The highly anticipated horror film Talk to Me has come to theaters and we’re here to let you know if it’s worth checking out.
Talk to Me has been on my radar since the most recent Sundance Film Festival. The premise: a group of teens use a mysterious, embalmed hand to let themselves be possessed by dead spirits, sounds utterly terrifying. Of course there’s the usual catch to be found in a horror film like this: the spirit must be released before 90 seconds have passed or there will be….consequences. Naturally, this rule is inevitably broken, with horrifying results.
Talk to Me
Directed By: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Written By: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji
Release Date: July 28, 2023
I went in to Talk to Me knowing nothing but the film’s basic premise and I was completely blown away by what I experienced. As far as directorial debuts go, Danny and Michael Philippou knocked it out of the park. The horror elements of this story are almost perfectly fine tuned around a story that, while not quite perfect, doesn’t slow down for a moment.
The entire story of the spirit-summoning hand is intertwined with the story of Mia (Sophie Wilde in her big-screen debut), a teen struggling with the anniversary of her mother’s untimely death. Rather than bog things down though, the interludes where Mia tries to face what happened to her mother only serve to heighten the tension until the next scare happens.
Everyone should sit up and take notice of Sophie Wilde after this stunning performance as Mia. She takes the audience for a ride that is utterly terrifying as we see her go from nervous outsider, to riding the thrill of summoning spirits, to a slowly numbing horror as she realizes her actions have consequences that can’t always be easily fixed. Hopefully Talk to Me serves as a launch pad to spring Sophie Wilde to more projects, as I certainly want to see more of her.
Now for the horror itself. As I mentioned earlier, the directors tine tuned each scare so that each moment, each little shock to the system keeps you engaged as the story moves along. They also, and this might upset some viewers, utilized some tactics that many have undoubtedly found disturbing. Be advised, there are examples of self-harm in Talk to Me, and one is particularly disturbing in the way it plays out. It’s easy to see why this film is both captivating and horrifying audiences.
Talk to Me also does a good job by showing the audience rather than spelling out what is going on. This is particularly effective in the closing sequence of the film, which slowly grows in horror as it begins to dawn on the viewer what is happening and what it means. There’s just enough exposition to keep the story moving, and no more, which is how horror works best I feel. Keep the story going, and don’t get bogged down in the details, and Talk to Me does it perfectly.
All of this is to say that Talk to Me is easily the best horror film to hit theaters this year and is a must see for any fans of the genre.
