Even with a couple of months left until spooky season officially kicks off, filmmakers are delivering a variety of horror movies to satisfy genre fans over the summer. There have been exciting movies, like Chuck Russell’s Witchboard remake and Zach Cregger’s twisty viral hit Weapons, but Whisper of the Witchsimply can’t compare. Hailing from the creative group of Serik Beiseu, Sergey Kaluzhanov, Yuliana Zakrevskaya, and Dmitriy Zhigalov, the movie centers on Paul, a detective still reeling from an accident that left his son in a coma. He subsequently gets involved in the investigation of a dead teenager in an abandoned mansion with a dark history involving a local haunted legend. Marking Beiseu’s fifth outing in the director’s chair, Whisper of the Witch is certainly filmed with a confident production value and visual palette. However, in bringing the movie from Russia to the United States, there seems to be a lot of drama and quality that was lost in the genuinely unnecessary translation.
I Genuinely Don’t Understand The Decision To ADR This Film

Having first been released in Russia back in June 2024, Whisper of the Witch is now making its American debut. While a film being kept intact would normally be a celebration, Whisper of the Witch suffers from one of the most baffling ADR English dubbing jobs I’ve ever experienced. From the movie’s opening scene to its final credits, I was often taken out by just how wrong the dialogue sounded.

Even more jarring is just how obvious the dubbing is.

In most cases, English dubbing is done to translate a film for international viewers (though subtitles are also the norm), but the dubbing here is so bad that I wondered why the decision was made at all. Even more jarring is just how obvious the dubbing is. In almost no scene did it sound like the voices were in the environments we were seeing, sounding far too clean and isolated, as only an audio booth recording would provide. What’s more, many of the voice actors’ performances were so over the top that they didn’t feel matched up with the actual actors’ onscreen performances.
Whisper Of The Witch’s Story Starts Simple & Ramps Up Clumsily

A teenager slowly opening the phonograph in Whisper of the Witch

I initially appreciated that Whisper of the Witch had a fairly simple story setup, with a group of teens stumbling upon a witch-summoning phonograph and subsequently being hunted down and killed by her. Taking a page out of everything from the Hasbro-produced Ouija movies to The Possession, it lays out an easy-enough formula to follow. From there, however, the script never finds the right rhythm for the movie’s plot. Attempts at emotional character development with Artur Beschastnyy’s Paul and his backstory, as well as Sofya Shidlovskaya’s Yana being harassed and physically tormented by her supposed friends, initially offer some interesting arcs. But as the movie gets going, the writing struggles to move these arcs along. By the time we get to the final act, it feels like we’re only at the halfway point. When the movie seemed to wrap up, I wondered why there were 20 minutes left of the film.
Beiseu Has A Great Eye In The Director’s Chair

Despite the movie’s narrative and dialogue flaws, Beiseu’s direction deserves genuine praise. Even in scenes set largely in the dark, he and cinematographer Kirill Zotkin make sure to retain an atmosphere of dread without making it so oppressively dark that any scares or characters present aren’t visible. Beiseu has a solid enough grasp on combining creepy visuals with solid pacing to make a good amount of jump scares work. More impressive is the depiction of the witch herself, with the vibrating screen nicely lining up with the lore of her musical nature, while the mirror in the phonograph evokes fond memories of the original Conjuring. These elements underscore how distracting Whisper of the Witch’s worst elements are. The haunted object formula actually has some proper stakes, while the imagery proves memorable enough. Yet its clumsy story, bizarre character choices, and awful dubbing turn it into a truly messy affair. Whisper of the Witch is now available on digital platforms.

Whisper of the Witch

4/10

Release Date

June 13, 2024

Runtime

90 minutes

Director

Serik Beyseu

Writers

Sergey Kaluzhanov, Dmitry Zhigalov, Yuliana Zakrevskaya

Producers

Evgeniy Melentev, Alexandr Kurinsky, Vladimir Denisyuk, Viktor Denisyuk

Maryana Spivak

София