“If you leave a door half open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken.” That chilling playground rhyme sets the tone for The Whisper Man, Netflix’s upcoming thriller based on Alex North’s bestselling novel. Starring Oscar winner Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan, and Adam Scott, the film follows a terrifying investigation into a serial killer whose crimes may have returned from the past.
The story centers on Tom, a widowed crime writer whose 8-year-old son, Jake, is abducted. Desperate to find his child, Tom turns to his estranged father Pete, a retired police detective who captured a notorious serial killer known as the Whisper Man more than a decade ago. But there is a disturbing problem: the Whisper Man, Frank Carter, has been imprisoned since his capture. If he cannot be responsible for the new disappearances, then who is?
As Pete returns to the case with Detective Amanda Beck, played by Michelle Monaghan, the investigation becomes more than a search for a missing child. It also forces Pete and Tom to confront their fractured relationship. Director James Ashcroft was drawn to the emotional story between the father and son, describing their strained dynamic as the element that made North’s novel particularly compelling despite its serial-killer thriller premise.
De Niro plays Pete, a retired detective carrying the weight of his past while trying to rebuild his relationship with his son, while Scott portrays Tom, a father pushed to his limits by his child’s disappearance. The cast also includes Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague, Acston Luca Porto, and Will Brill. Written by Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer and directed by Ashcroft, the film is Netflix’s sixth collaboration with AGBO, the production company founded by Joe and Anthony Russo.
The Whisper Man explores the fears, responsibilities, and complicated bonds between fathers and sons. North wrote the novel when his own son was around Jake’s age, drawing from the anxieties of parenthood while building a chilling mystery around what parents pass on to their children, both good and bad. The Whisper Man premieres on Netflix on August 28.
