Whispers (1990)

Interesting facts

• Based on: Whispers

Whispers is a 1990 Canadian horror film directed by Douglas Jackson and starring Victoria Tennant, Jean LeClerc, Chris Sarandon, Peter MacNeill, and Linda Sorenson. It follows a writer who, after killing her stalker, finds that he seems to have returned from beyond the grave. It is based on the 1980 novel by American suspense author Dean Koontz.

Production

Whispers was adapted from the 1980 novel of the same name by Dean Koontz. The rights to Koontz's novel had been purchased by Canadian producer John Dunning shortly after its original publication, before Koontz had gained international fame. According to Dunning, he paid approximately US$35,000 for the rights. Several years later, after Koontz had become an established writer, he asked to purchase the rights back for approximately $100,000.

Dunning hired established television director Douglas Jackson to direct the project.

Actress Victoria Tennant was cast in the lead role of Hilary, while Chris Sarandon was given the role of Tony, the detective attempting to help her. For the dual villain role of Bruno Clavel, the production cast Montreal-based actor Jean Leclerc, who at that time had earned fame for his appearances on several American soap operas.

The film was shot between October and November 7, 1989 in Montréal, Québec on a budget of CA$2.4 million. Some interior sequences were filmed in the apartment of a film journalist who wrote for the publication La Presse Serge Dussault.

For the film's final sequence in which the antagonist, Bruno Clavel, is covered by beetles in the cellar of his home, the production had to import live beetles from North Carolina. Because they were allowed a limited supply of the insects, the art department had to create fake plastic models, which were interspersed with the actual beetles.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.