Talk To Me is the directorial debut for Danny and Micheal Philippou Better known for their Youtube channel Rakka Rakka. Talk To Me follows a group of friends who use a ceramic hand that allows ghosts to take control of their bodies.
The movie has the most uncomfortable atmosphere I’ve seen from the movie in a while with a feeling of nagging fear, leaving the viewer to speculate on what’s real and what’s fake with ghosts clouding the main character Mia’s conscience and manipulating her into doing their bidding. The movie also looked amazing with some scenes feeling vibrant and full of life while others felt desolate and hopeless, perfectly illustrating the gravity of the scenes. For example, a scene with Mia and Riley (played by Joe Bird) with them laying on the couch with raindrops projecting onto them from the sunroof was stunning. The ending of the movie was one of the best I’ve seen in years leaving me feeling heartbroken but satisfied. Another interesting aspect of the movie was how they used the ghost’s and characters’ viewpoints. Because the movie is almost entirely through Mia’s lens we don’t see anything she isn’t seeing.
The acting in the movie was phenomenal making all the characters seem like real people especially The main character Mia (played by Sophie Wilde) has one of the best performances of the year. Her acting near the end of the movie was devastating and helped to add to the horrific nature of the final act. She felt like she was spacing out during the entire final act, almost like she didn’t know what was real and what was fake just like the audience. All the other characters in the movie were all interesting and well thought out.
The movie also has some fantastic practical effects with enormous black contact lenses that make the characters look horrific and unsettling. The effects during the violent scenes gave me a pit in my stomach and made me avert my eyes from the screen. Unlike this year’s Evil Dead: Rise where the violence was more cartoonish, Talk To Me felt realistic and brutal. All though shocking, the violence never felt over the top which was surprising after familiarizing myself with Rakka Rakka’s other work.
Overall the movie was amazing but not perfect with the movie coming in at 90 minutes I wish it was longer. I wished there was just a little bit more time with some of the characters. For example, Mia’s dad felt poorly fleshed out. I wish that he had gotten more time to understand his and Mia’s relationship because it would make some of the emotional scenes more effective.
Talk To Me is one of the most interesting horror movies I’ve seen in a while and even though it isn’t perfect it’s still an incredibly impressive directorial debut and I’m super excited to see what Danny and Micheal do next.
