The excitement around Talk to Me is palpable. A new horror film from A24, the people who brought us Hereditary, The Witch, and Midsommar, is something to be excited about. And Talk to Me is certainly a film that deserves to live in that pantheon--it's one of the best horror films of the year.
On the anniversary of her mother's untimely death, high schooler Mia (Sophie Wilde), her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade's little brother, Riley (Joe Bird), sneak out to a house party. While there, they discover a new game going around: Talk to Me. A couple of Mia's classmates have a plaster hand, posed at an awkward angle. A person shakes the hand and says, "Talk to me. I let you in." The spirit of a dead person then enters the living person and speaks through them. The catch? If you don't let go of the hand and blow out the candle after 90 seconds, the spirit could decide to hang around.
It is such a rush that Mia and Jade decide to have a couple of people over and do it again. Everyone has fun, taking turns talking to the spirits, until Riley goes under. It seems the spirit talking through him is Mia's mother. There is panic, as Mia begs to leave Riley under longer so she can talk to her mother. Unfortunately, things go very, very wrong for Riley before the group finally disengages him. He ends up hospitalized in a coma, as Mia is desperate to reach him--all while being haunted by visions of her dead mother.
Directors Danny and Michael Phillipou do a brilliant job with their debut feature. It is not jammed with jumpscares; instead, the Phillipou brothers rely on unsettling imagery and quiet, ghost-like scares to effectively increase the feeling of dread. Their background as YouTubers is what makes the story feel tight and well-paced. They are used to making the most of small budgets and short time frames. A bigger budget didn't lead to a bloated running time or excessive visual effects--I'm looking at you, Sam Raimi. Despite the overwhelming creepiness of the film, there are moments of levity as well, mostly when the kids are partying--again, something you can see in their goofier YouTube work.
Most of the effects were practically done to create truly disgusting spirits. These aren't computer-generated wispy ghost-like spirits, but bloated, disfigured, decaying corpses. The movie isn't "gory”-- no dismembered humans, and virtually no blood--but these spirits are almost zombie-like. There is something menacing about these spirits like this, something that makes them feel like they could be violent at any second, no matter what their intentions actually are.
The cast is good across the board, but the stand-out performance is Sophie Wilde as Mia. Her portrayal of a carefree high-schooler, a mourning daughter, and an unhinged teen, immersing herself in each version of her character throughout the film's runtime.
Other notable performances include Joe Bird as Riley, a sweet kid who isn't whiny or obnoxious, like most 14-year-old kids are. Also worth mentioning is Zoe Terakes' Hayley, the "owner" of the hand. The character is fun, but also intimidating--someone you would enjoy hanging out with, but only after you worked up the courage to actually ask.
While A24 is well-known for its expanding library of "elevated horror"--a term that I hate as it implies certain types of horror are "better" than others by definition--Talk to Me isn't that. Don't get me wrong; it's genuinely scary. Thankfully, it's without the emotional devastation movies labeled "elevated horror" tend to bring with them. A24 seems to be attempting to move away from emotionally devastating horror as of late, with last year's Bodies Bodies Bodies being a horror movie designed for Gen Z.
If there's one thing about the film that doesn't live up to the rest of what's on screen, it's the idea of Mia being haunted by her mother. It never feels like the haunting is part of the film's primary plot, instead playing out like a subplot that wasn't needed. The focus of the film seems to be the attempt to pull Riley from his coma, and getting rid of the spirit that stayed. Mia's mother was the spirit Riley brought out, so it makes sense that she would be creeping about, but the lack of focus on her makes it feel unnecessary.
The plot is simple. There are no twists, or mysteries that need to be unearthed. These seances lead to a rush better than drugs, making it easy to understand the appeal. There is no lengthy history about the hand. In fact, you don't actually know the background of the hand: where it came from, whose hand it is, or why it has this power. And you don't need to know. It is a straightforward movie that allows you to just sit back and have the crap scared out of you.
