Thinking of Streaming The Whisper Man? It's got a great cast, but it's kinda just there.

    Despite having an excellent cast – Robert DeNiro, Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, and Michael Keaton – The Whisper Man, based on the novel by Alex North, is a relatively flat, unoriginal thriller that at times feels like one part homage to previous classics of the genre, and three parts rip-off.

            In the town of Garretton, Detective Amanda Beck (Monaghan) investigates a missing child case, in the process discovering the body of a different child, the M.O. eerily familiar to an infamous town serial killer currently doing life in prison. Fearing a copycat or perhaps worse yet, an accomplice, she seeks out legendary, retired Detective Peter Willis (DeNiro), the man who caught the original “Whisper Man.” At the same time, crime novelist and widower Tom Kennedy (Scott) moves his young son to Garretton, his hometown, after losing his wife. As you’d expect, Kennedy’s son Jake is abducted by the new Whisper Man, and the hunt is on.

            The story is full of convenient coincidences. Turns out Detective Willis is none other than Kennedy’s estranged father, and that’s not where the connections end. The house Kennedy has rented is connected to the Whisper Man case as well. How quaint.

            Beyond that, the plot and how it plays out is largely unoriginal. Not only that, but there are moments the story borrows from The Sixth Sense and especially the masterful Silence of the Lambs. While homage is fine, there are moments, especially when Detective Beck finally corners the new Whisper Man, that are almost scene-for-scene reconstructions of the climax of Silence of the Lambs.

            The movie even has its Hannibal Lecter in Michael Keaton as Frank Carter, the original Whisper Man, who Willis and Beck visit to try and enlist his aid to find the new iteration. Keaton chews up his scenes with wicked delight, and his moments are probably the best of the film.

            The concept of the Whisper Man is scary, and there are some creepy moments in the film. A plot about children under threat is always alarming to parent viewers, and the film is effective in that regard, but that’s about it. The movie is clearly based on a novel, and you can see layers of plot and character development that are never explored. The end of the film is shocking and bizarre, and frankly, doesn’t make a lot of sense, and following a story that has been lukewarm at best, it leaves you wondering what the hell you just did for the last two hours of your life.