Abhiroop Das
Helmed by James Ashcroft, Netflix’s ‘The Whisper Man’ brings the decades-old legend of a serial killer back into public consciousness when a child goes missing under eerily familiar circumstances. To make things more complicated, the missing child is the grandson of retired officer Pete Willis, the very man who brought the Whisper Man, AKA Frank Carter, to prison. Now, though, with a copycat killer running amok, the small town of Featherbank is met with many a sleepless night and paranoid days. As Pete and Officer Amanda Beck realize, though, Carter’s terror didn’t necessarily end with his arrest, as the darkest, most forgotten corners of this town still remember and carry secrets that are yet to see the light of day.
Featherbank is an Invented Town That Sets the Tone For an Unnerving Thriller
Featherbank is a fictional town created by author Alex North for his novel ‘The Whisper Man,’ brought to the screen by writers Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer as the town of Garretton. While the book depicts Featherbank as an old English town, the adaptation shifts its location to New Jersey, making major and minor contextual changes along the way. That said, neither North nor the creative team behind the film has pointed to any one source of inspiration. Its description as a quaint, foggy, tight-knit town is likely vague on purpose, as it is an aesthetic that amplifies the tone and style of the movie without drawing direct comparisons to any location. The closest real-life analog, though, might be the town North moved into years before penning the novel, as it is connected to a personal incident in his life, one that partly inspired the story.
Though North has never named the specific town, he did note, in a conversation with Better Reading, that long after moving in, he heard his son talking in another room, seemingly to an imaginary “boy in the floor.” The sudden sense of unfamiliarity and ambiguity thrilled North, leading him to pen a novel around these ideas, with this anecdote thematically being stretched to an entire town. Featherbank and Garretton are both settings that harbor many buried secrets, especially given their histories of dealing with infamous serial killers. While there is a real-life community in Augusta Township, Ontario, Canada, by the name of Garretton, it most likely bears no connection to ‘The Whisper Man,’ making this a coincidence.
Featherbank is Brought to Life in the State of New Jersey
The decision to set the fictional town in New Jersey is no coincidence, as much of the film is actually filmed in The Garden State. The crew reportedly lensed real-life communities across Westfield, Plainfield, Scotch Plains, Newark, and similar locations to truly ground the story in an air of realism. In a conversation with NJ.com, producer Marcus Viscidi praised just how versatile the state is. “You can find farmland, you can find inner cities, you can find beaches,” he added, “that diversity really is important to a film coming in.”
It’s worth noting that Viscidi also grew up visiting his grandfather at the town of Bradley Beach, which makes for a surprise coincidence with the premise of the film and its broader setting. What makes Featherbanks feel truly authentic as the backdrop to this story is how much participation there is from the local population of New Jersey, be it behind the screen or on it. Residents reportedly welcomed the crew into their neighborhoods, with real locations and businesses often featuring in the backdrop of the film. It is these little details that make the town feel more than just a creative construct, and closer to Alex North’s original descriptions coming to life. While Featherbank may be an invented setting, the creative team’s approach to crafting it is what makes it feel so real.
Read More: Is The Whisper Man a True Story? Is it Based on a Real Serial Killer?
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