‘Talk To Me’ movie review: Aussie debut revives the ‘possession’ horror
In film and TV, a ‘cold open’ is a specific term that refers to an opening that hooks the audience. It usually involves characters independent from the rest of the plot, but not necessarily – but it always sets up the plot for the rest of the episode or movie. In the FX/Netflix show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, they use the cold open as a way to establish what hilarious adventures their characters will get up to in that episode. The recent Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One introduces the main villain by depicting the chaos it can wreak. The genius of the new A24 horror, Talk To Me, meanwhile, is how it uses its opening to establish not just the plot but the entire tone and atmosphere of the film.
Talk To Me, directed by filmmaking brothers (and very successful YouTubers) Danny and Michael Philippou, begins at a party in a suburb of Adelaide. Opening with pounding contemporary Aussie hip-hop and a Goodfellas-style single-take tracking shot, we follow a party-goer as he searches for someone called Duckett. Immediately, his focus and concern for this unseen and unknown person contrast dramatically with the rest of the vibe, and this cleverly infuses the scene with tension from the off-set. You feel immersed, first as a guest in the party with its dim lighting and loud music, then invested in the character’s search. “Where’s Duckett?” he frantically asks. “Who the fuck is Duckett?” someone laughs, swigging a beer whilst dangling from a window.
By the time the ‘cold open’ has finished, less than a few minutes have passed, and already the Philippou brothers have done three things: demonstrated an impressive deftness for casting and directing believable, young, 21st-century kids; perfectly established the visual and aural identify of the film, and finally, scared the living shit out of the audience. When the title credits slammed onto the screen, I felt exhilarated to see how the narrative would unfurl, and perhaps more importantly, I felt like I was in two safe pair of hands.
Without spoiling anything beyond what the trailer already shows, the core premise of Talk To Me is this: a group of Australian high schoolers have somehow got a ceramic hand, one that can induce visions of the dead, and they treat it with the same reverence that they would do with a bag of shrooms or a NOS canister. It’s very strange – but incredibly well executed. We see hints of it during the beginning of the film; whilst our main characters are introduced, glimpses of messy Snapchat and TikTok reels show young kids with jet-black eyes convulsing and frothing at the mouth whilst everyone around them howls in delight.
Effectively, these kids have found an occult artefact, and they’re using it to get “fucked up” at parties. That really is the whole conceit of the film, which is dangerous – if they screwed it up, that’s roughly two hours of wasted time. But they don’t screw it up – instead, largely due to extraordinary direction, editing and casting, you ultimately believe that this is what a class of 17-year-olds in 2022 would do if they had access to something that could cause possession. It’s a wholly original, utterly imaginative take on the ‘possession’ genre, and the novelty doesn’t wear thin. Or maybe it does, but the filmmakers had the sense to end the film just a few minutes before the audience felt it. Speaking to the Philippou brothers about the making of the film, it’s clear they have a clinically precise understanding of what audiences do and don’t like.
Back to the casting, thought, and this is one of the elements of the film that elevates it to excellence. It’s all too easy to write and hire a bunch of vapid, tech-addicted teenagers, but the Philippou brothers and casting director Kelly Graham ensure that every single character has a singular personality, realistic and significant interactions with each other, and chemistry and dynamics that you invest in as an audience. A particular shout-out must go to the emotionally powerful and visually striking Sophie Wilde as main character Mia, who looks like she could fall into the boring ‘manic pixie’ trope but turns out to be the driving engine of the film.
Another mention has to be for Zoe Terakes as Hayley, who begins as the vague sort of ‘school bully’. Whilst the character isn’t given that much time to develop, the minute Hayley says more than a few words, you realise you’re watching one of the most distinct, exciting and powerful characters not just in Australian films or the horror genre but in recent cinema generally. Everyone else, from the supporting cast to the fleeting bit-parts, goes well beyond the call of duty, and when this horror falls slightly into that inevitable hysterical final act, these performers keep everything on track.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Talk To Me is how it takes an incredibly tired, dusty old framework of teen horror, complete with some jump scares and manky old ghosts, and makes a sincere, earnest and largely successful attempt to imbue it with a personality that leaves a lasting impression. It’ll have you laughing, jumping, and possibly crying, and I ultimately left the cinema incredibly excited to see what these Aussie brothers come up with next.
