Talk To Me might have worked better as part of an horror anthology. There are some creepy moments and surprises that come up on you. Unfortunately, the twin brothers, Danny and Michael Philippou, also known as RackaRacka, can’t maintain the momentum for a full feature movie.
Set in the South Australia capital of Adelaide, it focuses on some young people who mess around with something way too supernatural. It begins with a shocker where at a house party, a young man stabs his brother and then kills himself before the focus changes to Mia (Sophia Wilde), a 17-year-old still grieving over the unexpected suicide of her mother two years earlier.
She sneaks out to a party with her friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade’s younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird). A bunch of teens and youth have a severed embalmed hand that is supposed to have different effects on whoever grips it by saying, “Talk to me” and “I’ll let you in.” There’s something realistic how they all want to do this egging each other on as it has an odd effect on them as they become possessed by a deceased spirit.
You don’t have to be a genius to know what happens. Eventually, Mia will try it out and she’ll have an adverse effect compared to the others. Then, when young Riley does it over Jade’s objections, something even worse will happen. Some might call it elevated horror but it seems to fall in with the same tropes as regular American and Canadian horror movies. A lot of scenes are very dark and a few are just gross. And I’m not talking about gory violence gross but gross gross in which a character is sucking on someone’s toes and another character under possession makes out with a dog.
The Philippou Twins or RackaRacka, of whatever ever they want to be called seemed to be following the style of Ari Aster. Have a lot of people screaming and yelling. Throw in a lot of close-ups of people looking petrified like Adrien Brody did in The Thin Red Line. And then, have everything end in disappointment. This all seems to have become very common in recent years as horror directors think mugging and screaming with dark lighting is horror. And Wilde does a lot of mugging. I’m surprised this wasn’t distributed by A24. It seems to fit a lot of their brand of movies.
Ten years ago, The Babadook was released polarizing audiences. I liked that movie’s style and tone more. Just like this movie, it was produced in association with Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation and distributed through Umbrella Entertainment. This is RackaRacka’s first feature movie and shows they have some talent of getting the right tone for a creepy movie. Yet, all the back story about Mia’s mother and her distant relationship with her father is never really developed. It seems to exist just for the sake of the convenience of the plot. I would dare one current filmmaker out there to make a horror movie that doesn’t involve a protagonist grieving a loss.
The scenes of the youth at their parties are the movie’s strongest points. If it had somehow found a way to keep everything condensed to this, I think it might have worked better. Yet, outside the party scenes there’s mostly filler. Miranda Otto pops up as Sue, Jade and Riley’s mother, who seems to be so nagging, you wonder why she still leaves the doors on her kids’ bedroom. And Mia’s father, Max (Marcus Johnson) only seems to be in the movie for a scene of violence. Grief and past trauma is a constant trope in horror movies. And in many cases, it works. But if you’re going to use it, you better make sure it fits with the plot. Here, it doesn’t work as well.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 