Movie Review: 'Talk to Me'

Talk to Me (2023)

Directed by Danny Phillipou, Michael Phillipou

Written by Danny Phillipou, Bill Hinzman

Starring Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Miranda Otto, Otis Dhanji, Zoe Terakes

Release Date July 27th, 2023

Published July 12th, 2023

Talk to Me is a fresh take on the teen horror genre. It's filled with clever, terrifying ideas, and it features a lead performance that is haunting and brilliant. We've been subjected to a lot of bad teen horror movies, movies overflowing with familiar tropes and irritating, repetitive jump scares. Talk to Me has familiar elements but it is elevated via stylish direction, and the precise deployment of violence. The film has jump scares but the pacing is measured to a specific degree so that when the violence ramps up, in one very specific, and completely terrifying scene, it has more impact than if we'd been subjected to repeated violence throughout.

Talk to Me stars the absolutely incredible Sophie Wilde as Mia. Mia has recently lost her mother to what may have been a suicide, though she is convinced it was an accidental overdose. As happens when such a traumatic event occurs in a family, her mother's death has estranged her from her father, Max (Marcus Johnson), who makes attempts to reach her throughout the movie as the actual plot is unfolding and engulfing Mia's life.

Thankfully, though she is distant from her father, Mia is welcomed into the home of her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), where she is treated like an extra sibling to Jade's brother, Riley (Joe Bird), and another daughter to Jade's mom, Sue (Miranda Otto). The level of familiarity and comfort in this family dynamic is the foundation for what comes next, the horrific fracturing of this family unit via the horrors that come from, frankly speaking, Mia's poor choices.

Driven by grief, Mia seeks out a party to attend on word that there is a new game going around. This game is appealing to Mia as it is believed to allow the player to connect with the dead. Jade is skeptical, she assumes it's just another social media trend, a made up phenomena used by their friends, Haley (Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio) to garner social media clout. Nevertheless, despite Jade's insistence that it's a bad idea, Mia persists and when the chance comes to play the game she jumps at the chance.

The game in question involves a ritual, taking hold of a plaster hand and saying the words 'Talk to Me.' Once you've done this, a spirit will appear in front of you. You then are supposed to say 'I let you in,' which allows the spirit to enter you and speak through you. The result is a drug like euphoria that Mia portrays with almost orgasmic joy. There is one important caveat, the player must let go of the plaster hand in less than 90 seconds or risk allowing the spirit to take over their body.

The concept of conjuring the dead and making yourself vulnerable to the dead taking over your body is one that is very similar to the concept of The Further from the Insidious movies. That said, the makers of Talk to Me elevate and separate their concept via a very heartfelt story surrounding Mia and the depth of her grief and despair. The strong focus on how Mia has struggled since her mother's death and her inability to find a path forward without her mother, underpins the plot of Talk to Me and makes it more emotionally grounded than your average modern horror movie and just different enough from the terrific Insidious movies.

The brother directing duo of Michael and Danny Phillipou have made a relatively straight forward possession style horror movie but they've elevated the elements of the familiar formula via skillful and stylish direction, and just the right choice of lead actor. Horror movies tend not to get the credit they deserve but even less respected are those that star in horror movies. I wish that would change because the haunted, harrowing, beauty of Sophie Wilde is Academy level great. She has a presence, this wounded grace, the ability to be this wall of imposing sadness and despair. Her emotions are all encompassing and they drive both the horror and the relatable, aching sadness at the core of Talk to Me.

Talk to Me is a legitimately great movie beyond being merely a horror movie. It's a heartfelt film of unguarded sadness. Grief is among our most relatable of human emotions and its certainly been used as the driver of a horror plot before. However, thanks to the terrific direction, editing and design, and especially due to Sophie Wilde's heartbreaking performance, it feels fresh in Talk to Me. It feels like a brand new horror movie, a sadness, anger, and loss driven horror that treats death with a deathly seriousness. In that way, it's classically A24, an experiment in something familiar rendered new through a new visionary pair of artists and their collaborators.

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