User Reviews

"Whispers and Lies" is set on the idyllic Pine Cove Island, where Jill Roperson and her cousin Patti McMullen arrive for a vacation. But their trip soon turns into a nightmare with a bizarre set of characters enveloping them in their creepy community.

At the heart of the mystery is a diabolical doctor named Faye Croft. Dr. Croft is clearly keeping an eye on Patti who has a strong immune system. Her unique birthmark denotes that something special is in Patti's blood.

When Patti disappears, Jill begins the frantic search for her cousin. She is linked up with a local painter named Chris Hammett, who has a bad cough. There is a bit of a romantic connection between Jill and Coughing Chris. But Chris comes to Jill's assistance more significantly in a pure struggle for survival.

Other memorable characters include the paranoid Eugene Fritts, who lives in the forest. Jill discovers a photo from the nineteenth century that is a dead ringer for Eugene. Camille is a sixteen-year-old, who is the town gadfly. But it turns out that Camille is not "sweet sixteen," but 145 years old! The creatures of Pine Cove appear to be frozen in time.

The film struggles in developing a yarn about the fountain of youth delivered in a vaccine concocted by Dr. Faye and drawn from the blood of the elect. Jill attempts to educate the community with the admonition, "Do the best you can with the time you have left." Like Ponce de Leon, the residents' search for the fountain of youth was an illusion. Human life is finite, a realization that slowly comes to Coughing Chris and the mad scientist Dr. Faye.