanted access to the remains. In a fit of rage after being mocked as a “peeping Tom”, Collins killed Barnett. He also revealed that Carter gave him the information in exchange for being connected to someone outside prison.
Before Collins could reveal more, he took his own life. However, the team worked out that Carter would want to speak to someone desperate to recreate his crimes: his own son, Francis Carter Jr (Owen Teague). Francis was the new Whisper Man, committing murders to earn the approval of the man who abused and traumatised him as a child.
The final confrontation
The team goes to Francis's psychologist's house, where they find Francis and the therapist's mutilated body in a barrel. Jake is also there, and Beck fights off Francis to give the boy time to escape, but she is stabbed. Pete then arrives and is fatally wounded, but he yells at Jake to run and manages to incapacitate Francis before his arrest.
Sadly, while Beck and Francis survived, Pete did not, making the ultimate sacrifice to save his grandson's life. Throughout the film, Jake saw a mysterious girl in a blue jumper, and Tom later spots a picture of his wife as a child who looks just like her, leaving fans to question if she was a ghost or a figment of Jake's imagination.
A darker ending
The film ends on an even darker note when Carter gets what he wants and is reunited with his son in prison. But it is not a happy reunion: Carter covers Francis's face with a shirt and strangles him to death, replicating his original murder methods on his own son. The Whisper Man is available to watch on Netflix.
