This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
At this point, the foundations of a great horror movie have all been set by decades of great films. What’s always exciting is seeing how new people and places takes those foundations and do something different and fresh with it. Australia and New Zealand have really taken some incredible swings in the name of horror, like Deathgasm and The Babadook. Talk to Me is the latest one, and for me, probably the best, because of the way the movie finds a way to create a modern teenage sleepover fable that will be seen for years, scaring the hell out of everyone who watches
After a gnarly intro, we meet the fragile Mia (Sophie Wilde), still broken up after her mother apparently committed suicide. She finds solace in her best friend Jade’s (Alexandra Jensen) family, including mom Sue (Miranda Otto) and younger brother Riley (Joe Bird), almost fitting in as another sister/daughter. Mia and Jade end up a party one night hosted by Hayley (Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio), where the hosts introduce the world to it: a ceramic hand with all sorts of tattoos all over it, which allows the holder to summon spirits from the dead into the land of the living. Mia, curious and also seeking answers, volunteers to give it a go. At first she’s skeptical, but after a first taste, Mia wants back in immediately, ignoring the warnings of holding on for longer than 90 seconds.
The RackaRacka Philippou brothers from Australia really know their stuff. The great horror movies, like Talk to Me, rarely start at the origin of something. They usually start in the middle of the lore, introducing us to it through fresh eyes. The severed embalmed hand is genius creation, giving new meaning to the phrase talk to the hand. It belongs in horror lore with the Necronomicon, or the Ring video tape or Annabelle as these great static stand in’s for supernatural connections. Smartly, the movie builds the hand into a party trick, as teens wouldn’t know any better, and would in fact be ready to push the limits to see something cool. Our embalmed hand projects meaning onto it based on which human hand it is shaking. For Mia, the hand actually gives her hope for some answers, then transforms into a crutch and almost sick allegory for drug abuse. Jade is Mia’s opposite, content in her life in the now, and to let sleeping dogs lie. Riley is trapped between the two of them, too young and out of his league to realize what Mia is doing is really dangerous.
Even though the Philippou brothers are more known for horror comedy stuff, Talk to Me shows they can play it straight just as effectively. This movie is scary as hell the minute the spirits enter the human world. The brothers give us scares of all kinds: we get creepy special effects like darkened eyes, sharp sound changes, and Jaws like camera zooms. In maybe the movie’s most effective sequence, we get unexpected body horror that had me pretzeling in my seat and covering my mouth in abject terror. And as the spirits close in, normal settings like someone’s bedroom or a hospital wing become some version of Dante’s circle of hell as the Philippous extract as much fear as they can from the audience.
And like any great modern horror moviemaker, the Philippous leave the ending open for an endless sequeling. Thankfully though, with A24 involved, those movies can be a little smarter, using different casts all over the place for some more fun effective scares talking to embalmed hands who summon spirits. I can say this for myself, even as a teen, I’m definitely the wet blanket Jade. I have no desire to learn things or talk to the other side. I will film you and watch though; I guess that means I’m definitely dying in the Talk to Me sequel. Dang it.