Talk to Me

I remember Danny and Michael Philippou from their early days on YouTube; their wild content had its charm. So, I’m even more surprised that they stepped into the director's chair and made a full-fledged feature film that a more established filmmaker wouldn’t need to be ashamed of. I really liked the concept itself. The seances offered an incredibly intense experience (shame there weren’t more of them). The acting was okay, but no one really blew me away. The ending was intriguingly handled; I didn’t expect the parallel with drug use. Thumbs up for that. A well-crafted film all around. We’ll see what the sibling duo comes up with next. I give it a 7/10. (02/13/2024)

Talk to Me is an enjoyable little ghost story from the antipodes that doesn't try to get an audience response with cheap scares, but instead spends a good amount of time on the relationships between the main characters. The concept of ghost séances as risky fun for careless zoomers is an interesting premise that could sound utterly ridiculous in the wrong hands, but here it works very solidly, thanks mainly to the believable and not annoying characters of Australian teenagers. (01/26/2023)

Talk to Me is a movie of miracles. One of them is the fact that the brothers directing have managed to put together such a mature and high-quality film as their debut, from the superbly chosen sound design, camera angles to the well-cast who, after a long time in such a consumer horror film, manage to captivate and you will remember them even weeks later. Another very pleasing piece of news is that this Australian festival flick has made it to our cinemas and we won't be waiting a year for its release. And the third one is a kind of difference in execution, which makes from a mere exorcism makes very different film, one with its own signature that is simply "something different". And even if it is hard to say what it is in particular, you can feel from the first minutes that this is not a generic thing like The Conjuring or Annabelle. The most important thing that makes this film its own and different is the choice to go a little way into the art and the willingness to combine quality filmmaking with a suffocating atmosphere, the original idea of the mummified hand and, most importantly, the intensity of the summoning scenes, which had me glued to my seat watching what was going to happen. The violence, blood and raw brutality of some of the scenes is downright iconic, and when it comes to them, horror fans will be sniffling in bliss. Of course, this brings me to the only complaint I have for this film, and that is that there is too much plot filler and that if they had added a couple more summoning scenes and get more of what we all came here for, which is the pure evil of the demon during the summoning sessions, I would be fully satisfied. As it is, I feel mostly satisfied, but deep down also a little impoverished, as those séances were very sparse. (08/05/2023)

Based on their internet videos, one might get the impression that the brothers Danny and Michael Philippou are just a couple of louts riding the wave of post-Jackass dumbfuckery and YouTuber bullshit. Their feature-length debut is thus all the more surprising, as it is a very intense genre flick with precision craftsmanship, as well as an absorbingly sensitive work that is able to thought-provokingly address a full range of the young generation’s frustration and general depressing issues without in any way coming across as being too clever for its own good or in-your-face. Talk to Me radiates fierce energy, formalistic boisterousness and devastating horror intensity that brings to mind the first Evil Dead, though Sam Raimi put his supreme talent to use solely in the interest of genre entertainment with very little reach beyond the confines of the screen. By comparison, the Philippou brothers expressively thematise motifs such as the depressing tension that comes with the pressure to fit into the group and the endless provocations and ever-present danger of making a fool of oneself under the watchful eye of social media. The backbone of the brilliantly constructed narrative consists in the coming to terms with the loss of a loved one and the associated risk of falling into the abyss of depression and blaming oneself. The film manages to present this subject with sobering empathy and a powerfully intense sense of dread. (09/30/2023)

A great ghost-horror movie in a new interpretation, with the fine idea of connecting with the “other side” and realistic teenage characters whose relationship drama is equally as strong and important as the mystery dimension. Unfamiliar faces, an increasingly gloomy mood and a bad-ass conclusion to the story. An Australian debut feature with the qualitative parameters of producer Jason Blum’s best pieces. (01/14/2024)