Talk To Me Movie Review : Repurposes possession for the current generation

Story: A group of teens give in to their curiosity for communicating with spirits only to discover they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.

Review: Mia (Sophie Wilde), Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and her younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) find out the hard way that playing with the supernatural is never bound to go well. As they fool around with a ceramic hand that supposedly belonged to a powerful psychic, Mia quickly takes a liking to being possessed, similar to substance dependence. Struggling with the recent loss of her mother and the inability to connect with her father, Mia becomes obsessed with the hand, putting her and her friends in grave danger.

Connecting the psychic with the psychedelic is a smart move by director siblings Danny and Michael Philippou. Danny Philippou takes co-writing credits with Bill Hinzman, and the duo uses familiar tropes around possession to infuse fresh air into the horror sub-genre. The concept resonates well with the young set of characters, played by relative newcomers, who make a series of poor decisions. The cast understands the brief, and each makes an impactful addition to the group that doesn’t understand the magnitude of their actions. Connecting with Mia’s emotional turmoil is crucial to the narrative, and Sophie Wilde is up for the task of taking audiences into the darkness of her disposition. It’s also hard not to empathise with Joe Bird’s Riley, who is coming into his own as a young boy. Miranda Otto displays her expertise in Jade’s mother, who tries her best to stay a step ahead of these teens.

The pacing is quite edgy and manages to be nail-biting to a large extent, although the third act runs out of some steam gathered from those prior. That said, Danny and Michael Philippou nail the execution down by deploying mind games rather than cheap jump scares, relying on crippling emotions such as guilt, grief, loneliness and despair to get under the skin. Be warned of some goriness, however. While well-earned, it could put off those who prefer less blood in their servings of horror. Even so, ‘Talk to Me’ has enough of the right ingredients to become a runaway hit with cult status down the line.