Having terrified festival audiences around the world, one of the most hotly anticipated horror movies of the year is finally getting a wide release! Talk to Me is in cinemas from July 27.
Talk to Me is the debut feature from Australian filmmaking brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who first shot to internet fame with their inventive, comedic, and often horrific short studies on their YouTube channel, RackaRacka. Oddly, enough, though, the initial idea was pitched by Bluey producer Daley Pearson. In the shell of a nut, a group of teenagers have come into possession (pun intended) of a cursed item—the mummified hand of a powerful psychic medium. The supernatural doodad enables the user to perceive the spirits of the dead – and, if they dare, allow their bodies to be taken over by such a spirit.
But things get sinister (well, more sinister than kids playing with occult forces to make TikTok videos) when young Mia (Sophie Wilde of The Portable Door) encounters what appears to be her dead mother. Add to that the unsettling caveat that using the hand for too long can have unspecified consequences, and it’s clear that the horrors are only just beginning…
Make no mistake, Talk to Me is an absolute banger—one of the most exciting debuts in the genre since Ari Aster freaked us all out with Hereditary. The Philippous shoot this stuff like they’ve been cranking out horror classics for years, and the cast, which includes Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, and Zoe Terakes, are all committed to the bit which, coupled with the film’s keen eye for youth culture, makes the whole thing feel refreshingly modern—a horror movie for now, rather than an exercise in nostalgia. What Scream did for the genre in the ‘90s, Talk to Me is set to do for the ‘20s. Not bad for a first try.
