Talk to Me

Imagine a future where a decade later, YouTube megastar Mr. Beast comes out of nowhere with a groundbreaking psychological horror film. That's essentially the present-day equivalent of what Danny and Michael Philippou have done with their debut film, Talk to Me. After being primarily known for their viral ridiculous YouTube parody skits featuring Ronald McDonald, Superman, Darth Maul, and even the Cookie Monster, they seemingly came out of nowhere to create a dramatically layered, classically inspired horror sensation that is taking the genre by storm. Talk to Me manages to subvert expectations of the typical horror schlock, with complex performances regarding grief and a plotline that will leave you reeling with the horror and realistic consequences of addiction, peer pressure, and the sensationalistic nature of our present day world.

Talk to Me starts off quick and fast with a Scream (1996) inspired tracking-shot opening that will leave you gasping and your jaw on the floor. After that point, the film hurdles at maximum speed into the thick of our story where Mia (Sophie Wilde) is dealing with the recent death of mother and a growingly fractured relationship with her father. She is spending more time with her friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) than she is with her own father. After Jade and Mia are invited to a party, we are introduced to a pale white cast of an embalmed hand with scribbles of the past written all over it. This ominous hand is used as a party trick gag, as holding the hand and telling it to “talk to me” will cause a spirit to appear in front of you. After uttering the words “I let you in”, it seemingly possesses its holder. As the user’s head kicks backwards and their pupils dilate to the size of a quarter, the spirit seemingly takes over, uttering nonsense and grumbling out odd groans. The crowd of partygoers laugh and tease the user with their phones out, documenting all of it for the world to see. Naturally, the first time we get to see the hand’s absurdity in action, it’s through our protagonist Mia.

As Mia becomes increasingly intoxicated to the feeling the hand gives her — “the feeling of sitting in the passenger seat of your own body”, as she herself puts it — she is blind to the reality of the horror of it all. She pushes others to give it a try, against the wishes of many, and the film begins to spiral out of control for our characters as a domino effect of events begins that changes the lives of all of our characters.

The rollercoaster of events that happen thereafter are nothing short of phenomenal and excellently written, with layered emotions of addiction and untapped grief. Sophie Wilde is absolutely mindblowing in the physically and emotionally draining role of Mia and manages to still be devastatingly vulnerable despite her character’s complex nature. Her portrayal of the spirits inhabiting her body are impeccable, but she truly stuns when we see her as her own person hurting and searching for an escape. We see and feel her struggle as if it was our own until she ultimately stumbles too far off the beaten path.

The film’s grotesque, bloody, beaten, and deformed makeup is so sickening in the best way possible, managing to feel so realistic and life-like that it will leave your stomach churning. These terrifying visuals coupled with harsh, grating sound effects will make you twist and turn in your seat, unable to look away but desperately wishing you could. Sharp camerawork and lighting heighten each scene as the camera glides across rooms and over shoulders, so we have no choice but to lean in as we watch the horrors of the film unfold before us.

As much as the film touches on many subjects and struggles in today’s culture, I do wish it could’ve dove a little deeper into the subjects of glamourizing addiction and making a spectacle out of pain and torture. The film is a tense, high-strung 95 minutes which both helps it feel fast-paced and succinct and also seemingly holds it back from pushing deeper into other topics that Danny and Michael Philippou seemed to want to dig into. That being said, this film is nonetheless impeccable from beginning to end. It left me on the edge of my seat from the moment it started and refused to let up for a second. This debut director duo has absolutely knocked it out of the park for their first film, and they firmly have my attention for the foreseeable future.

9/10