Movie Review: "Talk to Me" (2023)
Talk to Me Movie Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Released by A24 Films
Directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou
Written by Bill Hinzman, Daley Pearson, and Danny Philppou
2023, 94 minutes, Rated R
Released on July 28th, 2023
Starring:
Sophia Wilde as Mia
Joe Bird as Riley
Alexandra Jensen as Jade
Otis Dhanji as Daniel
Zoe Terakes as Hayley
Chris Alosio as Joss
Miranda Otto as Sue
Marcus Johnson as Max
Alexandria Steffensen as Rhea
Review:
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of A24 films. Hell, most of us are- they’ve released a slew of gorgeous, relevant, often subversive horror films that always leave an impression even when they’re not your cup of tea. You could argue they’re the hottest name out there, and you’d be right. So, as I sat in a jam-packed screening last night at the Angelika in sweltering hot Dallas, I was overjoyed to discover a film that rivals Hereditary, Midsommar, and even Pearl.
Yeah, I said it. Listen up.
The film centers on Mia (newcomer Sophia Wilde in her first feature film), a damaged young lady who’s recently lost her mother to suicide. Her father, Max (Marcus Johnson; The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee), is a shell of himself. Her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen; Beat), is extremely supportive, as is her younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird; Rabbit). Still, she’s on the outside looking in as the “sad girl” who brings everyone down. At a house party, she puts herself out there and participates in an internet challenge where guests shake hands with the embalmed hand of a powerful medium and say “Talk to me”; they soon see the dead up close and personal. By invoking “I let you in”, they give the spirit access to their body…but only for 90 seconds lest they decide they want to stay permanently. During this, everyone is (naturally) filming with their phones and plastering it all over the internet. However, Mia passes the 90-second mark and opens the door wide. What follows is a tale of grief, possession, and why social media challenges are often an extremely bad idea.
Talk to Me cold opens with a shockingly violent scene at a seemingly unrelated house party, and it simply never lets up. This is not a jump-scare type of flick. Instead, you’re given more of a view of the dead than you really want along with some repeated genuinely freaky scenes of possession that will leave you wondering why anyone would do this.
That’s not to say that suspending disbelief is difficult here. Mia’s descent into grief-driven decisions is straight out of Pet Sematary, and the film artfully presses that theme of being willing to do anything to get back the ones you love…or at least speak to them one last time for answers. These are teenagers, so naturally, a host of poor decisions are made that drive the narrative forward. The culture of internet challenges and social media attention-whoring is on full display here, and the Philippou brothers understand it inherently and bring ultimate believability to the proceedings (the two are famous for the RackaRacka channel on YouTube).
Talk to Me is a wickedly smart movie that understands its audience as well as the world we live in in 2023. Relevant and surprisingly poignant for a balls-out possession flick, Talk to Me takes that Pet Sematary level of grief and constructs an afterlife that’s eerily reminiscent of the nightmare fuel that is equal parts Hell in What Dreams May Come and “The Further” in Insidious. Counterbalanced against the high-energy stupidity of teen horror, what you get is a movie that aims to scare the fuck out of you with an abyss that feels a little too real and often ventures into Evil Dead levels of violence and shock (i.e. what happens to Riley) And it succeeds with aplomb. I’m seriously putting this into my personal top ten of favorite theater experiences of all time; that audience was wrecked on numerous occasions. It’s just so damn visceral.
On the technical side, it’s an utterly gorgeous film where the lighting and sound design do much of the heavy lifting…at least until the viciously effective SFX work kicks you in the teeth. Sophia Wilde is nothing short of a revelation, and the rest of the cast is virtually as good. There are no bad performances, and everyone gets their time to shine. It’s gory. It’s jarring as hell. It’s funny when it needs to be. There is no lag in the lean and mean 94-minute runtime. I didn’t realize I was wringing my hands for the duration until the dude next to me pointed it out during the credits.
In the midst of a renaissance of horror, Talk to Me is a standout that won’t soon be forgotten. I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s nothing better than a movie that you simply have to tell everyone else about. I haven’t shut up yet, and I’m not likely to stop any time soon. Talk to Me is an anomaly- a possession film that’s unlike anything else you’ve seen in the subgenre.
So go ahead…put that hand in yours and let whomever (or whatever) is talking to you in. Just make damn sure you blow out that candle before the minute and a half has passed.
