Talk To Me - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

When it comes to scary movies, I’m the type of person to lock myself alone in the house at night and turn off all the lights, I want the maximum scare effects that a movie can deliver. And although there’s a lot of gaps in my horror films watched list, I enjoy the genre quite a bit and I’m always on the lookout for a new movie that’ll deliver some good scares. The new Australian film acquired by A24, Talk To Me, popped up on my radar when the studio got their hands on it, no pun intended, during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and I started hearing good things about the film. Well, it just dropped into theaters for the summer and although the film is light on pure terror and jump scares, although I’m not easily frightened, this is certainly one of the better thriller/suspense movies that is also a well thought out and executed piece of filmmaking. It was a bit disappointing the film steered away from the straight up horror that I thought it may head towards and instead embraced a fun and entertaining angle, but Talk To Me provides a fantastic theatre experience, especially for younger crowds. It’s quick pace, tone and youngster vibes make this one of the better creepy summer movies I’ve seen, so if you and the crew are in the market for a few thrills and chills along with a good time, Talk To Me.

SYNOPSIS - Our Aussie movie opens at night time on a street where a man is walking, we hear hip-hop music playing, we see people standing around, he’s heading towards a house where someone is having a party. As he filters through the crowd and flashing lights with the beat pounding in the background, he begins calling out and asking for someone he’s looking for, his brother Duckett. After coming across a locked door, he threatens in his thick Australian accent, “Duckett, open the door or I’ll break it down.” He immediately makes good on his threat and after four shoulder slams, the door falters under the force of the impacts and he enters a room where a slender shirtless man who has several red wounds on his back is sitting on a bed with his back to the camera. After the man covers Duckett with a shirt, he stands him up and heads him back out to the party where a crowd has gathered with their phones recording them. The man begins yelling at them and pushing them back when suddenly, after turning back towards his brother, Duckett stabs him in the top right side of his chest, people begin running away screaming, but not before Duckett uses the knife to stab himself and the scene cuts to black. We read the film’s title, Talk To Me, written like scratches, it shakes around the screen before the opening scene of our main protagonist Mia (Sophie Wilde) appears. This short haired, darker skinned Aussie girl with blonde highlights and big dark eyes is sitting with her earbuds in, using one fingernail to scrape old nail polish off another, an excellent addition the screenplay smartly injects to tell us a handful of things about a character without saying a word. She’s dressed in black, we soon find out she’s at a funeral, but this isn’t any random funeral, her mother has passed away, people speak to her offering their condolences.

Afterwards, Mia gets a call from Riley (Joe Bird) a friend that needs to be picked up. As she drives Riley home in the dark, singing Sia’s Chandelier at the top of their lungs, they come upon the Australian version of a deer in the road, a kangaroo has been hit by a passing car and is laying bloodied, moaning as it’s life slowly leaves it. Mia tries to put the poor creature out of it’s misery by running it over again but lacks the fortitude to hit it and slams on the breaks, then driving around it leaving it behind bleating in pain. She drops off Riley at his house where we meet Mia’s best friend and Riley’s slightly older sister Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and later their mother Sue (Miranda Otto). A bit later the trio of youngsters head to a party where they meet with Mia’s ex and Jade’s current boyfriend, Daniel (Otis Dhanji), but we’re also introduced to the two that are responsible for the party, Hayley (Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio). Hayley and Joss have procured the reason for the party, which they produce after a short while, a white, life sized hand that has mostly black writing of different names all over it. Mia volunteers for the ritual to begin, she sits in a chair, Joss straps her to it tightly, with the hand sitting in front of her on a table reaching out towards her, a candle is lit to “open the door” as Hayley explains. After Mia grasps the hand and utters, “Talk To Me”, a grotesque spirit figure appears before Mia whom only she can see, and after summoning the courage, she utters the phrase, “I let you in”, whereupon Mia’s head jerks back, her eyes go almost completely black and the spirit takes over Mia’s body with a long, guttural, gurgling noise. But as Hayley and Joss are overseeing these possessions, they only let it go for ninety seconds, before pulling the hand out and blowing out the candle. But later on as the film finishes the first act, at a second possession party, Riley takes a turn and the spirit begins talking to Mia as if it’s Mia’s mother, things quickly take a turn for the sinister that takes us all down a dark and twisted path of the hand’s origins, how Mia’s mother passed and how they can save Riley’s soul.

From the writer director combo of Danny and Michael Philippiou, this film is quite an achievement for the pair, the highlight being the film’s fantastic screenplay. It’s wonderfully constructed, with moments of levity and humor woven in to balance the moments of thrills and attempts to scare the audience. But all the main characters are well constructed, especially Mia, and we’re allowed to follow them through this fun house of horror, with an ending finale that while a bit predictable, is just to die for. Sophie Wilde is really terrific as the nervous party girl fighting off depression and anxiety but still finding her way in the world, she has several emotion packed scenes that were most impressive. The film’s soundtrack utilizes some hip-hop songs at different intervals and at one important scene, the second possession party, the song “We So Punk” by Jordan Thraxx absolutely makes the scene. Speaking of the possessions, the make up and cosmetics of the undead spirits and the characters being possessed is quite remarkable, especially some of the ones we’re with for a period of time and get a good look at. This is truly some exceptional work, although the academy awards wouldn’t touch this worthy nominee with a ten foot pole simply because of the genre. The quick pace of the film is assisted nicely by tight editing and camera work, even if the frame wasn’t capturing some insane cinematic shot, it was kinetic and doing enough interesting things to keep the engagement level high. Although I also found the film to be a bit light on the actual horror and jump scares, I recognize that’s mostly just me and most audiences will find Talk To Me plenty scary. But with most of the crafts of the film hitting such high levels and the screenplay producing a solid base for the film to work off of, there’s no doubt in my mind this will finish among the best horror films we get in 2023.

SUMMARY - While there are better films currently out there in theatres like Barbie and Oppenheimer, both in my top ten, when it comes to it’s genre, you won’t do better than this film. So when you want a fun and fresh creepy thrill ride, take the time when you get a chance to hit the theaters and let Talk To Me speak to you.