Horror movies, be it slasher, supernatural or monster based, have spent the better part of the entirety of history banking on the stupidity of its participants. Whether it’s wandering off from the herd to investigate a strange noise or reading the incantations from a book bound in human flesh, fans of fright flicks have gorged on the results of countless protagonists displaying all the common sense of a vacuum cleaner and reaping the grisly rewards as a result. It’s a natural reaction, of course, a great way to manipulate a willing audience to emphasize with the on-screen occurrences by having them scream warnings to the clueless lemmings about to wander into certain doom like they’re in an R-rated panto.
However, what are results when the dumb teens on screen start engaging in reckless, supernatural shenanigans with full knowledge of the dangers involved? Thus goes the premise of Talk To Me, the impressive new frightener that’s come out of Australia thanks to the filmmaking duo of Danny and Michael Philippo that takes teen japes and jokey peer pressure to creepy new heights.
Still suffering from the alleged accidental overdose of her mother two years earlier, seventeen year-old Mia is trying to cope by wedging herself firmly in the family of her best friend, Jade. While the less kind among you might describe her behavior as “clingy”, it helps her deal with a distant father and some of the less benevolent members of her school as each day proves to be something of a struggle. However, she finds something of a questionable outlet when she, Jade, Jade’s younger brother Riley and Jade’s new boyfriend Daniel attend a party where a new local craze is taking hold.
It seems that local trouble makers Hayley and Joss have obtained what looks to be an embalmed hand covered with graffiti that, if you clasp it after undergoing the right ritual, will grant you the ability to commune with the dead. Of course, the fact that it’s currently being wielded by drunken teens means it’s a perfect way to go viral with video of your friends briefly possessed by a rambling spirit and Hayley stresses that its perfectly safe as long as you adhere to the rules. Light a candle, grab the hand and say “talk to me” and once you spot a spirit utter the words “I let you in” for an instant possession. However, you have to break the hold and blow out the candle before ninety seconds has elapsed or things might suddenly get gnarly and after trying it, Mia finds dipping her toes into another world oddly exhilarating. However, things go horrifically pear shaped after she not only goes over the ninety second mark and starts having visions without the aid of the creepy hand, but after one of her friend circle seemingly is possessed by the spirit of her dead mother, a chain reaction is set in motion that involves hallucinations, brutal self harm and murder that should be included as a government health warning like a pack of cigarettes…
We’ve all be impressionable teens at one point or another and if anyone here can honestly claim that they’ve never smoked, drunk, partaken, or done anything else in their lives that a brief second of clarity wouldn’t instantly label “fucking stupid”, then the true, unsettling nature of Talk To Me may pass you by. Simply put, if it means finding acceptance, most kids will do anything to be seen as popular – don’t believe me, spend a brief forty minutes online, I’ll wait – and as a result, the events of this film feel horribly relatable to anyone who wasn’t an emotionless, card board cut out during their formative years.
Essentially a modern reworking of the Ouija phenomenon for the Tiktok generation, the filmmakers play heavily on their background of online media (the two director brothers started a YouTube horror channel called Rackaracka) to nail the all too familiar sight of kids thumbing their noses at death which subsequently makes the fear/fun ratio of letting a lost spirit rent out your body for a minute and a half in the name of “likes” horribly prescient.
Dues must be given to the talented young cast that are charismatic enough to make you actually question whether you would be foolhardy enough to give it a try and sitting at the top if the pile is a bewitching, central performance by Sophia Wilde as the troubled Mia. It’s incredibly hard to make a damaged girl so empathetic, especially as her grief has made her shockingly cavalier with not only her life, but the others around her, but Wilde makes you pity the lost Mia as she struggles to connect with something – anything – around her that soon spells disaster as the act of contracting spirits soon becomes self-destructive. Everyone else does great work, but an extra nod has to go to Miranda Otto who makes what would be the throwaway parent role into something far more impactful.
Speaking of impact…. The Philippou Brothers find a nice line in building up some nicely, claustrophobic dread and then releasing it in either a well crafted jump scare or some legitimately upsetting violence that truly shocks. In fact, the best way I can think of to describe Talk To Me is if Hereditary wanted to film itself jumping from the patio roof to the swimming pool on a dare. Yet, while the film share a lot of DNA with Ari Aster’s infamous flick (possession, brutal self beatings, younger kids paying for older ones being unable to be dangerously thoughtless), there’s enough restless energy and general Aussie-ness about (Kangaroo!) to separate the two where it counts.
If Talk To Me has a flaw, it’s maybe that I managed to get a bit ahead of it during the last half hour so any of its nastier twists were less a revelation and more a confirmation of where i already thought the movie was going. Nevertheless, in a time when horror films are starting to get punchier once again (I love so-called “elevated horror”, but the faster pace of Scream VI, X and Evil Dead Rise is admittedly more my speed), Talk To Me may be the perfect antidote to younger, more hyper audiences who thought the works of Aster or Robert Eggers may be a bit too deliberate.
A ghost story with real gristle, biting wit and great momentum, hopefully Talk To Me sees yet more great work come from the Philippou’s and Wilde in the near future as its mix of creeps, crawls and heads smashing against walls proves to be definitely worth talking about – just maybe not with a disembodied, ghost summoning hand…
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