Whispers

A feature horror mystery film from Bulgaria, written and directed by Miroslav Petrov and starring himself, Simona Rose, Nikol Topalova and Nikola Penchev.

Originally, this film was intended to be the third of a trilogy of shorts, before being developed into a feature.

Bad things are taking place in a town, particularly in the Bonnivar Park. People seem to be disappearing and among them are two young women, Maggie (Rose) and her friend, Sophie (Grozeva). Alex (Petkov) is Maggie's brother and he is determined to find them. So he enlists the help of Nick (Penchev), Sophie's partner and Caine (Velin Borata), an eccentric and mute man who wears a face mask. Arming themselves with guns, their investigation leads them to an abandoned building where they believe they will find the two women.

The narrative is non-linear, constantly cutting back and forth in time. Interestingly, the story is separated into chapters, each dedicated to a character, those being Alex, Nick, Caine and Gwen (Topalova), an acquaintance of Alex and all chapters begin with a title card that contains the name of the character whose version of events is going to be revealed. The main focus is on Alex as he desperately tries to locate his sibling and finds himslef entering a frightening world with demonic entities. Characters repeatedly find themselves being abruptly transported into other locations such as a forest and the abandoned building, where much of the action takes place. There is plenty of dread and strange red symbols found here and there add to the frightening atmosphere and so does the music by Scott McLaughlin. The evil that is operating takes a variety of forms, including mutilated faces and a coated figure and, as the title suggests, there is whispering to be heard when bad things are occurring.

The film suffers by a screenplay that leaves unanswered questions and another flaw would be that Nick and Caine are characters who should have had more time dedicated to them, meaning that they both should have been explored more thoroughly, providing the story with further depth. And also, the acting in general is not very realistic.

Petkov plays a well-meaning man who is determined to find his sister, with whom he has a strong bond and he gets deeper and deeper into a nightmarish world, he seems to lose his sanity. Rose portrays his sister and the two of them share a dramatic past. Topalova's character appears later on in the film and Gwen appears to represent hope in a desperate situation. Caine is a rather intriguing guy and it is unjust that not a great deal is revealed about him.

A story about missing people filled with desperation, dread, paranoia, mystery and also bravery. It alos explores the strength of sibling love and the significance of support.

This is a supernatural horror film with a plot that succeeds in being interesting, however, certain characters needed more depth and the source of the evil should probably had been revealed more evidently. And, as mentioned, the performances are not convincing.