Talk To Me: Movie Review

Cast: Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Djhani, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio
Director: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

2023's most unsettling horror arrives, with its ears ringing from plaudits from across the festival circuit, and boasting the biggest mood killer since the final words rang out of Twin Peaks' original series end.

An utterly compelling, disturbing and tautly constructed tale, Talk To Me centres around Wilde's recently-bereft Mia, whose mother's death has seriously unanchored her and who is estranged from her father. Practically adopted by friend Jade (Jensen) and her younger brother Riley (Bird), Mia finds herself taken in by a late night game involving an embalmed hand.

Discovering they can conjure spirits, but only for a certain amount of time before something truly nasty happens, Mia becomes hooked on the idea and the hope that she can contact her mother. However, something terrifying comes through.

Playing into the mentality of teenagers who become obsessed with Ouija boards in their basements, and giving it a social update with the involvement of TikTok and Snapchat filters, the Philippou brothers' scary movie genuinely does unnerve throughout while making its way through the horror tropes that are required.

Plying the film with peer pressure, the highs of addiction, the tapping into the human dynamics of friendship, trauma and grief, Talk To Me comprises a tightly wound upsetting movie that ticks all of its genre boxes while simultaneously bringing something new to the fore.

Anchored in Wilde's incredibly physical performance after her first encounter with the hand and more than ably supported by Bird's terrifying possessed turn, Talk To Me feels like the first horror film in a long while to truly sicken and entertain in the way The Exorcist first did.

But the Philippou brothers thrown in inventive camera angles, clever lighting and enough mechanics to take you to the edge of your seat and leave you there for its leanly constructed 90 minutes thrill ride. 

Packed with emotionally heavy subplots and bookended with imagery that pulls it all together, as well as unexpected humour throughout (largely from Alosio), Talk To Me's insidious mix of trauma, horror and teenage commentary prove too potent through it.

Much like the protagonists hooked on the hand and the games it plays, the at-times brutal Talk To Me will take you by your own hand and won't let go - even for long after the lights have gone up.