Cinematography:
Aaron McLiskyComposer:
Cornel WilczekCast:
Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Miranda Otto, Otis Dhanji, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio, Marcus Johnson, Jodie Dry, Cass CumerfordVOD (1)
Plots(1)
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and opens the door to the spirit world, forcing them to choose who to trust: the dead or the living. Talk to Me is the debut feature film from brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. (Umbrella Entertainment)
(more)Videos (4)
Reviews (10)
Talk to Me is an enjoyable little ghost story from the antipodes that doesn't try to get an audience response with cheap scares, but instead spends a good amount of time on the relationships between the main characters. The concept of ghost séances as risky fun for careless zoomers is an interesting premise that could sound utterly ridiculous in the wrong hands, but here it works very solidly, thanks mainly to the believable and not annoying characters of Australian teenagers.
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You wouldn't think that in the ghost subgenre you could come up with something original. A really interesting, original premise, physically uncomfortable in places, an intense flick without cheap clichés and stale scares (there are a few and they're good). And with likeable new faces, all of them acting great. To make this as a rookie debut, well, hats off to them.
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I remember Danny and Michael Philippou from their early days on YouTube; their wild content had its charm. So, I’m even more surprised that they stepped into the director's chair and made a full-fledged feature film that a more established filmmaker wouldn’t need to be ashamed of. I really liked the concept itself. The seances offered an incredibly intense experience (shame there weren’t more of them). The acting was okay, but no one really blew me away. The ending was intriguingly handled; I didn’t expect the parallel with drug use. Thumbs up for that. A well-crafted film all around. We’ll see what the sibling duo comes up with next. I give it a 7/10.
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The much-praised Australian horror film Talk to Me was supposed to be my dark horse this year. I was looking forward to it since the first trailer, and the rave reviews from abroad only increased my hype, plus the proven studio A24. But in the end I'm slightly disappointed. For a debut, Talk to Me is definitely very mature and noteworthy, but I didn't feel the right spark. So first I'll sum up the pros. The biggest asset is the original idea, we follow a ghostly séance of young Australian teenagers using a mummified hand, where they get possessed by a random ghost for 90 seconds. The appearance of the ghosts is creepy and these séances are fun until things go wrong, of course. (The twist is pleasantly brutal!). But just when the viewer thinks the film is finally going to get going, sadly the best part is over. The characters, who can act and who aren't downright annoying, are interesting. The make up effects are good, the film is technically up to par, and it's very nice to see that it’s is not a PG-13 but an R-rated ghost story, though it can't be said that the viewer gets proper gore. Not many characters die, and the more brutal scenes are three at most, so the potential to unleash more savagery was definitely there. There are few jump-scares, and the atmosphere isn't too scary either, it's more of a psychological drama most of the time, where we do see ghosts, but they don't make any mess of the characters or the viewer. Most of all, I was let down by the weak finale, which can't be called a finale, because the film doesn't go anywhere. It's worth a strong 3 stars because some elements were fine and there's a sense of a different approach, but the slower pace, few scary attractions and weaker finale don't let me go for 4. I’ll have to wait for Saw X, The Exorcist Believer and The Last Voyage of the Demeter. 6/10.
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A hand extended from the beyond is unlikely to be helpful, or rather, "this spirit is a cunt." Grief that hurts so much and affects judgment to the point of consuming a person. The mobile phone camera acts as an emotional barrier to the events it captures. Recreational drug use that can, with a snap of the fingers, escalate quickly. The twins who revere Friedkin’s The Exorcist focus more on characters and appropriate realism rather than on blatantly shocking scenes, and when shocks do occur, they use practical effects. If predicting the plot’s further development is difficult, and it’s not entirely foolish, we can speak of rare originality in this genre.
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