In the opening minutes of Talk To Me, the directing debut of YouTuber twins Danny and Michael Philippou, it looks pretty clear what we’re in for. It begins with the sort of showboating long tracking shot beloved by new filmmakers, following a young man through a party as he hunts for his younger brother. He finds him blank-eyed and bloodied, staring at a wall. As the party throngs record on their phones, the younger man stabs his brother and then himself. It’s an effective but pretty standard ‘cursed teens’ set up. But it’s just one of many times this terrifying, inventive horror leads you down a familiar path and then pulls you down a shocking new route.
The story then settles on Mia (Sophie Wilde), a slightly odd teenager, and vessel for bad decisions, who is grieving the death of her mother. In her loneliness, she clings to her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and her family – younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) and had-it-with-your-nonsense mother Sue (Miranda Otto). Mia and Jade, plus tagalong Riley, go to a party where someone brings out an apparently cursed hand. Grip it and you can welcome a ghost into your body. Just expel them before 90-seconds or they’ll want to stay. The clock, of course, ticks over…
The Philippous play the party possession scenes not as horror but druggy teen comedy. Possession feels ‘amazing’, a mind-altering trip, so they all want a repeat hit. When things go wrong, they’re less terrified of the dead than they are of cops and angry parents. It grounds the concept in something believable: idiot kids who don’t consider consequences.
It has an oppressive, feral quality that puts your whole body in fight-or-flight mode
For first time directors, the Philippous have an impressive grasp of mood. They can really stretch a spooky note and stay away from obvious scares. Death is always threatened but this isn’t about body count. There’s a constant sense of foreboding – helped by some nerve-jangling sound design – but also sadness. They have the confidence to sit in the unhappiness of Mia as she grapples with death. She doesn’t want to fear it, because it connects her with her mother, but it’s hard to be fine with the dead when they’re raking jagged nails across your sleeping neck. All the cast do excellent work, especially young Joe Bird, who goes through some unspeakable things as a teen trying to play at grown-ups.
This is a film unlike most mainstream teen horror. There’s no arch, knowing dialogue or scenes of people being sexily imperiled. It comes off a bit like a combination of The Conjuring and Hereditary. The story has a good dose of hokum, but the execution has an oppressive and sometimes feral quality that doesn’t just make the hairs on your neck stand up, it puts your whole body in fight-or-flight mode. An extremely impressive first film.
In UK and US theaters Jul 28. In Australian cinemas Oct 30.