Talk To Me - Film Review
Talk To Me represents one of the few examples where YouTubers successfully transition to film. Brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who are known best for their channel "RackaRacka" which produced such hit videos as "Ronald McDonald Chicken Store Massacre" (which is actually quite funny), have managed to make what I feel is the best horror film of the year so far.
Demonic possession is by no means a new horror concept. You've seen it time and time before, and the overall conceit of a group of teenagers finding a cursed hand that unleashes the demons is also quite familiar. Most possession movies focus on exorcists who try to save the victims without being possessed themselves which is the first thing this new film does right. It's highly character-focused on the possessed, in particular, the lead character Mia.
Since the rise of the "elevated" horror film, pretty much every horror film has involved grief in some capacity. After two years Mia remains distraught over her mother's mysterious death, and it's that grief which is smartly used to drive the plot forward as the demons don't just contort her body in creepy ways and make her say some odd things but also manipulate everything around her. The grief acts as a destructive cycle damaging the relationships she still has as well as making her so vulnerable that her grasp on reality can be warped. This isn't just scary, but it is also brutally tragic.
The hand is also recontextualised for the modern age by making this a viral trend to get possessed, which makes it believable why a group of impressionable teenagers would fall for it in the first place. It can quite clearly also be seen as a metaphor for drugs with the social pressures to try the hand followed by addiction, leading to problems that spiral out of control.
Talk To Me is a horror film that is properly disturbing both with its dissection of grief, but also on the violent surface using unsettling and booming sound design as well as some awe-inspiring practical effects and camera work which sell the gore and body horror when it is occasionally used giving this some real shock value. Sophie Wilde as Mia gives an outstanding performance, excelling in the obsession her character has in trying to find peace in her grief, along with unravelling the mess left behind in her search for answers. She nails the determination and humanity as well as being up to the acting challenge when her character is possessed.
Danny and Michael Philippou, in their feature directorial debut, prove to have a bright future in filmmaking, taking multiple horror tropes and putting their own thrilling, terrifying and nuanced spin on them. They have made a film that works both as a compelling rollercoaster of emotions and as something far more profound than many horror contemporaries.
