YouTube comic horror sensations, twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, crash into mainstream films by way of progressive film company A24, with a half-dead kangaroo and a haunted hand opening that gains immediate attention in Talk to Me. From there the film titillates by a series of shocks as good as it gets with seasoned filmmakers like Sam Raimi.
Not yet done with this tour de force opening, the camera tracks a young man to a locked door at a party that should have stopped hours ago as he breaks down the door and extricates his younger brother, who was long ago freaked out in a probable encounter with the haunted hand, which will be introduced at said party shortly.
The hand at the party is a connection to the macabre past, and it won’t leave if someone holds it longer than 90 seconds. Of course, a callow teen will do that, ensuring that the hand can do its dirty work for the rest of the party and beyond. As metaphor, the hand serves as a reminder that evil doings can grab hold and never let go until said dumb teen gets taken away into a spiritual realm where former corpses act like zombies only a bit uglier.
For those not making the final journey but experiencing the hand, their faces transform briefly into ghouls while their dilated eyes promise hell behind. Of course, the spectators howl with delight while filming for social media. That’s what bored teen do in ultra-cool horror films, especially helped by Emma Bortignon’s classic horror sound design
Gradually Mia (Sophie Wilde) takes over the struggle against the spirits, grappling with such phantasms as her deceased mother, or is it really she? Relentlessly Mia tries to defeat the micro possessions that come for her because she has stayed overtime, and repeatedly, dealing with her mother’s alleged suicide.
While the mayhem winds down, the film succeeds in showing grief can terrorize lives as it gets hold of inner fears and regrets. Not bad for new filmmakers.
Talk to Me
Director: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Screenplay: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Cast: Sophie Wilde (The Portable Door), Alexandra Jensen (Beat)
Run Time: 1h 34m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
