The Whisper Man is even more disturbing than your average serial killer thriller because of three creepy villains with even creepier habits. Amanda (Michelle Monagan) is a police detective in a race against time to solve child abductions before they become child murders. Her suburban community in northern New Jersey experienced a spree of child killings a generation ago; these new crimes have exactly the same modus operandi, even though the original serial killer has been locked away for 25 years. She seeks the advice of Peter (Robert De Niro), the long-retired cop who caught the original killer, but he resists re-engaging. But then, Jake (Acston Luke Porto), the young son of Peter’s estranged son Tom (Adam Scott), is kidnapped, and Peter joins the manhunt.
The investigation takes Michelle and Peter behind bars to interview the original murderer Frank (Michael Keaton), who eagerly relishes the attention and who is just dripping with unhinged evil. Next, Michelle tracks down the wealthy weirdo Norman (Hamish Linklater), a fetishist proud of his transgressive collection. As they get closer to a solution, The Whisper Man becomes almost unbearably harrowing.
Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer adapted the screenplay from the Alex North novel. The writers have added some intriguing twists to a serial killer story – one about fingernails, another about collecting, and a third, horrific one involving cassette tapes.
As the good guys, often in conflict with each other, De Niro, Monagan and Scott all give strong performances. But it is the intense creepiness of villains played by Michael Keaton, Hamish Linklater and Owen Teague that makes The Whisper Man so unsettling.
I first noticed Owen Teague in the little indie family drama Montana Story, which I admired as one of the best movies of 2022. I wrote that Teague’s “quiet performance is exquisite. This is a melodrama, and the performance as Cal could easily have been overwrought. Instead, he perfectly captures this dutiful and seemingly passive man, with a hidden, festering guilt.” In The Whisper Man, Teague gets to go full-out maniac, and it makes the end of the movie even more gripping.
The Whisper Man is streaming on Netflix.