Just two years ago, a pair of Australian filmmakers made friends all around the world with their "old school" approach to horror movies, and an overwhelmingly refreshing attitude to their favorite genre. Their first feature film, Talk To Me, put them firmly in the spotlight at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, and today the movie's arrived on Netflix in the US to give everybody the shivers all over again.
YouTube was film school for twins Danny and Michael Philippou. Their wild, live-action videos on their RackaRacka channel attracted over six million subscribers, and even caught the eye of Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel, so it was only a matter of time until they graduated to the big screen. And, after being part of the crew for a number of films, including Australia’s best-known horror, The Babadook, their first feature arrived at Sundance, giving everybody who saw Talk To Me a serious case of white knuckles.
What is one of the most disturbing horror movies you’re likely to see starts with an inexplicable and gruesome suicide at a party. The same guests come together again a few weeks later, but these parties aren’t about drink, drugs and sex. Pride of place goes to an embalmed severed hand which is encased in ceramic and apparently belonged to a powerful medium.
It allows anybody with the courage to contact the dead to simply use the phrase "talk to me" and their wish will be granted with the words "I let you in". The result is full possession, but it can only last for 90 seconds, so that the supernatural being doesn’t stay around for good. But it's not long before somebody can’t resist going over that deadly limit.
Those possessions, especially in the later stages of the film, are where it's at its most gripping. The Philippous aren't interested in jump scares, concentrating instead on a steadily unsettling atmosphere and disconcerting little details. Take a look at the eyes of the possessed. They’re huge, pitch black and totally devoid of life or feeling.
And, true to the twins' old school style of horror, they weren’t CGI creations: the actors had to wear huge, dark and, by all accounts, very uncomfortable, contact lenses to create the right effect. It’s not all about the visuals, though. Eerie sound design and a powerful score build the atmosphere to nail-biting heights and, in its examination of guilt and grief, the film demonstrates one of horror’s greatest strengths — its ability to dig deep into many and different issues.
With its distinctive mixture of pop culture and goosebump-inducing fear, Talk To Me introduced horror fans to a couple of new and innovative voices in their favourite genre. They lapped it up. The movie scored 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $92 million against a budget of $4.5 million.
The boys are back in town later this year, with their sophomore movie, Bring Her Back. Sally Hawkins heads the cast in a story about a brother and sister who uncover a terrifying ritual at the remote home of their new foster mother. And that’s all we know about the plot at the moment. Anything else is under the closest of wraps but from the first trailer, it looks like Talk To Me was just the start of a long-running reign of terror from Down Under.
Talk To Me has been added to US Netflix on Friday, March 28. It is also available on Netflix in the UK.
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