Not Exactly A Walk In The Park

Not Exactly A Walk In The Park

Bruce Von Stiers

There is a town somewhere that has a park with a dark side. People seem to go to Bonnivar Park and disappear. No one knows what happened, but people continue to go to the park. Even though there are missing persons flyers plastered all along the walking paths in the park.

There was a film called The Whisper, where a young woman was in the park. She finds a tree with a strange symbol and then a book with the same symbol and more. There is something ominous about this whole thing.

The Whisper 2: Natural Connections is a sequel to The Whisper. It takes elements from the first film and builds on them to create a new narrative.

The film starts with Todd Waterston walking in the park, talking on the phone. He's going to pick up a few groceries to take to the house of the friend he's talking to. Then he finds a book with some strange writing in it and a tree with a symbol on it. Just like the girl did in the first film. But this seems to be a bit different.

Well, lo and behold, Waterston ends up missing. His friend, David Abney, can't explain things. A local reporter, Simon Peterson, does a news bulletin from the park about the missing people, including Waterston. Again, no one knows what happened to the missing people.

The film then switches to two young women, Lucy and Maggie. Lucy is on the phone with Sophie, who apparently is at Bonnivar Park, and who is trying to clear her head after having a big fight with her boyfriend.. Lucy admonishes her for being there as weird things are happening at the park.

Maggie is going to the park to cheer up Sophie, in spite of the warnings from Lucy. Maggie says that nothing will happen to her and shows Lucy her cross necklace. This plays into the film near the end.

As Maggie is in the park, she sees the flyers for the missing people. The poster for Todd Waterston is on the ground and she picks it up. Somehow, she has a cosmic connection to him. And she can sense some danger he had been in.

Sophie had left messages detailing her trek through the park and Maggie is trying to retrace Sophie's steps. Maggie encounters the tree with the symbol and then finds some pages with writing and drawings on them.

Maggie seems unfazed by the disappearances and is sure to find Sophie. But there is definitely something not quite right in the park. There are strange sounds and some sort of atmospheric tension. All of this is aided by music in the film that is a bit foreboding.

The whisper of the film's title comes into play when Maggie looks for Sophie in an abandoned building.

There are several questions that I thought of while watching the film. What does the strange symbol on the tree mean? What is it about that book and how does it tie into Waterston's disappearance? Is Sophie okay or did something happen to her? Will Maggie be okay or will something happen to her too? And why do people always wander into abandoned looking buildings?

The film is a little mysterious and sort of a horror story. The mystery is in the fact that a bunch of people have disappeared in the park never to be seen again. And that Sophie seems to have disappeared too. The horror part of the story can be found in the strange symbols, the writings and drawings on the pages Maggie found and the foreboding music playing as Maggie is searching for Sophie.

Simona Rose played Maggie. She has starred in a number of short films, including Drums, a horror film I reviewed a while back. Georgia Vodenicharova played Lucy.

Phil Herman played Todd Waterston. He has been a producer of over fifty films and has acted in films such as I Slay On Christmas and Hollywood Werewolf.

Rudy Ledbetter is a veteran actor with well over a hundred screen credits, many of them horror films. He played the television reporter Simon Peterson.

Oktober Layne as David Abney, Todd Waterston's friend who he was supposed to meet with. Death By Appointment and Halloween PSA are two of the horror films he's appeared in.

The voice of The Whisper was Alicia Hinson. She played a mutant in Deadpool Just Another Day. Haylie Smith did the voice of Sophie.

The film was written and directed by Miroslav Petkov. He directed the drama, The Foreigner, and horror films Paranoia and Drums. He also produced the film with Simona Rose. The screenplay was based on characters created by Miroslav Petkov and Teddy Nikolova.

The Whisper 2: Natural Connection has been labeled as both a mystery and a horror film. As I allued to earlier, I think those labels are accurate. There is the mystery of how and why people are disappearing from the park. And there is a pure supernatural vibe to the film that is interwoven with the mystery. That vibe cumulates into a surprise ending that I really enjoyed.

The Whisper 2: Natural Connection can be watched for free on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2jiL8b6TE

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