The director of The Nun unveils his latest horror film, Whistle, featuring an unprecedented death scene that left him in shock: “I had to reread it.”

The new horror flick Whistle features a death scene so wild that director Corin Hardy found himself rereading it during his first look at the script.

With a cast that includes Nick Frost from Shaun of the Dead, Sophie Nélisse from Yellowjackets, and Dafne Keen from Deadpool and Wolverine, the story follows a group of high school students who unwittingly catch the attention of the Grim Reaper after playing an ancient Aztec whistle.

Initially thinking the whistle summons spirits, they soon discover it actually accelerates their demise; if you were destined to die in a fire years down the line, you’ll be haunted by a burning corpse. Planning to just age gracefully? You might want to avoid that elderly woman with a sinister glint in her eye. It definitely channels some serious Bent-Neck Lady energy.

Writer Owen Egerton got creative with the various ways characters meet their end. “There’s one death that I’d never seen done before. This guy in his bedroom and what happens to him,” Hardy teased in a recent interview. “I read it on the page, and I had to reread it. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s insane. I have no idea how to do that yet, but I’m gonna design it.’ So I collaborated with some fantastic storyboard artists, concept artists, and special effects wizards, who all did incredible work.”

Whistle draws inspiration from classics like A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Lost Boys, but for Hardy, it’s primarily a blend of The Ring and The Breakfast Club, featuring a queer romance between Nélisse’s Ellie and Keen’s Chrys at its core.

“They have to team up to figure out how to defeat the death whistle, which brings them closer together. I’m a big softy in that sense. It was important to have an undercurrent of hope and a desire to survive,” he explained. “[I wanted to] create a horror film with heart… I aimed for it to feel colorful, moody, and epic – a world you can really immerse yourself in. I wanted it to be a thrilling ride.”

Whistle is set to hit theaters on February 6 in the US and February 13 in the UK.