Teens who see “Talk to Me” don’t know about the suspense that awaits them, just like the teen characters in the film! Some may assume that it’s your typical horror movie with predictable jump scares and gruesome killing scenes, but the more you watch the debut feature from Australian director duo Michael and Danny Phillippou, the more you notice that it’s unique compared to generic American fare like “The Nun II” or “Orphan: First Kill”.
“Talk to Me” is filled with supernatural forces and thrilling moments throughout the entire duration of the film. It explores themes such as grief and healthy vs. unhealthy coping mechanisms, though not in the way many people might think. Opening up on a guy at a party looking for someone, he ends up breaking down the door which he finds for whom he was searching. As the scene continues, one assumes the unnamed person will probably leave the party seeing as he looks frighteningly shaken up, but it takes a dark, and bloody, turn really quickly. To spoil even just the conclusion of this introductory scene would both ruin the shocking surprise and perhaps be too graphic for a student newspaper.
After this, though, the movie cuts to our main character Mia, played by Sophia Wilde (“Everything Now”), who is grieving the loss of her mother. Her mom’s death caused her relationship with her father to become distant. She instead hangs out with Jade, played by Alexandra Jensen (“Frayed”) and her brother Riley, played by Joe Bird (“Rabbit”), with whom she seems to be considerably close. One evening the three decide to sneak out and go to a late-night party. At the party, people are going crazy over a ceramic hand that supposedly can cause one to become possessed by a spirit. Mia decides to volunteer and follows all the steps she is told, consequently getting possessed and controlled. Everyone is scared, of course, but after the spirit leaves Mia’s body, she exclaims that “it was amazing.” This amazing feeling leads Mia, Jade, Riley, Daniel and the current owners of the hand to all hang out getting possessed over and over. The movie takes a drastic turn when Riley wants to try and things don’t go as they should.
Distributed by A24, a company known for its dedication to strange and exciting films, “Talk to Me” was a huge hit in the US, wracking up a multitude of positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, including a 3rd-place ranking on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) ofA24 releases. In addition, it has also doubled its predicted revenue, raking in $90 million USD on a $4.5 million budget.
The Phillippous’ audaciously different take on what a horror movie can experiment with topics such as voodoo and witchcraft that haven’t really been explored in horror as of late. Between its non-traditional and unsettlingly gory scenes, “Take to Me” captivates viewers perhaps in part because of the directors’ expertise and experience as viral YouTubers before debuting in movie theaters.
“For the most part, we knew we wanted to build up to those scenes of horror and not shy away from it while we’re doing it,” Danny Phillippou said in an interview with the Motion Picture Association. “We didn’t want to bat an eye.”
Most R-rated horror movies show a lot of blood, but that so often gets overused. In “Talk to Me”, the cast and screenplay exude a lot of emotion besides your usual screaming in typical supernatural flicks. When the characters get possessed, between the sound design, visual effects, makeup and talented acting, the film shocks and amazes simultaneously with little to no bloodshed.
This kind of captivating, extraordinary filmmaking is very much in the same vein as other A24 horror movies such as “Midsommar” and “Pearl”. If, like me, you need something a little more unique to reignite your love for the genre, try one of these or “Talk to Me”, which is available to stream on multiple platforms. It could open you to a whole new world of horror films. Most that have seen the movie agree too, as it currently enjoys a 94% certified-fresh critics’ rating and 82% audience score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
“Overall, it was so scary,” Zeynab Ahmed (12) said. “The suspense in the pop-up [and jump scare] scenes I don’t really like, but a lot of the movie didn’t rely on that, which was refreshing.”
Considering how the movie ends, and how successful it was at the box office, we should be expecting a sequel, which hopefully will be just as amazing, if not better. We don’t know what to expect from other horror films being released in the near future, but we can hope to see more from A24 soon, with the buzzy thriller “A Different Man” and the psychological horror movie “The Front Room” currently in production.
