Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer
Plot: When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Review: I’ve seen some dumb choices made by teens in horror movies over the years, playing with a Ouija board, reading from a creepy book, choosing to walk miles into the woods to pee when there’s a perfectly good tree right next to you. The list goes on and on. But at least in most of those cases they don’t know something bad is waiting on the other side of these stupid decisions. These kids on the other hand…
There ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb
The plot of Talk to Me follows a group of Australian teens who with the use of a creepy clay hand DELIBERATELY allow themselves to be possessed by the spirits of the dead because this craziness is somehow more entertaining than anything else you could do at a party with friends.
Now before I start tearing these kids a new one, I’ll say my interest in seeing this movie came from all the hype I saw surrounding it. Like Netflix’s 2017 Veronica I saw people hyping this up to be the scariest, most unnerving movie of the year. And the fact it’s coming from A24, the same studio behind great indie horror like Hereditary, The Witch and Midsommar has people claiming it’s just as good and just as “scary” as those movies. It’s not.
Talk to Me is a straightforward tale of a group of kids who get together to mess around with the supernatural and pay the price for it. Nothing you haven’t seen before. But I will say this for it, the movie is well-shot, well-paced and has a solid lead in its main character Mia played by Sophie Wilde (The Portable Door). All the young actors are quite believable as the misguided teens but it’s Wilde who carries the weight of the story on her shoulders. And as foolish as her choices were, it was still understandable she would go to the lengths she did to see her dead mom again after realising the game was anything but a game. She nails the doubt, grief and pain of having unanswered questions and does a fine job of making you sympathise with her.
While I didn’t find the jump scares to be effective, I did think the gorier bits worked well. And the whole movie, predictable as it was, did have an unnerving tone, especially leading up to the game going off the supernatural rails.
I can see why younger horror fans would think this is a fantastic movie and as horror movies go it will definitely strike a chord with teenage audiences. But like Veronica, I don’t think this movie is as “brilliant” as it’s being made out to be, especially when films like It Follows carries a similar tone but a much more effective execution.
Sommer’s Score: 6.5 out of 10
Have you seen Talk to Me? Did you find it as scary as other A24 heavy hitters? And you can check out other supernatural horror content below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More